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Clownfish Log

Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Warning - morbid statistics about to be posted: skip if you don't want to know.

January 9th - 30 dead by morning. I noticed a whole bunch clustered around the ammonia badge and to my surprise they were all dead. The slow air bubble current slowly accumulated them there I guess. By the end of the day - another 5 were dead - so total 35.

January 10th - 10 more dead in the morning.
January 11th - another 10.
Frankly after a while I had a hard time tracking the deaths. I was taking them one at a time during the day.

It's hard to count who's left but I estimate about 40 after 3 days.

I am not sure if the deaths are related to the physical transfer of the fish to the 10g. It would be interesting to see how much better they do if the eggs were laid on a tile and hatched in the 10g. Also instead of straight water changes - I think I will try adding some live rock in the future.

The original five are all doing well. The smallest one might be half the size of the largest one. But they now all hang together on top of the ammonia badge.
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

In your research what is the mortality rate? Honestly....maybe I am heartless...it doesn't appear terrible. Compare it to wild collected fish and looks good.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hang in there Hawk. It is only your second catch. I think rock in the display with them would be very hazardous to their frailty and make it hard to remove the ones that don't survive, but I'd leave that to your research.

You're doing a great job to have so many still after 3 days. I agree, if you check the stats of those in your position (new to rearing, yet to discover your undiscovered mistakes), I'm sure you'd find you're doing well!

With experience will come greater and greater successes. Thanks for taking it this far and for documenting your progress for us!

Would love to see some update photos!
 
D

ds4x4

im glad to see that your first clutch which was tiny compared to the actual eggs laid is so far successful. i've read alot about people trying to raise the fry and the more mouths to feed seems to increase the mortality drastically. keep up the good work :)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

This pic from liveaquaria is great - and looks just like my fry:
clownfish-day-5.jpg


Here's my less than macro pic from above - the 10g:
IMG_6186.jpg


Here's a pic of 3 from the first hatch.
IMG_6185.jpg


Another:
IMG_6183.jpg
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

So the brineshrimp hatching goes great when the temp is at 80. I have no heater that small to place in a 2 liter bottle so I've been placing the entire contraption in a 5 gallon bucket and heating the bucket (thereby creating a bath).

Well I decide I have a eureka moment and say - my sump has room - why not place the bottle contraption in the sump and then I can redeploy the heater back for warming up my water changes (for juvenile clownfish). So it works great the first day and I decide to leave the hatchery in the sump.

I checked back tonight and I must have caused some kind of water imbalance in the sump (i added some LR to the display) and this caused all the baby brine shimp to pour out of the hatchery into my display. The water in the hatchery is not good quality at all so I wasn't happy about that...and of course now I've got these super fatty brine shrimp in the tank for my corals and skimmer to take out. (Fish are asleep now). :p

Long story short - either secure the hatchery or get an extra heater and keep the bbs in the bucket! :)
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Phil, I was chatting with Randy and he sent this info:
A couple of things about rotifers,



1) We have new protocols for raising rotifers on our website at www.Rotifer.com. These should make it very easy for anybody to culture them (I know you already have a handle on this, but the info can't hurt).

2) We also have a new rotifer feed and enrichment called RotiGrow Plus that will produce an optimally enriched rotifer (this sounds like it may be helpful).

3) We’ve just cut the price for live rotifers in ½ on our website at http://www.reed-store.com/shop.cfm/Rotifer-Products/Rotifers-Live-and-Concentrate
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Thanks so much! GreshamH from reed mentioned the rotifgrow plus to me already. I'll see if someone can order that for me and i'll pick it up at the LFS.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

This was my attempt at a "FTS" a week ago:
IMG_6186.jpg


I lost quite a few between then and now - I really don't understand how I lost fry after day 3. I guess I was really really lucky on the first batch - or this time around I should have been more careful dosing phyto.
IMG_6195.jpg


Anyways - the good news is that the remaining 20 appear ok - I think there are 20 - maybe 19. A pic of one of the few of the second batch that appear to be going thru meta. Sorry for the pic - the aquarium seal is distorting the picture.
IMG_6259.jpg
 
NikkiT

NikkiT

JRWOHLER said:
Still think you are doing a great job. We need one of those thumbs up dohickies. Put it on the thread instead.
Click to expand...

+1.
Don't be so hard on yourself, you have kept 20 babies alive and thriving. do I have to point you back to the early years when no one was able to raise a single fish past meta?
You're doing great, just give it time. As you continue to raise more and more babies, it will get easier. And, if you need another tank, you know where to find me. I have a curved glass nano with your name on it. . . :)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Thanks both of you - it means a lot to me!

So - more interesting pics:
Same clown as posted yesterday (I see a stripe!):
IMG_6265.jpg


First batch clown (3 stripes clearly):
IMG_6270.jpg


Third??? batch...I'm not sure I am going to raise these but I think I caught them in the act of laying:
Flash:
IMG_6266.jpg

IMG_6267.jpg

No Flash:
IMG_6268.jpg

IMG_6269.jpg
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

Look at the little guy....he's got all his stripes. ;D
Do you find yourself quoting the Nemo movie to them to teach them how to be clownfish?
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

If the club needs a bunch of clowns for display to show we care about conservation - absolutely. I think ideally the clowns have to be 60 days old. They are eating cyclopeeze wafers exclusively now (yes no more baby brine shrimp).

The second batch born on January 8 -2010 is coming along. Here's my best "FTS"
IMG_6273.jpg

IMG_6276.jpg

IMG_6277.jpg


This time with a nickel to give you scale: A few of them are starting stripe # 2! yay!! :D :D
IMG_6279.jpg
 
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