I'M A PAPPY!!!!! At least to my reef tank that is....

[odoprelude]

I just looked my tank and saw this! Can you believe it? Is there any hope here or is the hope of some of them making it pretty much futile? IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/18671mini-fisheggs.JPG [/IMG]

[odoprelude]

ahhh heck, just check my gallery...grr...

[coralreefer]

COOL Chris
prolly not a lot of hope but cool :)

[essop3]

Raising Clownfish 101
When I first wanted to learn how to raise clownfish fry I had a very hard time finding any detailed information online to help me, so I thought I would take some time and describe in detail the process of raising these fish to adulthood. This decription is based on my experiences with false percs. Other clown's breeding paterns will differ slightly.

Before you can even think about investing the time to setup a clownfish hatchery, you will first need a mated pair of clownfish. It is better to introduce both fish to the tank at the same time, but a second clown can be introduced to a tank with one clown already in it as long as the new clown is smaller than the current inhabitant. You will have much greater success with mating if you choose two clowns that are not similar in size. The larger fish will be the egg laying female and the smaller fish will be the male.

Once the two fish are comfortable with each other they should begin mating. This will typically take place in the evening a few hours before the lights go out. Once they begin mating, they will usually continue to mate every two weeks or so. You should notice that the female's belly is extended for a few days before she actually lays the eggs, and you should also notice that both fish are cleaning a nearby rock on which to lay their eggs.

When the eggs are initially laid they will appear orange in color. After a few days they become more purple in color and eventually look more silver. Once the eggs begin to look silver in color hatching is usually imminent. Hatching will occur a couple of hours after the tank's lights go out. If the tank's temperature is between 78 and 82 degrees the eggs will usually hatch on the 8th evening after they have been laid.

There are two different ways to collect the fry. The first method is to remove the rock that the clowns have laid their eggs on to another tank and aerate the rock until hatch. The second method is to collect the fry from the main tank after they have hatched. I use the second method because I have found that I have a greater inital survival rate by collecting them in this manner and it does not stress the parent clownfish.

To catch the fry in the display tank, all you need to do is hold a flashlight in place at the top water level of the tank. The fry are attracted to the light and will congregate around it. You can then collect the fry using a small bowl. Do not use a net because this will damage the fragile fry. Once they are collected they can be moved to a nursery tank.

Before you can actually care for the fry, however, you will have to first have the foods necessary for their survival. This will be discussed in my next post.

[essop3]

Green Water
Different people use different methods of raising food for their clownfish fry, but I will describe what has worked for me.

Newly hatched clownfish need to eat about 1000 rotifers a day in order to form properly and thrive. In order to support the large amounts of rotifers needed to feed clownfish fry, you will need to raise them yourself. Live saltwater rotifers can be purchased online, but the price is prohibitive. In order to maintain a rotifer population you will need green water or some other prepared algae to feed them.

The method I use to feed my rotifers is to culture green water. I have attached a picture of my green water setup below. Unfortunately, the picture came out a little dark but I think you will get the idea.

All you need for this setup is a culture of saltwater micro algae, preferably Nannochloropsis. You may be able to obtain these cultures locally or you can order them online. The cultures I have dealt with arrive dry in petri dishes. In order to begin growing the algae, you should first pour sterile saltwater into the petri dish, completely covering the algae culture. You can obtain sterile saltwater simply by microwaving premixed, aged saltwater for 8 minutes. Before pouring any water into the petri dish, make sure it has cooled to room temperature.

Once water has been added, the dish should be covered and left under medium light for 24 hours. After 24 hours the algae can be scraped off of the dish using a sterile Q-tip into a 2 liter bottle of sterile saltwater. This bottle should be placed under both a white and actinic light for best algae growth. The algae should be lighted for at least 12 hours a day. For best results the water should also be aerated.

Aeration should be done in the following manner: Only use a glass bead airstone that produces course bubbles. A wooden airstone produces bubbles that are too fine and it can damage the algae cells and hinder reproduction. The airstone should be placed at the center bottom of the 2 liter bottle and should be connected to rigid airline tubing. No flexible tubing should be inside the 2 liter. Flexible tubing can be used to connect the rigid tubing to the air pump. If you do not aerate the water, you will need to stir it at least twice a day.

In order to do this right, you should setup 6 of these bottles of green water. Additional bottles can be setup using the same method, or you can use a portion of the first bottle's contents after it has matured. You can purchase gang way valves to connect the multiple bottles to a single pump.

Everyday I feed each of my rotifer tanks one bottle of green water. If you leave a cup of water in the bottle, you can begin a new green water culture in the same bottle simply by adding more sterile saltwater. I also use a fertilizer called Micro-Algae Grow to aid the algae in its growth.

Next post - Rotifers.

[essop3]

Rotifers
Rotifers are the first food you will need to feed your clownfish. Rotifer eggs can also be obtained online. You can produce rotifers in one of two ways: 1. Mass culture or 2. Continuous culture.

I use the continuous culture method, so that is what I will discuss here. I obtain dry rotifer eggs to begin my cultures. In order to hatch rotifer eggs, you should place them in a petri dish of sterile saltwater and cover them. Make sure the salinity of the water is less than the display tank. Salinity has a significant effect on rotifer production. You should keep the salinity between 10 and 20 ppt because this is where best growth occurs. The dish should be placed under medium light for 24 hours. After 24 hours the rotifers should have begun hatching and will need to be feed. At this time you can feed them a little green water (just enough to turn the water light green) or another supplement. For this initial feeding, I use a product called Roti-Rich. It only takes a couple of drops to feed them initially.

After 48 hours the rotifers can be moved to a 500 ml container and need to be feed again. I usually use green water for this feeding. The rotifers should clear the algae from the water at 72 hours. At this point they can be moved to a larger container. I use a 10 gallon aquarium filled about a quarter and I add a 2 liter of green water.

The next day I usually fill the aquarium up half way with more sterile saltwater and feed a 2 liter of green water in the morning and Roti-Rich in the evenings. Every week or so the bottom of the tank needs to be vacuumed.

In my setup, which is pictured below I use two 10 gallon aquariums. The point of this is two-fold: I keep my rotifer populations high because I only harvest every other day from each tank and if one tank crashes and I lose the rotifers I have a backup tank. If you only have one rotifer tank and it crashes, you will lose your clownfish larvae to starvation.

To harvest rotifers, I siphon half of the water volume out of the tank through a 53 micron filter into a bucket. The water from the bucket can then be poured back into the rotifer tank. The filter can be emptied into the fry tank to feed the clown larvae.

As I said before, 1000 rotifers a day is ideal for clownfish larvae, but at a minimum they will need between 300 to 600 rotifers a day for a period of 5 to 10 days in order to survive and grow. These rotifers also need to be nutritious, which is why you should supplement their diet with green water. Just one or two days without suitable foods means death to clownfish larvae.

At about the 8 or 9 day mark, you can start feeding baby brine shrimp to the clowns in addition to live rotifers. Do not make the mistake of just switching from rotifers to brine shrimp on day 9 or 10. The foods must both be offered because the clown fish will have a hard time changing their diet from rotifers to shrimp. The methods they use to catch rotifers are completely different from the ones they will need to learn to catch shrimp. Both foods need to be offered while they learn to catch the brine shrimp. Your mortality rate will be much lower if you use this approach.

Next post: Hatchery setup

[essop3]

To raise my clownfish fry I use a 5 gallon tank. All you need for this tank is some airline tubing, wood airstone, air pump and a heater. The tank is pictured below. The picture is a little dark.

The sides and bottom of the tank are painted flat black. The reason this is done is because it is much easier for the clown larvae to see their prey (rotifers) against a black background than a clear one.

You want to use a wood airstone to aerate the tank because you want very fine bubbles. The larvae can get trapped in courser bubbles and can be killed.

The tank needs to be vacuumed every couple of days because water quality is very important for these fragile fish. Since their is no filtration you need to be very vigilant about this. You can use airline tubing to vacuum the tank.

Some people believe that the larvae need to be kept in complete darkness, but there is no evidence supporting this. Just keep the tank under low to medium light. Do not use a flouresent light

[essop3]

After about day 12 or so you should be in the clear. You will lose many of the larvae before that time though. That is just the nature of raising these fish. The clowns can eat brine shrimp exclusively after this amount of time. I am not going to go into hatching brine shrimp because they are readily available. The only remark I will make about them is that you should try to obtain the San Francisco Bay variety over the Great Salt Lake variety. The SF variety are smaller and thus easier for the small clowns to eat.

This all may sound like a lot of work and initally it can be, but once you have everything setup it only takes a few minutes a day to maintain. A picture of my complete setup is attached below.

I hope I have covered the basics. It is very frustrating when you want to attempt something like this but can't find the information to get started. I hope this thread provides some valuable information to those who want to try this.

[essop3]

these posts are borrowed from the site I usually go to.

I am not nearly smart enough to know all this.

[H.crispa]

I have some marine rotifer cysts if you need them. My greenwater is gone though. All the supplies are easy enough to get.

[odoprelude]

WOW! Essop you are the man! Thanks for the info... Dunno if this is going to work on this first go round.. but maybe in the future.... Look forward to meeting you! (or have I already met you?) heh... :D


H. Crispa.. if I decide to do that I may have to borrow some of those rotifer cysts from you. Thanks!

[firefish2020]

My hats off to the first person who gets a sustainable colony of clowns going we are toying with the idea at the shop ourselves. Best of luck.

[essop3]

Bangaii are much easier. The babies are able to eat newly hatched brine.

I haven't got to meet too many people in this hobby. I always seem to have to work on the club meeting days. I requested vacation for next months :D

[H.crispa]

Check out a book by Joyce D. Wilkerson called "Clownfishes, a guide to their captive care, breeding and natural history" The techniqques are applicable to a lot of other marine fishes as well.