Clownfish Fry in main display

[t_nix]

Our clownfish must really be in love because their last fry hatched on 01/05/12 and last night they laid more eggs.

With the last fry, we had taken a 1 gallon tank and put an airstone and heater in with as many babies as we could catch. Unfortunatly, we did not have a supply of live rotifers and our heater was not intended for that small of a tank (this was a last minuet plan) so needless to say they did not live.

This go round we are going to have live rotifers on hand to feed them and we are trying to figure out the best place to put the babies. We have a 92 Gal corner aquarium and our LFS suggested floating a plastic tupperwear container in the main display to hold the babies. We were told this way we wont have to worry about heating issues since it is sitting in the tank. Have any of you tried this? Obviously we would put in an airstone but I was curious if this would work. We are in the process of setting up a 29 gallon tank upstairs, but it has not cycled yet so we can not put them in there and we dont want to invest in another tank if we can avoid it. We were planning on using the 1 gal tank to cultivate the rotifiers.

Suggestions? Tips?

 

[t_nix]

I had thought of that, but wouldn't the rotifiers go through the netlike material?

 

[superclown]

It depends on the micron count for example I have a 3 stage micron tube I use when feeding rotifers the rotifers past throguh the first 2 filters and the larger stuff remains behind so when I dump in the rotifers nothing but tthe rotifers themselves get put in the tank

 

[bobz]

i've had success using the round goldfish bowls you find at Petco. The 2G size is perfect. I raised several 100 maroon and ocellaris with this method. The key is to start with tank water when you catch the newly hatched larva and make sure you keep the water free of ammonia, doing water changes before the ammonia can build up. Very very light aeration, just enough to start a circular flow of the water, which will carry the rotifers around the fry, allowing them ample opportunity to feed. I used green water in the bowls, which you can accomplish by using concentrated phyto or you can grow your own which you need to feed the rotifers. I did not worry about the temp in the bowls because the fish room was constant around 77F, but you can place the bowl in a 10G tank and fill that with water, and place a small heater in the 10G tank to keep the temp where you want it. I also recommend a small light that is not too bright so the fry can feed longer. I left the light on 24 hours a day for the first two weeks until the larva went through meta. It's a lot of fun raising clownfish and a bit of a challenge but worth it. You may want to check out Matt Wittenrich's book on breeding marine fish which has a ton of great info. good luck!

 

[superclown]

BigJohn;722800 wrote: I keep reading about people breeding clownfish. I want to find a mate for my maroon now.

Your better off finding a already mated and proven pair if you want it to happen sooner. However you can do things perfect and still end up having to wait for nature to take its course

 

[frantz]

It took me two months almost to get my maroon I had for a year to accept a second much smaller maroon in her tank. They get along fine now but host different caves.

 

[superclown]

not to take thread off course but i have "heard" maroons can be harder to pair up

 

[nyk]

i heard that besides mcollocki clowns (spelling?) the maroons are the most aggressive clowns. that might be a problem with trying to get one to pair up if not done when you added the first one.

 

[jamescook]

OP
I too do what Bob did and recommend the fish bowl. I've been raising hundreds of fish for years starting off in the simple setup.