So for the past week I've been dutifully feeding the reef crystals bucket filled with saltwater and rotifers. At least I had believed them to be all rotifers.
As the clownfish are about to hatch - I decided to get a good look at the rotifer culture and what do I see...a huge (relative to rotifer) thing swimming around. I had to go get my flashlight to see better and I realize - it's a brine shrimp! There are at least two adult brine shrimp. Who knows how many babies.
The source culture of rotifers was being bred very close to a brine shrimp hatchery and it probably got contaminated.
My problem is that I now need to sieve out the brine shrimp. Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS) is like a big mac to a clownfish baby. Except the clownfish baby's mouth can only fit a chicken nugget. So if the clownfish attempts to eat the BBS, it could choke to death.
However - sieving brine shrimp was not what I had planned on doing - not with trying to catch clownfish larvae tonight...maybe tomorrow.
Anyways - wish me luck. I'll post pics if I am successful at catching any larvae and if my camera can capture something that small.
I've ordered rotifers - probably too late for this hatch - but at least next time I'll be more prepared.
As the clownfish are about to hatch - I decided to get a good look at the rotifer culture and what do I see...a huge (relative to rotifer) thing swimming around. I had to go get my flashlight to see better and I realize - it's a brine shrimp! There are at least two adult brine shrimp. Who knows how many babies.
The source culture of rotifers was being bred very close to a brine shrimp hatchery and it probably got contaminated.
My problem is that I now need to sieve out the brine shrimp. Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS) is like a big mac to a clownfish baby. Except the clownfish baby's mouth can only fit a chicken nugget. So if the clownfish attempts to eat the BBS, it could choke to death.
However - sieving brine shrimp was not what I had planned on doing - not with trying to catch clownfish larvae tonight...maybe tomorrow.
Anyways - wish me luck. I'll post pics if I am successful at catching any larvae and if my camera can capture something that small.
I've ordered rotifers - probably too late for this hatch - but at least next time I'll be more prepared.