My tries at raising maroon clownfish

[mako56]

Well here goes first I got ahold of some clouded acrylic and made a 12 gallon tank. I thought I would use clouded because it seemed like most of you covered the side up any ways. For my first couple tries I am going to use Mike Reeds dry no bs fry food and see what happens. I got some jugs to do the green water and rot thing but I figured I would try this first. My clowns lay eggs every two or three weeks so I hope I will have allot of chances to get this right. Heres a pic of the tank.

[mako56]

I haven't gotten the fish to lay there eggs on a tile or something I can remove so it wait till they hatch and try to fish them out. heres a pic of the eggs the night of the hatch.



I was a little fired up that night and was checking on them more than I should of I think and might of caused them to hatch different than normal. My big lights go out at 11:00 pm and the blue ones at 12:00 AM. At 1:00 AM I shut down the circulation in the tank and turned on a night light at the top of the tank and waited. 2:00 AM and no babies so I turned off the light and tuned the circulation back on. I checked every fifteen minutes and at 3:30 AM I seen the first ones and shut everything down again and turned the light back on. I caught about a dozen or so and there were allot of eggs left so I turned the light off again and waited some more. After all said and done it was 5:00 AM before I gave up I got about 30 babies there were allot of eggs left but nothing more was happening. Heres a pic of one of the newly hatched babies.

[Kathy55g]

Awesome!

[SEA YOU LATER]

Hi Mike, told you I'd be here I'm really looking forward to this thread. Keep up the good work and good luck. Mike L

[mako56]

Well heres day 1



Only 8 left.

[SEA YOU LATER]

nice pic what are you feed them the dry food or the rots?

[mako56]

Trying the dry food for the fist couple times gota give it a chance. I don't really expect to get this for a while but I am not giving up till I do. After a few tries I will do the rot thing.

[SEA YOU LATER]

Just keep at it and you'll get it, good luck again.

[DebsSisterFlo]

Good luck!!!

[spk]

Mike,

Glad to see that you took the plunge.
Things are really looking great.

Those pics of yours are great and I like the concept of the cloudy tank. That is really a cool idea.

Keep the pics and updates coming.

Good luck and looking forward to this journey with you.

Steve

[Kathy55g]

Hey Mike,
Nice Thread!
Who is Mike Reed?

[chungsl]

very nice and fine pic of your maroon baby, thx.
i also had a spwaning pair of maroon but gave a friend.
i hadn't ever raised them before because i knew nothing about breeding.

[DebsSisterFlo]

that is a very nice picture and that is a gorgeous fish!

[mako56]

Thanks everyone.

Wow I never seen one with white stripes before cool pic chungs!.

Kathy he is a guy I order my fish food from he sells regular stuff like krill and myst just about anything but he is experimenting all the time with fish foods of his own. Haven't really sat down and figured out yet if its cheaper than buying it local because of shipping charges it might work out to be pretty close.

[SEA YOU LATER]

Mike can you see them eating it?

[mako56]

Well doesn't really pay because the first try is a flop now. Only one is left at the start of the third day and he didn't make it either but here is a pic of the second day there were six on that day. Waiting to try again.




Its hard to say See Ya Later it looked like they were eating I need to get some kind of magnifying glass maybe to see it.

[RCS]

You should be able to see their guts filled with food if they're eating. That last picture looks like the larva hasn't eaten anything at all.

[mako56]

Well just looked in the tank and


Now its try two I guess. I think this time I will try with fresh made water last time I use my tank water.

I will have to try and focus on there bellies next time RCS thanks for the info I will looking for that now. These two are egg laying fools so It looks like I will be getting lots of practice.

[ediaz]

I don't think the tank being white is going to work

Ed

[Fishboy42]

You sure? Some of mine are grey, and the fish don't seem to mind (have some GSM fry in one now). Even clear tanks work ok when I'm in a pinch and all larval tanks are full.

Awesome pictures Mike. I look forward to seeing your progress with these egg-laying fools! Once you get the rots in the picture, I think you'll be all set.

-Matt

[ediaz]

Clear might be okay, but the way white plexi glass reflects the light might be a problem.

We never had much succes when raising clownfish in light blue tanks, dark colors were preffered. The larvae just stuck to the sides and die, yields were low.


Ed

[Fishboy42]

Ah, ok, thanks Edgar, swimming at the sides isn't exactly ideal.

Mike, if you consider another tank, it's easy & cheap to paint a 10g white on bottom and dark on the sides (or even just construction paper) if you were to consider using something like this.

[ediaz]

Anything it's possible Matt,

I have a friend who pairs up fish in less than 10 gal. and other that raises larvae in glass uncovered tanks with no algae in the water. But that is not the norm. Since our friend here is having total loses you have to eliminate all variables affecting the hatch to get to the cause of mortalities.

Ed

[Fishboy42]

Yes, understood. I've raised ocellaris larvae in pickle jars before, but I wouldn't recommend it to...anyone! I wish I did take some pictures though...

[RCS]

Hey Matt, let me know when you have some GSM ready to go...my female is in desperate need of a male.