Tomato Clowns hatchin Tonight

[Jeff-in-Akron]

Hi everyone!

I acquired a spawning pair of tomato clowns a couple of months ago. After reducing the number of tankmates, they finally spawned for me.

This first clutch looks to have about 50 eggs now. Some of the eyes in the eggs are silvery, so I am guessing I will have some hatching tonight.

I am, of course, unprepared for feeding the larvae. Luckily, there is a LFS within an hour's drive that carries life rot's and screens. I have a couple of bottles of DT's onhand, too (for feeding feather dusters) as well as a starter culture disk of nano and som F2.

I started up a 10 gal ank to use as a larva tank, but given the food situation, I am thinking of using a 2.5 or a 5 gal filled with 3 gallons of water for larva and another 2.5 to culture rots. The idea is to use less water now so I can have decent rot density until I get a good batch of rot's growing.

I will be setting up a phyto culture, too. Probably using 2 L soda bottles.

I'll be happy if I get just one baby past meta.

I have read and re-read Wilkerson's book, but any comments, tips, or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jeff

[ShannHell]

I don't have any tips, but congratulations! Good luck!

[Jeff-in-Akron]

Six larvae so far. I shut off the pumps and filters 30 minutes ago and the lights 10 minutes ago. Went out and bout a quart and a half of rotifers. I put half a quart in the larva tank (5 gal) along with 10 ml of DT's. The 1 quart went into the rotifer cuture tank (2.5 gal) along with 1/4 teaspoon of Missing Link rotifer food. I hope to have a good batch going by the time the larvae have exhausted their yolk sacs.

I am going to give it another 30 minutes before I start collecting. Based on eye silvering, it looks like 50% are ready to hatch.

Yay!

[Jeff-in-Akron]

Most did not hatch yet. I collected 1 larva. The others I saw had disappeared. I did not cover the heater indicator light in the spawning tank as I had in the larva tank. Maybe the others who hatched were drawn to the heater and got cooked. I will correct that and try again tonight.

[Ploppers]

At least you've got time to get your cultures going before the next hatch.

Make sure you feed the parents well. That seemed to make a big difference with mine in how many survived the first couple days. My first hatch I only had maybe 15-20 make it to day 4. The second batch I had 120+ make it that far.

I wouldn't worry too much about the heater cooking them as long as you catch them soon after hatching. I've been using a 250W Jager in with about 110 fry since they hatched 3 weeks ago.

[billsreef]

Originally posted by Ploppers
Make sure you feed the parents well. That seemed to make a big difference with mine in how many survived the first couple days.

Yup, that is very important. The adults nutrition has a direct impact on quality of the eggs and the yolk, and therefore hatch rates and larval survival. Feed them several times a day with a varied diet and you should get good egg production and strong larvae

[Jeff-in-Akron]

I have upped their feeding fequency. I am feeding them Formula 2, Cyclo-eeze, spirulina, and grated shrimp. Most have not hatched as yet. Lots of siler is visible in the eggs, though. Rot culture is humming along.

[billsreef]

[Jeff-in-Akron]

Looks like I have 3 viable larvae as of yesterday. I just eyeballed the tank and I saw2 of them right away, both with silver bellies.