My tries at raising maroon clownfish - Page 5

Kathy55g · #**101** 01/13/2006, 02:11 PM

Depends on how big the jug is that you start with. You can use any container you want. I have kept rots going between spawns in the bottom of a soda bottle, then expanded up to a 5 gallon pail. I do not necessarily fill the jug or bottle. I just control the volume of the rot soup and remove half or add additional volume as needed. If I need a bigger jug, I use one.

I forgot to say, after day 6, you need to keep harvesting rots/replacing the water about 30-50% each day if you want the population to be maintained.

Good luck!

(No jug jokes allowed, Ed.)

jnowell · #**102** 01/15/2006, 12:05 PM

Kathy, so about those jugs.....LOL - you didn't forbid ME from making any jokes, so I filled in for Edgar

I see you finally got your screen name changed...woohoo.

Mike, I hope the rotifers are doing well, mine just went through a move to my new breeding setup (pics and thread coming soon) and they slowed reproduction a little...right after my hatch of course.

km133688 · #**103** 01/15/2006, 04:26 PM

nice pics mike, I was looking for something just like this. If I get around to documenting anything I do, can I supplement a report I might to for my reef club with your egg pics?

Kevin

PS. I am going to try raising my current batch this week, so I will be watching you real close. I too will be starting with "dry" food. Although I am going to use the new Hikari frozen rotifers and frozen baby brine shrimp.

mako56 · #**104** 01/15/2006, 05:49 PM

Don't follow me to close unless you want to see what you shouldn't do. I don't think I will have enough rots when this batch hatches either. Everyone makes this sound easy but I am having lots of trouble need some more experience. If you want to use them you can I don't really know what I am doing there either though and if someone else did they could do a better job of editing the pics.

km133688 · #**105** 01/15/2006, 08:09 PM

yeah my first go at rots seemed to work well, but after that I have had no luck. I was using live phyto first time and dead feed other times though.

DebsSisterFlo · #**106** 01/16/2006, 12:01 PM

hey Mike, we were at Advanced yesterday and Adam was telling us about someone in Florida where they use actual ocean water, filtered, and they try to raise clowns... Adam said that these guys are scientists that should really know what's going on, and they had a 95% mortality rate. So it's not just you! You're going to get it right, I have faith in you!

jnowell · #**107** 01/16/2006, 11:59 PM

I couldn't agree more Jessica!

Mike, you'll get there too, and I hope I'm not one of the ones who made it sound easy! I personally think it's far from easy...but then if it was easy it would just bore me. I was quite shocked to get any through metamorphasis...heck, I was shocked to get them past day 3. The rots took me some time too, and I lost a good portion of the first try to that fact. The second try I lost all of them, I'm hoping for a good third try...we shall see.

So far, it's been nothing but a learning experience, but in hind sight, it's been a fun journey along the way, even with all the disappointments.

Hang in there...

spk · #**108** 01/17/2006, 03:43 AM

Mike,

as the English say, chin up. Everyone goes through the learning curve and will loose fish. But remember that each time you are successful, you are saving a wild caught fish somewhere.

You are doing an astounding job, and any chance that we can read of another experience is always great news.

Steve

mako56 · #**109** 01/17/2006, 04:23 AM

Thanks people I should not of said everyone makes it sound easy must of been some kind of brain fart. Everyone makes it sound like a challenge which it is and I will get it sooner or later. I guess a person just get a little frustrated when things don'r go as you would like. I should know better with having the reef tank for almost three years now

I still have ph fluctuations from 7.85 to 8.15 between night and day. I even put in a $500.00 air exchanger to try and get more fresh air into the house. Oh well looks like the next hatch should be on Wednesday or Thursday but if those rots don't kick it in high gear soon there won't be enough.

jnowell · #**110** 01/18/2006, 11:03 AM

Mike, How often and how much are you harvesting rotifers? How often are you feeding. They should be in high gear by now, and don't forget that while you are harvesting, they will replenish to about the same numbers in 24 hours.

I pull 3-5 full "scoops" with my plankton collecter (same as yours) out of a ten gallon every day. The next day, I always have about the same density in the culture as I did the day before. I add phyto (or roti-rich, or IA) about 4 times a day, just enough to give the water a good green tint. They clear that water in about 4 hours, and I find that to be perfect. The water is usually slightly green except in the morning, I feed 7am, 12pm, 5pm, and 9 or 10pm. If I'm up late, I sometimes add a little more to get them through the night.

Frequent and regular feeding and harvesting is the key. Keep the culture clean in between these actions, and it should do well for you.

Kathy55g · #**111** 01/18/2006, 11:24 AM

When I harvest rots, which is everyday, I harvest the water along with them. then I replace the volume with fresh saltwater (actually used, but not by the rots) . That keeps the rot culture fresher, and smells better, and I don't need to restart the cultures as often.

mako56 · #**112** 01/18/2006, 11:45 AM

I started with the 3000 - 5000 cysts thing I do seem to have a quite a few now. I will harvest some today and put them in the larvae tank today cause I think the babies will hatch tonight. Do you use water from your display to add water to your rots? I have them in four - one gallon jugs now, I tried putting some in the green water and tiny critters that just happened in my first try at rots and they are multiplying faster in there its coming along I think. Thanks for the help I need whatever I can get.

mtraylor · #**113** 01/18/2006, 11:53 AM

They say it might not be a good idea to use the water directly from the display because there may be some copepodes etc in there that you dont notice that can deplete your population by eating the rots. You can microwave the water to kill the stuff in there though..

I currenlty have some rots started about day 7/8 and I cant tell if there is anything living in there or not. If I decant the water off into the mesh, should you be able to see the rots then? I cant see anything in the green water

mako56 · #**114** 01/18/2006, 12:17 PM

I have a 20X microscope that I have been checking them out with and just now my new 40x to 1000X came UPS and needs to warm up can't wait to see what those little things in the green water really look like.

mtraylor · #**115** 01/18/2006, 12:27 PM

Ok, so I guess you cant see them with the naked eye. When you filter them out on the mesh....do you see anything?

Kathy55g · #**116** 01/18/2006, 12:53 PM

I frequently see them at 10x....In fact I can catch tiny dots with my reading glasses....

Kathy55g · #**117** 01/18/2006, 12:54 PM

When I feed them nanno, I see green rots on the rot filter. Rotifer diet turns them reddish.

mako56 · #**118** 01/18/2006, 01:57 PM

The rots look like little dust specks with the eyeball in the 20X you can see them really good swirling around with there green bellies. I am talking about the tiny things that started growing in the first try at me growing rots. They looked like dust under 20X I just looked at them with my new toy and it takes all the way up to 1000X to make them half the size of the rots at 20X. I don't have a clue what they are, they are oval in shape with a green tint under the 1000X they move fairly quick but under the 20X they just look like millions of specks slowly moving around. I didn't try filtering yet but this afternoon I am going to try.

ediaz · #**119** 01/18/2006, 02:05 PM

oval shaped , move quick , it may be ciliates

mako56 · #**120** 01/18/2006, 03:30 PM

There are two size well three now I added some rots to the mix they seem to like it in there. But the medium sized oval things move really fast the little guys just do a little more than float around.

seafarm · #**121** 01/19/2006, 02:09 AM

If you use water from your reef to replace the water you harvest from your rotifer system, run it through a coffee filter first. That will keep your rotifer culture free from other organisms.

DebsSisterFlo · #**122** 01/19/2006, 12:25 PM

ediaz your avatar pic is gorgeous, just wanted to say...
Mike, I sure hope I see some babies this weekend? Now that you have that new toy you really have no use for that macro lense, so I'll just take that with me, ok? No, really!!! haha!!

Kathy55g · #**123** 01/19/2006, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by seafarm
If you use water from your reef to replace the water you harvest from your rotifer system, run it through a coffee filter first. That will keep your rotifer culture free from other organisms.

I do that, and usually, I bleach overnight and dechlorinate just to make sure.

mako56 · #**124** 01/19/2006, 02:16 PM

So you put how much bleach in a gallon container? I got some of the Cloram-x how much of that?

Kathy55g · #**125** 01/19/2006, 11:15 PM

I bleach 1 ml of bleach per gallon of saltwater.

I use chloramX when I have an ammonia problem.

I use biosafe or biosomething for the bleach thing. 1 or 2 ml per gallon. I always test for chlorine after dechlorinating until I am sure I am dechlorinating enough. Pet stores have chlorine test strips--expensive but easy.

Sodium Thiosulphate also works well for dechlorinating, and probably is cheapest.

I got the Biosafe stuff for free at the last aquarium conference; ain't nothing cheaper than free. conference was not, however, free.