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Clownfish Log

Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Batch 3 pics.

Here are some pics to show you the development on day 12. It's about 7pm (3 hrs before lights out) and they finished all the bbs. I had to turn out the light early so that they don't use up their energy hunting for nothing.
IMG_6446.jpg


This is a corner shot. When you see them clustered like this not moving - it really freaks you out like they are dead. You can see some are getting thru metamorphosis and developing the first white stripe on their head.
IMG_6448.jpg

IMG_6449.jpg


So the 3rd batch so far has been a great success. Again not to jinx myself as I have NEVER had this many on day 12. I'll count my "clowns" after they have gotten past meta.

On the down side 3 died today. They were fat as anything but for some reason didn't get thru meta.

Enjoy! they will soon turn from ugly black fish to cute little orange clowns.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Very nice. Glad to see more fish are making it this batch. Looks like you are learning on the job. 8)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

CRUD! i jinxed myself!!!!

I woke up this morning to find 32 of my precious guys on the bottom dead. ONe of them had a stripe too - I have no idea what just happened. Feels like getting slammed on the head first thing in the morning. All that effort.

I feel like I am still "winging it" and not quite understanding what it is I am doing wrong. The first batch was so flawless (5 of 9 survived).

So after today's death count - i'm up to over 50 dead - probably if I check my old posts - over 60 or 70.

I still have a handful (at least) left - but I'm not counting them for fear of jinxing myself!

The only thing that changed is that I dumped in some bbs that had not "settled" out yet. I was in a rush and rather than wait for the culture to settle (crap flows down, bbs stays in teh water column) I just poured the stuff into sieve and fed. I really think all that extra crap caused the problem. But i'm not sure. Every single one of the dead guys had a huge belly with a little bit of bright red spot where the "poop" area should be. Like a shell got lodged in there or something. But these brine were de-cap'd already. Overeating? A mystery... :'(
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Awww, that's sad news Phil.

Sounds like that lil shortcut might have been the problem, so it might not be a good idea to do that again. If they were all full bellied and all had a red spot, then it's possible it's either what they ate and/or couldn't digest. It certainly isn't that they didn't get enough to eat.

Hopefully it didn't affect any more of them than those you found this morning. Like I said before though, Nature is unpredictable. Some of them lasted through whatever made you lose the rest. You have to look at the glass (or in this case a fish tank) as half full, not half empty. ;)

Of course you are "winging it". It's not like you have someone showing and teaching you all the while. For what it's worth, I think you've done an outstanding job all by yourself.
 
G

George

Sorry to hear about your loss. Its terrible but your going through your own trial and errors. In time you'll be able to do this with your eyes closed.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

thanks guys.

The other variable - i'm not 100% sure - is that I did turn out the lights early - and i noticed the fish made a beeline into the glass because of the pc monitor glow. I dunno if that had something to do with it because the bulk of the fish dead were suspiciously near the side where they had congregated.

I think i'm being hard on myself because after 2 batches, I figured finally with this 3rd batch I could get to see a hundred baby clowns in a ball together. With 30 dead in one day - I think I will temper my expectations! :p

So far the others appear fine. There was no ammonia spike as I was pretty quick about removal. I don't like to siphon during meta as there are so many "fish" at the bottom - that I inadvertently am very close to siphoning them. So I added more volume this morning to hopefully dilute whatever is building up in there. Another precaution is that I have decided to cover the tank with paper again. I did this with the first batch and it worked. I read that it wasn't necessary but going to do it anyways. The pc glow theory of mine would not have happened if the tank was covered.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

thanks - i don't get how they'd do this in the wild. I'm guessing maybe only a few make it and go thru meta. It must be weird for them all to go thru meta together. What with some fish bumping into them and what not.
 
S

SWITCH420

when i was reading about breeding clowns i forgot where i read it they said they have a high mortality rate.so it might be nothing u can do .just keep up the great work
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hawkeye said:
thanks guys.

The other variable - i'm not 100% sure - is that I did turn out the lights early - and i noticed the fish made a beeline into the glass because of the pc monitor glow. I dunno if that had something to do with it because the bulk of the fish dead were suspiciously near the side where they had congregated.

I think i'm being hard on myself because after 2 batches, I figured finally with this 3rd batch I could get to see a hundred baby clowns in a ball together. With 30 dead in one day - I think I will temper my expectations! :p

So far the others appear fine. There was no ammonia spike as I was pretty quick about removal. I don't like to siphon during meta as there are so many "fish" at the bottom - that I inadvertently am very close to siphoning them. So I added more volume this morning to hopefully dilute whatever is building up in there. Another precaution is that I have decided to cover the tank with paper again. I did this with the first batch and it worked. I read that it wasn't necessary but going to do it anyways. The pc glow theory of mine would not have happened if the tank was covered.
Click to expand...

The part I changed to red text is very observant of you, and may also have been a factor. Just like a CSI, no clue should ever be ignored. ;D I would suggest throwing a towel over the corner that faces your monitor to block the light next time.

Just throwing a thought out there, but my two clowns "sleep" in the corner of my tank every night. Maybe it's just them trying to avoid the heavy flow of water so they don't have to work so hard to stay in place? I wonder if you put a pvc fitting or something in the tank as a barrier next to a corner... but not directly in the corner... would they all hide behind it to avoid the water flow?

Glad to hear the others are doing fine. Still looks like a pretty good bunch left.

I also agree with Switch... if you had over 100 eggs laid in the wild, would you expect that many to survive? I highly doubt it would be many that did. Perhaps they have so many due to the high probability that they won't make it?
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

There isn't really any flow - just a bubbler/airstone on a gate valve that is tuned to just bubble enough so that the water is oxygenated.

The fish are really jumpy when they are being fed baby brine shrimp. I learned that with batch 2...and now possibly with batch 3. I guess all that live food gives them so much energy to burn.

I'm not sure i want to put anything in there as it will just make my life harder when siphoning.

I don't think in the wild the survival rate is anywhere near as good. but i've read about other breeders who have like 100 clowns. I was hoping to reach that "pinnacle" as well. :)
 
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