My clownfish breeding journey

[JasonG]

Snatched some babies last night! I shut off my return pumps at lights out and went to bed for a couple hours. When I woke up there were around 100 larvae swimming around (split hatch so more will hatch tonight)

Catching them was not easy, I had my wife shine a flashlight in the corner of the tank and I scooped them out using a soup bowl. I think I got 70-80 of them by 1am and decided to call it quits.

They went into my 10 gallon larval tank. This tank has 3 sides blacked out and black construction paper on the remaining side. This helps them see better for the first few days because side light screws them up. The tank also has a heater with the led taped over so they aren't attracted to it, a bubble wand next to the heater, and an airstone.

This morning they are all swimming around so I added some freshly harvested rotifers and tinted the water green with rotifer food.

They really are very small, it's gonna be awesome watching these guys turn into fish!

Couldn't get a good pic with my phone will take a better one this afternoon. You can see one of them at the surface in this pic

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[nanogry]

Whoohoo bro!!! Congrats!

ain't no fun if a reefer can't have none!

 

[JasonG]

Long night last night, caught about 80 more that hatched, stopped counting after 50.

They all seem to be doing well only 1 or 2 casualties so far. I did go a little overboard with rotigrow (rotifer food) in the larvae tank last night (@ 2am) so I am hoping that doesn't bite me in the *** in couple days with an ammonia spike.

Also setup lighting last night (sweet pink lamp I know). Egg crate on top of the tank with paper towels to diffuse the light a little because it's too bright in the first few days.

I am running the light (4.5w led) 24/7 until they get through metamorphasis, this ensures they are well fed and learn to hunt properly

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[JasonG]

Here is a pic of them, easier with the light!

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[oredith]

this is so cool, i love getting updates!

any chance of you being able to make my party next month? it'd be pretty cool to hear about this journey in person..

 

[nanogry]

Good werk bro lol! !

ain't no fun if a reefer can't have none!

 

[JasonG]

this is so cool, i love getting updates!

any chance of you being able to make my party next month? it'd be pretty cool to hear about this journey in person..

Sounds fun, I should be able to stop by, I'll let you know a little closer to the time!

 

[Tropical Addiction]

Looks like you're on the right track! Congratulations! Watching them grow the first couple months is amazing.

 

[JasonG]

Good to see you back on here, Joey. How did the move go? You back up and running? Fish are all doing great by the way. I think the white stripe / maroon pair are next to spawn by the looks of things.

 

[nanogry]

Forgot to ask jason, which pair are the fry from?

ain't no fun if a reefer can't have none!

 

[JasonG]

Onyx Percs, Jay. I still have your maroon chillin in my sump if you want her If not no biggie, she is happy and fed well lol

 

[nanogry]

Nice!!!..for sure on the maroon...just waiting on my Lil tank lplz

ain't no fun if a reefer can't have none!

 

[Tropical Addiction]

Finally all moved in. Got my pairs all plumbed back together a week or two ago, got the water quality and temps up now, and just yesterday noticed my first clutch of eggs since the move! Excited to be back up and running.

 

[Tropical Addiction]

Really happy to hear all my old pairs are doing well and getting ready to lay for you! It's tough letting pairs go but the 10 pairs that I did keep and move were about as much as I could handle.

 

[JasonG]

Wow that's awesome that you were able to make the move and have them laying so quickly. Congrats on the new place too, will have to come and check out your new set up one day.

 

[JasonG]

So I am now 4 days past hatch for about half of the larvae now and there are no significant losses so far. I am thinking ~10% so far which I think is pretty good for a first try!

At this point the little guys have learned to hunt as they have depleted their egg sacs and are now living exclusively off the rotifers in the tank. I have been feeding them twice a day with new rotifers as well as adding rotigrow to the water to keep it tinted green (this keeps the rotifers well fed and reproducing in the larval tank).


I think I am going to do a 20-30% water change today to try and keep the ammonia in check. Not seeing a color change on the ammonia badge yet, but I am sure its coming. You are not supposed to change any water for the first 3 days from what I have read, but after that daily changes are necessary until metamorphasis (day 8 - 12).

I am seeing a lot of dead rotifers on the bottom of the tank, I have a feeling this is because I am not heating my cultures and when I drop them in to the 80+ degree larval tank I am losing a bunch. I might start heating the buckets because its getting pretty cold and I don't want them jacking up my water conditions for the larvae.

Its pretty cool to watch them evolve, I can definitely notice a difference in the way they are hunting, seems much more calculated than the first couple of days.

 

[JasonG]

Looks like I crashed one of my rotifer cultures argh, good thing the backup is healthy. I had a feeling this was coming, food consumption has been slow the last couple days.

I think with all of the stuff I have been doing with the larvae I must have screwed up and missed harvesting that culture (I do one at night and one in the morning)

Going to start it again with lower salinity and get a heater in both cultures to speed things up.


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[nanogry]

Get on it!! Lol..keep it up bro!

ain't no fun if a reefer can't have none!

 

[Jlooney_4]

Looks like I crashed one of my rotifer cultures argh, good thing the backup is healthy. I had a feeling this was coming, food consumption has been slow the last couple days.

I think with all of the stuff I have been doing with the larvae I must have screwed up and missed harvesting that culture (I do one at night and one in the morning)

Going to start it again with lower salinity and get a heater in both cultures to speed things up.


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I think the RGcomplete will help. I'm looking to keep my cultures inside because I don't want to worry about heaters.

 

[JasonG]

Yea I am dosing amquel plus, but not buffering Ph which rgc does. My cultures are inside but are probably low 70s and they do better at 80 I think. Plus I am gonna have less die when I drop them in the larvae tank if they are at 80. That's my theory anyway

I am gonna test the Ph to see if that's what happened

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