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my clown fish just had babies

Congrads. Sorry I can't help but good luck. People have a hard enough time breeding them when they are set up for it.
 

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
When you say had babies, do you mean they laid eggs or did the eggs hatch?
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Where’s Hawkeye….I think he was the most recent clown-papa.

I believe you have to have the baby food ready to go….can’t remember if it was brine shrimp or rotifers. The babies get removed from the parents and are fed the baby food.

Hopefully Hawkeye will see this and chime in.
 

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
Where’s Hawkeye….I think he was the most recent clown-papa.

I believe you have to have the baby food ready to go….can’t remember if it was brine shrimp or rotifers. The babies get removed from the parents and are fed the baby food.

Hopefully Hawkeye will see this and chime in.

Rotifers.
 

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
Once they have hatched in the tank, if they are indeed clownfish fry, it is going to be pretty hard to get them out and they might just become a snack for the rest of your tank. Good news is once they start spawning, this should continue for a while so you can be more prepared for next time.
 
Once they have hatched in the tank, if they are indeed clownfish fry, it is going to be pretty hard to get them out and they might just become a snack for the rest of your tank. Good news is once they start spawning, this should continue for a while so you can be more prepared for next time.

The guy who I was chatting w/ at ultimate reefs mentioned that the best way to get them out of the tank is to use an airline tube. Just suck them out of the main tank into the 10 breeder (or whatever you are using..) safely with the airline.
 
Don't panic, clownfish will readily breed and re-lay eggs like clockwork every 14 days. So while this hatch may be food for the tank, I wouldn't worry about it.

I just wrote this list for someone else...

Look it over..then decide if raising the fry is in your future...

What do you need for raising clownfish fry...
Live rotifers (order online or get someone locally to give you a small cup full). a small cup full is only enough for may 2 fry...you would have to feed and keep feeding the rotifers until you have a large colony (hard to explain, but from a density perspective when you sieve it once, it should have a large number of "dots aka rotifers" in the sieve)
Rotifers - two old salt buckets work well. One is probably enough, the second is a backup in case your first one crashes.
Something to feed the rotifers (live phyto or a similar product) I used rotifer plus...or something or other from Reed.
Air pump. I prefer a rigid pipe rather than airline hose. The air pumped should be enough to move the surface but not boil it. Rotifers may get stripped of their eggs if you boil it too much and then you have no colony since they cannot reproduce.
Something to sieve the rotifers when it's time to feed them. I used something from brine shrimp direct...but i'm sure someone here sells something. If you are DIY-coffee filter works.

5g or 10g tank to hold the fry. Assuming you wait for the next hatch....Either place the eggs and have an air pump on it, or pick up a contraption that siphons the fry out at night so you dont' have to stay up. I chose to stay up, a flashlight and a small cup and turn off all pumps/lights (on hatch night). After 8~10 days from first day of eggs being laid, the fry will hatch and swim to the surface (in particular they will head towards light...hence the flashlight)....scoop/siphon and gently release into your tank for grow-out.

In the grow-out tank, again rigid tube is my preference...air pump. some people cover the tank (dark on the sides, bottom is white to reflect over head light). Others don't bother. I like to feed the fry tank with rotifers AND phyto/rotifier food. This way any rotifers not immediately eaten will still be able to stay nutritious in the fry tank.

After meta as the fry get bigger you can add a sponge filter for assistance in managing the ammonia and eventually you could add LR/pump to help manage it further - especially if you have a large batch. If you are really gung-ho you could set up a separate sump and chain a series of fry tanks to it. You could add a sponge filter right off but you may find that the rotifers are sucked into the sponge/and or the fry are too dumb and also get stuck.
 
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Here's a preview of what you can expect if you decide to try your hand at it...

IMG_6819.jpg

to this (double AA battery for scale...)
IMG_6850.jpg

to this:
IMG_3424.jpg

and finally:
IMG_6828.jpg
 
Anyways - in a nutshell, to feed the fry - you will need rotifers, and then graduate/wean them to some dry food (makes life hellva lot easier) such as otohime.

btw if you don't want to spend all that money on otohime -the sample pack is perfect...especially if you are just doing a few hatches and not a professional breeder.


IMG_6717.jpg
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Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
Holy Moly Phil! WOW! It is amazing what you have done. I will have to get out there to check your setup.
 
Holy Moly Phil! WOW! It is amazing what you have done. I will have to get out there to check your setup.

Naaa...it's a lot easier than it seems - just takes some trial and error. Remember when we met at Rod's place for the NJRC meeting? I brought a few clowns as a donation for the club to raffle...I never did hear what happened to them...I hoped to be able to breed a few clowns for every meeting to help promote captive-breeding. My naive view was that maybe everyone in the club could captive breed and then NJ would never ever have to import in any wild clowns. Of course people are crazed about the various genetic markings etc so the reality is merchants will always import and the economics are not really suitable for small time breeders/hobbyists.
 
I've heard the fry are attracted to light. Some people use a flashlight to bring them up to the surface to catch them.... Any truth to that?
 
After 8~10 days from first day of eggs being laid, the fry will hatch and swim to the surface (in particular they will head towards light...hence the flashlight)...

Shawn you missed this part I wrote earlier. ;)

Garritt...no new posts from you...hope we didn't scare you off. Good luck.
 
Thanks for all your help, I'm going to Ultimate reefs today after work to see what Gregg says. This batch of babies are just about gone.
 
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