Ever had luck with using no rotifers for baby clowns?

HiddenClown · #1 04/27/2006, 07:42 PM

I have read that using nothing but baby brine shrimp and powdered grinded foods can be successful for rasing fry. Has anyone had any luck with this or with using frozen rotifers?

dantodd · #2 04/28/2006, 02:04 AM

I've tried and had zero surviving fry.

HiddenClown · #3 04/28/2006, 05:53 AM

did u just try the frozen rotifers?

dantodd · #4 04/28/2006, 12:27 PM

no, ground powder, none survived past 80 hours

phender · #5 04/28/2006, 03:49 PM

It is possible to raise a few of the fry (1-10) using newly hatched San Francisco strain brine shrimp. The San Francisco strain is smaller than the Great Salt Lake variety and a very small number of your fry will be big enough to eat them as a first food.

Here are a couple things you should know.
1. You have to hatch new brine shrimp everyday. In 18-24 hours they are already too big for the fry to eat.
2. You will need to try to net out as many of the uneaten brine shrimp as you can before every new feeding or you will end up raising brine shrimp instead of clownfish.
Once the babies start eating the brine shrimp, they can be weaned onto non-living, more nutritional foods fairly quickly.
Getting the fry to eat non-living foods right from the start has been very difficult for most of us.

dantodd · #6 04/28/2006, 04:52 PM

Hey Phil, why didn't you tell me to try that with my fry?

darn...... Now they aren't breeding so I can't try it either...

phender · #7 04/28/2006, 05:53 PM

Sorry Dan,

Believe it or not I don't read through every thread on this list.

I did it once because my rotifer culture crashed a couple days before the babies hatched. It wasn't really worth it. It was fun at first, but when they are the only babies you have, it gets pretty boring raising 2-3 clownfish for 6-8 months until they are big enough to sell.

I hope your guys start up again soon.

dantodd · #8 04/28/2006, 06:18 PM

Doesn't look like it. I've reintroduced her twice and she won't even fight back just takes it for a couple minutes then goes right to the top gasping. Looking to trade one of them out for a new mate.

imbuggin · #9 04/28/2006, 06:53 PM

I have a new rotifers culture how do I know if it is healthy or not? What are signs to look out for.

HiddenClown · #10 05/05/2006, 07:28 AM

Where is the best place to buy a rotifer culture and should i buy eggs or live rotifers?