false percula spawned

[+Hydro]

Hydro, how old are your clowns? I've had a pair for a little more than a year now that were 2" or smaller when I got them, and I've yet to see them spawn for me.

My clowns are about 1 year old, I have had them about 6 months

[+Hydro]

Good luck with the shrimp.

Actually if you can remove the rock with the eggs on it and start up a small fry tank about 20gals would be easier. The eggs will turn silver and you'll see the eyes and it's close to hatching. There is a guy up here who has a "clown house" that where I got my Black and White Ocelaris from.

Any way he has about 10 brood tanks just with mated pairs of clowns from Maroon, B/W, Picasso's and Platinum's and the other 40 10gal tanks are for rearing. The clowns lay the eggs on a removable surface and he then put's them in one of the rearing tanks, adds some bubbles for agitation and wait for the hatching.

I can't remove this rock, its probably 50 lbs and there is probably 50 lbs of rock and coral on top. When I move my tank maybe they will move to something more mobile.

Anyone raised shrimp before?

[+cyrus]

You should take advantage of this you just got live food for the clowns! The shrimp can be fed with Spirulina or PhytoPlan. PytoPlan can be picked up at Petco for about double what it costs online but you can get it faster. My fire shrimp came loaded with eggs but not to much luck with them after that I've never had anything get past the larval stage. So use em for food lol

Er and still get rodifers.

[+Hydro]

Well the clowns should hatch tonight and I will put them in the same tank. I fed the shrimp larva some baby brine shrimp and reef nutrition rotifers, do you think that will work?

Why didn't it work with your fire shrimp?

[+cyrus]

I didn't get too technical with it. I just added them to my fuge that was full of pods, kind of a crap shoot. Thats why I got the PhytoPlan. I'm willing to bet you'll have better luck with the clowns. I also did a lot of research on mysid shrimp, they are rather easy to cultivate. There is a diagram out there on how to build a 40g for breeding them. If your really serious about raising them start from the bottom- Phyto-> Rodi-> Mysid or brine. Get on maast and ask Dr. Mark of GCREEF. He breeds Onyx successfully. This is time consuming with high failure rate for newbies so take that into account. Also here is a link you definatly want.

http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/

and here is marks thread:

http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?55589-The-GCR-bred-onyx-clowns&highlight=onyx+clown

[Hamp]

I think you will need to start culturing rotifers now for the next batch to have much luck raising the fry. You will have to spend quite a bit of money on rotifers to feed the fry though out the period of time needed to ween them on to newly hatched brine shrimp. I would get a phyto and rotifer culturing set up in place, and a larval rearing tank, and start raising those babys for us to buy here on ARC. I would love a tank bred pair.

Also MOFIB is a great source of info on all of this.

[+Hydro]

Thanks for all the great info.

I received a PM from one of the members letting me know that online you can buy frozen rotifer eggs that you can hatch when you are ready, pretty cool. I'm going to get them ordered for next time.

I did collect the fry last night, they hatched really quickly after the lights went off, to quickly for me to get all of the pumps and powerheads turned off actually. I was able to collect about 20 of them and the rest were blown away somewhere.

Boy talk about a small aquarium full of life!!! There must be 100 baby shrimp, 500 baby brine shrimp, and all of the copepods that were also attracted to the light in the tank. I can actually see 4-5 different kinds of creatures in the water, its a 2.5 gallon tank and its swarming!

I put reef nutrtion rotifers and baby brine shrimp in there and it really looks like the fry are eating them. Its really hard to tell but I read that if they dart around and stop that they are eating.....well they are doing that. They are also picking at the bottom of the tank, almost like they are grazing.

I WILL raise some fry, if not these then the next batch. I will keep trying until I get it right, I love the challenge of this. By the way....how do these things ever make it in the ocean!

[GKarshens]

Lot's of tiny little rock holes to dart in and tons of natural food. I was listening to the podcast on reef addicts and they were talking about raising tank bred animals. They said the hardest part of it is providing food they can eat.

[+Hydro]

It may be my imagination but they seem bigger since last night and their stomachs look fat. Only time will tell!

[+cyrus]

If you are referring to WWW.FLORIDA-AQUA-FARMS.COM I got rodi's and rodi-rich and spirulina along with some phyto cultures off there. I hatched them out and got inpatient so I'm not to sure how they did. You need to be a very patient scientist with this the timing is everything. I hope your up for it!

[August]

you should take pictures to monitor the babies progress...would love to see how it goes for you!! Good luck!

[+Hydro]

I ordered from them, they should be here in a couple of days, a little late for these guys. In a few days they are supposed to be eating brine shrimp.

https://3kserver7.com/~frank/secure/agora.cgi?cart_id=927776.11608*Ft8jT6&product=LIVE_CULTURES

These fish have doubled in size and I'm 90% sure they are eating, I think that I can see them eating tiny specs from the water which is most likely the reef nutrition rotifers.

And BTW the shrimp are doing fine too, so far there have been 4 fish die and 2 of the shrimp, still many of both.

Pics coming

[+Hydro]

Best I can do, 22 hrs old

[August]

amazing thanks for the pics... good luck hope it works

[+Hydro]

Only lost one overnight! So far so good!

If they weren't eating they would be dead by now right?

[teg]

Glade it's going well so far.

[+Hydro]

Well I'm down to about 5 or 6 fry but the ones left are looking good.

I still have 50 shrimp still alive.

[+Hydro]

Well I still have 4 alive but they keep going down and laying on thier sides on the bottom. Of course I just thought they were dying but they have done this for 24 hrs now, if I shine a light on them or stick something in the tank they swim around. They seem to swim for a bit and then rest, either that or they are starving to death slowly....which I don't believe. They are obviously eating something and whatever it is there is lots of it, brine shrimp, dead rotifers, copepods, baby shrimp, they have a buffet in there.

Anyone had this experience with fish fry?

They are supposed to eat freshly hatched brine shrimp on the 4th day and I just happen to have some ready, maybe they will make it.

[teg]

hope they make it through.

[+Melissa]

go babies go! This is way cooler than raising baby cichlids.

[+Hydro]

All fry have moved on to a better place, I guess they were getting weak.

Next time I will have rotifers, already ordered the frozen eggs.

[+o0zarkawater]

Sorry to hear.

Good luck with the next batch. Hopefully your pair start a mating schedule like most others.

I really hope those frozen viable rotifer cysts work out. Its really a great thing to have on hand for those who have clowns who occasionally spawn.

[teg]

first batch is usually the weakest. Hope things go better next time. If you feed the clowns regularly (1-2 times daily) you might see spawning cycle of 11-14 days.

[+Hydro]

Well they get fed 3xs a day, poor fish are nearly obese.

If I can accomplish this a few times with my clowns I want to buy a mated pair of platinum clowns and give it a shot, your work pays off more....plus I have wanted a pair for a while.

[+Hydro]

My fish have been busy!! They already spawned again, and there must be double the amount of eggs this time. I also have the rotifers this time and will setting up a 10 gallon tank instead of the 2.5 gallon.

I will succeed this time....