Clownfish Log

[Hawkeye]

Another 5 went to the great reef sky today.

Still can't quite figure out what is happening. Maybe I'm over-feeding?

I can easily tell the ones that are on their way out. They are lethargic and barely swim, and their dark coloring slowly/gradually gets lighter and lighter and then pale as a ghost dead.

Sigh - I've consolidated tanks. I shut-down the 5g hex and just have the 10g and 29bc (7 percs from batches 1&2).

Interesting note -the cyclopeeze fed clowns are far richer/redder in color than the other clowns fed baby brine shrimp exclusively. I"ll take a pic (i wish I had mikem's camera!)

 

[George]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe the ones you think are dying should be removed now. It may be a parasite? I'm not expert though

 

[SWITCH420]

have u tried this to feed ur baby clowns?the 1 baby molly eats them up he is in nj 2.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230390631438&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

[Hawkeye]

To counteract the recent deceased clowns I've been getting, I decided to stop feeding baby brine exclusively. I think i took maybe 5% of the entire usual culture I dose. My thought is that they are overeating to death.

Today I started feeding crushed up cyclopeeze and to my great joy - the little guys were eating it without spitting it out. The larger pieces are tussled about by a few of them. I siphon out any too big to eat on the bottom.

So on to positive news. All the fish have gone thru metamorphosis and all of them have a single stripe on their head. The last two batches that went thru this - my best was batch 2 - at 18 of them. This batch far exceeds my expectations as there are a LOT more than 18. I think there maybe like 60 of them. Still can't count them...they bundle together tightly in the corner and only disperse when I put food in.

The first/second batch are happy in the bc29. They are eating cyclopeeze exclusively. I siphon the detritus maybe once every 2~3 days.

Side note - went to a restaurant called Bone Fish Grill for the first time tonight. Nice food and great place. It's down the street from OG II. Now I just have to find something near AqOb....heheh.

 

[Phyl]

Bone Fish Grill is great. The crab cakes are out of this world, as is the Thai food.

 

[Phyl]

And congrats on the high head count for batch 3. That's amazing (even with the losses you've been suffering). Way to go. You're doing great.

 

[Hawkeye]

All the credit is to this club. MACNA is what started me down this path. Prior to macna i just wanted an algae-free reef tank (i'm not winning that right now...hahah). But after macna - after getting help from MOFIB (at macna) and hearing Randy Reed talk (at macna) , then being able to buy the rotifer food from Reed Mariculture/Og II (at MACNA), the seemingly impossible seemed...probable.

Whether it's macna - or a club meeting with a speaker - any of these events might just spark a person to go the next step.

Of course getting the clowns to lay eggs is the first step - but I didn't do anything but try barry white music.

 

[Phyl]

Whoo hoo for MACNA!! What a testimony! Glad to hear that we were able to help you on the path... to spending endlessly more money, I'd guess. LOL.

 

[TanksNStuff]

It's been a few days since I've checked in here, but sounds like everything is going well for the most part. Maybe cyclopeez is the key?

If you're wanting to get a head count, best bet would be to get a top down pic and then count them from the pic. You might still get a couple that are too close to tell apart but at least they won't be moving!

 

[Hawkeye]

been a while since i updated - because i went thru some tough times. Internet explorer 8 is now somehow working and I can post longwinded posts...haha. (Sorry monroereef!)

Lesson #1. After the fish has gone thru meta - do not populate the tank with baby brine shrimp. The clowns would not stop eating and many of them died.

Lesson #2. After the fish have gone thru meta - make sure all the sides are covered. If the timer turns the light off and you are still working on your pc (light source near fry tank) the fry will rapidly swim straight into the glass killing themselves instantly.

Lesson #3: On a diet of all baby brine shrimp - any sudden changes (water temp, light source, attempts to capture fish) will result in instant death.

So...I swear I had started with over 200 and wanted this log to end with a proud pic of over a hundred babies. But right now I'm down to maybe 30. I know that's still amazing but I felt like the last 30~40 that died - died completely needlessly due to my inept care.

After meta - the ideal method would be to feed once a day a batch of bbs - to ensure that they eat. But on other time slots - to feed a dry food. I used cyclopeeze - but might try a food sold exclusively for fry. clownfish breeders use something called otohime. After meta - stop feeding the tank (that is, do not feed to ensure the tank looks populated with food). Feed only an estimated amount that you think each fry can handle. This is impossible to explain numerically but basically after meta - you're better off underfeeding than over.

The last batch in the tank are doing great. So well that for the first time when I tried to siphon the detritus - the fish wouldn't stop bugging my hand. In the past they would frightfully hide in a corner. Every morning when I approach the tank now - they rapidly fan apart anticipating food in the water. This is probably the most rewarding experience after so much heartbreak.

Anyways - i'm taking a break now. Not because I feel like i'm tired/upset...rather my breeding pair have stopped. It's been over a month (unusual). So perhaps this will be it. Who knows. Maybe spring will change all that. I'll post pics as these babies grow.

Anyone going to the march meeting is welcome to stop by my place before/afterwards. I am 3 miles away. So if you get a fix of discus fry at rod's and then want to see some clownfish juvies - come on over.

 

[NikkiT]

You've done a great job Phil, 30 is awfully good. Its certainly a whole lot better than the "0" that many of us achieve from the animals that spawn in our tanks. Thank you for sharing your journey with us so that we can learn from you.

 

[TanksNStuff]

You've done a great job Phil, 30 is awfully good. Its certainly a whole lot better than the "0" that many of us achieve from the animals that spawn in our tanks. Thank you for sharing your journey with us so that we can learn from you.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for sharing this experiment with us and especially recording the mistakes as well as the positive things. If nothing else, you've given others a basic game plan to try this too.

Congrats on the survivors and increase the frequency of Barry White and candles so we can get another round soon!

 

[Hawkeye]

I am still at approximately 30 percs left in this 3rd batch. I've had a few die on me - and I think it's from the lack of nutrition. I ordered some reed mariculture otohime to see if that will change things.

I also added the sponge filter I bought from the PA group buy. Once this seeds correctly I will move it to the bc29 which i finally topped off with water and is running. Then before end of week I will move all of these clowns to the bc29 and grow them out in that tank. If all goes well they will end up either for sale for maybe I try putting them into the display...that'd be interesting to see.

Oh the parents laid another hatch on sunday. So if all goes well they should hatch on 3-29 or so. Time to check on the rotifers again!

 

[Phyl]

Very cool that SO many of them made it to this point. Great job, Hawk! Congrats on the new hatch as well. What are you feeding the parents?

 

[Hawkeye]

I moved the batch from the 10g over to the bc29. I removed the bc29 maxijet 1200 and replaced it with a maxijet 400 (100 gph). I also added some filter floss on the overflow to prevent accidental ingestion of a clown.

Here are some pics:
FTS:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v610/buyerny/?action=view&current=IMG_6633.jpg

A few minutes after the transfer:

Getting comfy:

random pic:

My wife loves the irregular spot on this one:

Hopefully the 4th batch of eggs that i will attempt to raise will hatch tomorrow. I'll start another log so it'll be easier for people to follow. Hope you all enjoyed this thread.

 

[Hawkeye]

Very cool that SO many of them made it to this point. Great job, Hawk! Congrats on the new hatch as well. What are you feeding the parents?

believe it or not nothing special. They are getting cyclopeeze freeze dried wafers and some aqueon pellets I got for free at TFP's annual sale a while back. I read that pelletized forms of food tend to retain the nutrition more - so I purposely feed the female clown a "few" extra pellets before everyone else eats.

btw - i forgot to mention that ont he advice of panmanmatt I started trying frozen cyclopeeze for the fry and that has worked fantastically. They no longer have gas-imbalance (from picking food at the service) and the coloration is very nice. I also feel like the scrawny runts are able to get the food better now whereas before they were a little shunted to the bottom as the frisky feeders attacked the surface like starving carp in a pond.

 

[Phyl]

Great! I know I've really enjoyed following along! Makes me wish mine would spawn again, but they haven't spawned in years.

 

[NikkiT]

Go Phil!
Glad to hear all is going well with the baby clowns, the picture you posted looks great, there are so many of them!

 

[JRWOHLER]

Great! I know I've really enjoyed following along! Makes me wish mine would spawn again, but they haven't spawned in years.

Have your fish gone through nemopause?

 

[Phyl]

They're on a nemo-pause alright! No more Nemos for them. I think they figured since I wasn't trying to raise them they'd stop making 'em!