NoobtoSalt Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 So for the past few days my clowns have been acting a little more odd than normal, kind of jabbing their head behind the anenome on the rock and I just kind of took it as a new resting space for them. But I just started to look a little closer and I have a couple hundred eggs back their. Yes I know they won't make it but I'm proud of the little mom and dad in the tank for starting to get comfortable enough in the tank to start already. (clap) I'm not planning on doing anything differently than I am currently doing so I'm not expecting anything to happen but has anyone actually been successful for even getting 1 clown from the clutch make it in their reef tanks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrokate Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 They have to be removed, they'd swim right into the powerheads and smash into the glass, but also they need special foods. If you want to try it I have buckets of rotifers... literally (: First batch of eggs are often a dud, so you have time to plan if you want to try with the next batch. Just don't rearrange the decor, they hate that and stop spawning. What species are the clowns? Mine have been going for a while now but the babies are duds so am thinking it is time to give up. Probably too inbred, they are ORA black ocellaris. The few babies that hatch are spinners that can barely swim to the surface without croaking... this can also be caused by poor diet or bad water but other fish in that tank produce viable eggs. I should stick with gardening and coral frags. Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted May 21, 2011 Author Share Posted May 21, 2011 They have to be removed, they'd swim right into the powerheads and smash into the glass, but also they need special foods. If you want to try it I have buckets of rotifers... literally (: First batch of eggs are often a dud, so you have time to plan if you want to try with the next batch. Just don't rearrange the decor, they hate that and stop spawning. What species are the clowns? Mine have been going for a while now but the babies are duds so am thinking it is time to give up. Probably too inbred, they are ORA black ocellaris. The few babies that hatch are spinners that can barely swim to the surface without croaking... this can also be caused by poor diet or bad water but other fish in that tank produce viable eggs. I should stick with gardening and coral frags. Kate These are a pair of false percs. I don't have another tank setup at the moment and if I told my wife I was planning on doing another tank I think I would be sleeping in my big tank for sure...LOL If I ever get the go ahead I will check with you and dave about it. I'm not neccesarily looking to breed just thought it was cool to see in the tank. I was never expecting these to actually breed with each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted May 21, 2011 Author Share Posted May 21, 2011 So my wife thought it was kind of cool and started to ask me questions about what it would take for another tank for the babies..WOW wasn't expecting that one. So for those of you that have tried this I have all of the equipment less the rotifiers which sounds like I can score some from Kate. How frequently are you doing water changes in the tank for the eggs? I don't think I will be able to plumb it in to my main system properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted May 21, 2011 Author Share Posted May 21, 2011 Not the greatest picture but you can see a bunch on the rock behind the anenome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrokate Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I can hook you up with the rotifers for sure. I've raised peppermint shrimp and dwarf seahorses but failed with the pair of clowns I have so what I know is from reading and talking to others. I guess I can tell you how to set everything up and then wait half a year... (: There are several forums with a ton of good info on them, rareclownfish MBI and MOFIB come to mind. We should probably add a section on this site at the rate we are going. This is good: http://fishtalpropagations.com/StepByStep.aspx Usually for the first period of time the babies are kept in a "BRT" which stands for "black round tub". They are tubs of less toxic plastic sold at feed stores or as barrel liners. Goal is to keep the babies in the middle and not have them bumping into glass trying to get reflected food and also to keep them out of corners. They are not very savvy at first, in the wild they become plankton and hang near the surface where there is a ton of other plankton to eat and evade, and not much to bump into, so they have no genetic code for dealing with danger. After that they "settle out" also called undergoing "metamorphosis", which is when the code clicks telling them "hey wait we are the kind of fish that lives in an anemone on the bottom of the sea" and down they go looking for one. At this point they develop markings, pigments and a more typical body shape. It's a period of amazing growth taking place in a very short time so requires exemplary feeding and water conditions or you lose them. So yeah, during the larvae stage of their life they need a special safe tank. No filter, but you need a heater and I think usually people do extremely minimal air bubbles to keep the water moving. Diffuse light on top will make them gather at the surface. Any water changes and additions are dripped to avoid changes in chemistry. For some reason they see better if the water is tinted murky green with live or dead greenwater/phytoplankton, which also is a food for the rotifers, so most people add some of that. Then you get an ammonia alert badge because with all that food and no filter things can go south pretty fast, but I am not quite clear what you could do about it if the water did get nasty considering you can't do big water changes or use a filter. Personally I leave my round tub fallow with dirty water in it from the rotifer bins hoping that the ammonia will cause a biofilter to develop on the side of the tub. Night of spawn theory goes I will wipe that off and rinse the tub with the tank water, then put new water in from the parents' tank with the babies. Have not gotten to try that theory yet. I think the Multnomah library still has the books you would want to read-Wilkerson did one on clownfish and Matt Wittenrich has one on breeding in general. Couple months ago they were still available. Wilkerson's book came out before people used the tubs, she raised them in a tank with neutral colored paper on the outside to block light. Benefit of that is you can peek at the babies and see if they have full bellies. So you would need a tub if you go that way, a tank after the tub, extra salt for water changes. Food being rotifers you need a couple small tanks to raise them up in, and the food for the rotifers. Am assuming coming to my house a couple times a day will not be convenient (: Heaters for the rotifers and the babies. Surface for the tub/tank. Later you need a good food for the babies, there are pellets on the market you can use. Makes it easy. And you need to have the time to feed them and take out the crud off the bottom. If you ask me it's worth doing, won't make you rich but it is fun. Beware: Fish breeding is habit forming. Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted May 26, 2011 Author Share Posted May 26, 2011 Thanks for all the information Kate. This clutch is obviously just going to be tank food but the fact that they are breeding is pretty cool. I'm rearanging some things inside the house and I might end up setting up a 10 gallon for breeding. I'm guessing I don't even need to fill it up with the full 10 gallons but maybe I'm wrong. I'm starting to see eyes on most of them so I'm sure it's going to be any day now for them to hatch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Awesome, now they are likely to do it every 3 weeks or so. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewisriverfisherman Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Congrats on the egg laying Jesse. Thats cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 so it's been less than two weeks and they are just now in the process of adding a new batch to the rock. pretty cool to actually watch them get each egg on the rocks. I thought something was wrong with my anenome since it was pulled down quite a bit so I took a look a little closer and sure enough a few hundred more eggs. I'm not going to jump into breeding quite yet but this might be kind of fun in the next few months after I read up a lot more than I already have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 In the top picture you can see how the LTA is receded near the rock where the eggs are. The happy couple in their nem as well. The bottom picture is just a closer picture of the eggs on the rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Since it looks like you only need rotifiers for about a week after they hatch is it neccessary to have live? Or can I get the frozen reef nutrition stuff to feed the babies? After that I will need to start doing brine shrimp anyways right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acuraguy55 Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 congrats on the eggs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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