Raising Baby Clowns

[buick48]

I HAVE TWO PAIRS OF CLOWNS, PERCULA AND CLARKII. THE PERCULAS HAVE BEEN BREEDING FOR YEARS AND I JUST GOT THE CLARKS. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO RAISE THE BABIES, BUT WITH VERY LIMITED SUCCESS. I HAVE ONE BABY LEFT. I FINALLY GOT ROTIFERS AND PHYTOPLANKTON, BUT IT DID NOT SEEM TO HELP. I AM USING A 10 GALLON TANK WITH AN AIR STONE. I KEEP THE WATER AT 78 AND I CHANGE 50% EACH WEEK WITH SMALL CHANGES IN BETWEEN. THE BABY I HAVE LEFT IS TWO WEEKS OLD. YOU CAN SEE THE ROTIFERS AND BABY BRINE SHRIMP IN THE TANK AND THE BABY IS FAT. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR RAISING THEM WITH GREATER YIELD. ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS, JERRY

[JHardman]

Hi Jerry

A couple of things first... Welcome to RC! And second no need to shout, we can "hear" you fine without you using all caps.

If you haven't already done so, get a copy of Joyce Wilkerson's book "Clownfishes..." as it has 95% of the information you need to raise clownfish.

There are many factors that will effect your survival rates. Little things like lighting conditions, water quality, food quality/density will all drastically effect survival rates.

Lighting conditions: This one can be a fast killer. Larva are both attracted and repelled from light. You need to find the right balance that keeps the larva in the middle of water column where they can feed.

Water quality: You may need to do more water changes than a 50% per week. A small unfiltered tank with hundreds of larva and millions of rotifers can turn south fast. You need to monitor the water for ammonia and nitrites often and keep both in check. Also make sure your water changes match up with pH, SG, and temp.

Food: You need to have well fortified rotifers at a density so that a larva can see one in it's face all the time. For A. percula or A. ocellaris larva that is about one body length from day 1 to day 2-3. It is important that the rotifers stay nutritious. I use a technique called co-culturing, were I am adding phytoplankton to the rearing tank to keep the rotifers fed (fortified) and reproducing.

With A. percula or A. ocellaris you can start newly hatched BBS at about day 4 or 5. Just very small amounts to start with. As they grow and bulk up you can increase the amount and size of the BBS until you no longer need rotifers in the tank. This is generally about day 10 to 15. Also with BBS you are now feeding the fish and not the tank, don't over feed, just as much as they can clean up in a couple of hours.

Keep your chin up. With time and experience you can get very high survival rates with A. percula or A. ocellaris, as high as 90% for the first 30 days.

If you can post as many details of your setup as possible. There are several experienced breeders on this forum.

[buick48]

sorry for yelling, but i just have a bad habit of using all caps. it was not intended as yelling. thanks for the info. i will try to get the book, but i live in colorado and there are really no good fish stores here. i will try to get it on line.
thanks again