Clownfish Eggs

[This guy is extra salty]

20 minutes ago, seabass said:

If I recall correctly, it was more than just typical hair algae (even though that's what you see the most of).  Snails wouldn't eat it and the holdfasts were deep in the porous rock.  After manual removal and several peroxide treatments, I gave up and broke up the rock, keeping the corals and anemones and tossing the resulting rubble.

I’m dreading doing the same thing 

[Pjanssen]

Congratulations!

[debbeach13]

What a great surprise!

[seabass]

Thanks!  I ordered rotifers; but being a weekend, I won't get them until Tuesday.  That's really not enough time to build up a culture this time.

 

I'd like to raise at least one clutch.  However, I'm leaning towards concentrating on preparation for the future.  If they are breeding again, maybe I'll be ready for the next batch.

 

Also, I recently got a microscope and found that my phyto culture, which I've maintained for three years, has become a monoculture of motile phytoplankton.  TBH, I'm not sure how suitable this culture is for rotifers.  Luckily, a bundle of phyto and rotifers was on sale from LA, so I can restart the phyto culture too.  At least for awhile, I'll try to maintain both phyto cultures.

[seabass]

Last night I recorded their mating ritual.  Then today, I took a video of the male caring for their clutch of eggs.

 

[Pjanssen]

[seabass]

I know right?

 

I don't have a rotifer culture going right now, so I won't try to raise this batch.  However, raising a clutch of clownfish has been a bucket list kind of thing for me; so it looks like I'm going to have to get another rotifer culture going.

[Pjanssen]

It's been a couple of years since they last laid eggs, hasn't it. I'm amazed at how much bigger she is than him.

 

[seabass]

She's a big girl.  They have to be around 15 years old.

[seabass]

Bad pic, but another clutch (just 13 days later).

 

[Sharbuckle]

Makes me want to get a mate for My big mama 

[seabass]

I apologize for the pic quality.  The eggs are about to hatch as you can see their reflective eyes.  Unfortunately, I don't have rotifers available for them.  However, I plan on ordering a culture, so I can attempt to raise a clutch.

 

[debbeach13]

That is great. Good luck.

[seabass]

I decided to order a rotifer culture from one of our sponsors, Pod Your Reef.  Hopefully I'll have a sustainable culture available in a few weeks.  I'd love to raise a few clownfish, just to do it.  My LFS has been able to take my baby cardinalfish and RFAs for store credit (I assume they'd take baby clownfish as well).  It's not a moneymaker, but it gets me free food.

[DSA65PRO]

I wonder if the Babies will eat Reef-roids My Clown Fish goes nuts trying to eat this, when I feed my Corals. 

[seabass]

1 hour ago, DSA65PRO said:

I wonder if the Babies will eat Reef-roids My Clown Fish goes nuts trying to eat this, when I feed my Corals. 

I know that some breeders have been experimenting with various dry foods.  However, live rotifers seems to be the best option.  Feeding is one of the biggest challenges.

[seabass]

I received my rotifers from Pod Your Reef this Friday.

 

Another new clutch of eggs today.  One day I'll have to clean the glass, so I can get some better pics.

[Pjanssen]

Did the last clutch hatch?

[seabass]

9 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Did the last clutch hatch?

Yep.  When you see their reflective eyes, they are ready to hatch.  So that would have been Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning).  They are just days old after being fertilized embryos, and extremely small.

 

Clownfish produce an impressive amount of eggs over their lives.  You'd think the oceans would be overflowing with clownfish.

[Pjanssen]

37 minutes ago, seabass said:

Clownfish produce an impressive amount of eggs over their lives.  You'd think the oceans would be overflowing with clownfish.

Well, the pet stores are

[seabass]

This batch is ready to hatch tonight.  I'm not going to save these; however, the rotifers are multiplying and hopefully will be ready for the next clutch.

[seabass]

So just four days since the last clutch hatched; here is another new clutch today:

[jcreefer]

Awesome! Congrats!  My pair laid two separate batches within a month of each other.  The eggs developed to the point of where you can see the reflective eyes.  But knowing the amount of work that is involved, I knew them hatching into frys were unrealistic. Both times, the eggs disappeared about 7-9 days after they were laid.  Maybe someday....sigh

 

-Jeff

[seabass]

10 minutes ago, jcreefer said:

Maybe someday

Yeah, raising a clutch (or at least a few) is on my reefing bucket list.  There certainly are challenges.  I hope that raising cardinalfish babies to maturity will help me overcome a few of them.

[seabass]

So the rotifer culture is coming along.  I raise them by screening the rotifers out of their current culture container, then placing them into a new container of freshly harvested phyto.  Here are the rotifers that I just screened out (awaiting their clean container of phyto):

There is some other debris in there (which I'm not too concerned about).  If I wanted, I could get rid of most of it by pre-screening it with a brine shrimp net.