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Clownfish Log

Hawkeye

Hawkeye

saltwater4life said:
Awesome, I love baby clownfish :D they're so adorable! Just wondering did you pair them yourself? If so how long did it take for them to pair up and start breeding?
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Day 1 thru 10 they were just ugly little things. It isn't until they pass meta before they are anywhere close to being recognizable as baby clownfish.

I did not pair them myself. The original owner was Brizjuan but his tank had a crack and he got out of the hobby. He listed the clowns as "small". jrwohler can attest when I took them out of the bucket into my qt - you could clearly see they were not "small" but a pair. So let's see - I got them in April 2009. They started in August of 2009. The 5th batch of eggs was my first try at raising the fry. I have a 6th batch now that should hatch tomorrow night.
 
W

Whitebird1

I was told that just before that are due to hatch that you can use a turkey blaster to suck them off the rock and place them into the raising tank, then they hatch. Worth research! Thinking of you staying up all night, watching the tank to scoop up hatch lings like a egret, Still cracks me up!! I saw you face when you described it, LOL!
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

Hawkeye said:
NikkiT said:
Thats really cool Hawkeye, thanks so much for the pic. I wonder if they feel more secure in the dimples?

Greg, congrats on the clowns spawning!
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing with the dimples. Maybe my airstone was too strong? But then I raised it up higher and they still kinda hang out around the areas. Perhaps the baby brine congregate in those slow flow areas so it's good eatin?
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty reasonable to me. They look so tiny, maybe the combination of less current + more reflection of light attracting brine to the dimples is resulting in their behavior. Or I could be reading way too much into this and those are just the spots they like for one reason or another. Just out of curiousity- those are the lowest spots in the tank, I wonder if that influences nutrient concentrations and if there is a temp variation since the acrylic is so thin.
Either way, Go Hawkeye for getting them past Meta!
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

thanks...without the 5g i'd be stuck so i owe you!

The five fish appear ok - one is like huge relative to the others - and one is very runt-like small. There IS some chasing of the smallest - might (gasp) cull the smallest. I'm not sure yet. If this next hatch is captured tonight - then I will just leave it to "nature" and hope it makes it. But if I can't harvest this next fry hatch - then I'll devote my energy to ensuring all 5 baby percs make it to an older age (where I feel like someone could care for them).

Tonight appears to be the night the next batch will hatch. I didn't have time to put together my fry-collector, so it's back to the manual observe and scoop method. wish me luck!
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

There will always be a 'largest' and a 'smallest' so if you cull the smallest the bigger one might just turn his attention to the next smallest.
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

Good luck!
Glad to hear all is going well, can't wait to see your posts tomorrow. Regarding your little guy i have to say I do have one more (very small) extra tank, so don't feel like you have to cull him on a pure space issue, i'd be happy to lend you this one as well.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We have a 12g nano and several other tanks varying in size from 10g to 30 to 55. Let us know if you need anything. Also you should contact Chazotte, I know he has plenty of tanks and may have one to spare for your efforts!
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

The little guy is still around - but not hanging with the other four (which appear to be slowly developing the 3rd stripe).

Here's a pic of the 4 that "hang" sorta together:
IMG_6163.jpg


The hatch didn't happen. I think because my temps across the home and in the tank have dropped well below 80. When i shut down the pumps and everything the tank temps plummet. The 300W heater cannot keep up. This is the drawback of an open top in winter I guess.

So anyways - 8 days is correct but only if the eggs are at 80 degrees. So today is day 10 and I am hoping they make it. I thought I saw the female nibbling the eggs. If they don't hatch - she's probably going to just go smorgasboard on me again.

I know I could try and scrape the eggs off but I'm going to take the chance and see if they hatch tonight.

If this hatch doesn't happen then I will definitely extract the smallest runt from the litter of 5 and give him his own tank.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

LOL yes....the frag disc in the background gives you an idea. I think if i lined up all 5 of them on the disc - they wouldn't fill it out.

btw - i keep my frag discs in the sump (figured they would get colonized by bacteria) and then took two out to help mitigate the ammonia issues in the fry tank. They still look at me funny when I feed cyclopeeze. They are pretty good at eating baby artemia/brine shrimp. Even the runt only misses maybe 1 out of 10 times. Yes I counted... ;D

There is still a lot of moving around (i guess) for clownfish. Occasionally two of them will meet like kissing gouramis (anyone keep freshwater fish?) and just tussle in a tiny circle over and over again.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Love the updates, what temp did the tank fall to? Matt Wittenrich actually encouraged people to bring the temp on the tanks down to about 78 because it takes the eggs longer to hatch which means they are more developed when they hatch. Good luck, we will be doing this someday so it is always good to follow along.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

The problem is that with the pumps off and an open-top the temp looked like it dropped below 75. I moved the heater to the display and the sump fell to 74~73.

So basically that heater is on 24/7 for the past 3 days. I had extra heaters but they are now deployed for:
brine shrimp bath
new 10g fry tank
5 g hex tank.

Btw - good news - at 6:25pm we caught 40 baby fry. In the 10g now.

Waiting for the rest to hatch.

I think it was 40. I was scooping them one at a time - sometimes 3 or 4 at once.

Wife was helping me count!
 
R

rodclement

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
hawk, I have a 300watt heater and a 150watt if you want to borrow them.

If mom is eating the eggs do what we do with discus, place a mesh over the eggs like a piece of door screen, the mom can still see and fan the eggs but not eat them.

rod
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Thanks rod...right now i'm ok. Any more heaters and i'll be paying pseg the same amount i usually pay in the summer!

Count is up over 100 fry! ;D
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Wow. With 100 fry I wonder if you'll need to change more water or change it more often. That's a LOT of fry! Congrats on the catch. I can't wait to see the progress of this batch! And keeping count of them is going to be tough! Stand STILL! LOL!
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

yeah - i am not even sure the ammonia badge is reading right. Will probably put two in just to be sure. The 5g hex will get the usual daily 10~15% water change.

The 10g - well there's probably only 3 g of water in there now with the 100 fry. These all hatched between 6:30pm and 9pm. I gave up on the rest of the nest...if she eats them so be it. Will do a water change tomorrow and then increase the amount of total water. Just want the density of rotifers to be enough in there for them to eat without hunting too far.

I'm excited but awed by the responsibility I feel for making sure these guys make it. Hopefully I will do them justice. Wish me luck!
 
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