Clownfish breeding question

[vikinglord13]

Definitely interesting stuff. I have a maroon clown and would like to have a breeding pair one day.

I always thought clownfish guarded their eggs. I didn't realize it was good practice to remove the eggs into a breeder tank.

[FDdragon]

So should the lights turn on after the eggs hatch? How long should I leave them on?

I know the lights are to help them see the rotifers. Or should I leave the lights off until the morning?

[FDdragon]

So day 11 and not hatched yet. I had two hatch at day 7 and they seem to be doing fine.

Day 1 and I'm hoping they hatch tonight.

Not sure when to say it's a loss and put the rock back inside the main tank with mom and dad. The eggs are still on there and they seem to still be changing color so not really sure what the next step is.

Keep waiting
OR put back in tank.

[ReefLove]

What is your water temp? Can you post a pic of the eggs? If not, Can you describe the color of the eggs? My occys always hatch on day 7 and Percs on day 8 with tanks at 82.


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[FDdragon]

Temp is at 81 and eggs are light tan color.

Most of the eggs have fallen off. I have the rock (it's actually a shell) right next to the airstone for circulation. I'm guessing these all fell and are dead.

There are still a few remaining. This is their second batch of eggs so I'm not expecting much, but just want to make sure I am doing things the right way.



Not the best pic. They were grayish and some were really Orange colored 3 days ago. Then they all turned more greyish....and now they are light orange/ tan color.

[FDdragon]

So I decided to make a little stand where the shell will be placed on top off. The air stone will be below it allowing the bubbles to actually hit the eggs.

I figure the male clown really aerates them pretty good so the air bubbles shouldn't hurt.

I also covered the tank with a piece of cardboard to eliminate stray light coming in. Hope they hatch tonight.

[FDdragon]

Well....I think it's a loss. nothing hatched.

[vikinglord13]

Unfortunate, there's always next time!

[sushi]

This thread is making me wanna try... I wonder if mine are already laying eggs somewhere in the tank.

[Drama D]

Best fry are around hatch 8. Check out Joyce Wilkerson book clownfishs. Very informative. May have hacked the authors name, off memory.

[FDdragon]

Oh wow. That late huh. Well, like Vin Diesel said in Tokyo Drift, "I got nothing but time".

[FDdragon]

So I have been thinking....normally people move the eggs to a seperate tank to hatch and grow out. These tanks are simply water, airstone, heater and light.

Why not plumb in the tank into the entire system? It seems like a lot of work having that seperate tank without a good filtration and having to do a lot of water changes.

What if we set up a seperate tank but still plumb it in?

Just a thought I had.

Btw, clowns are really cleaning their spot where they normally lay so hoping a new batch of eggs come soon.

[ReefLove]

So I have been thinking....normally people move the eggs to a seperate tank to hatch and grow out. These tanks are simply water, airstone, heater and light.

Why not plumb in the tank into the entire system? It seems like a lot of work having that seperate tank without a good filtration and having to do a lot of water changes.

What if we set up a seperate tank but still plumb it in?

Just a thought I had.

Btw, clowns are really cleaning their spot where they normally lay so hoping a new batch of eggs come soon.

The hatch tank needs to be stand alone because they will be so small and feed on Rotifers in the beginning. At about 1 month you can move them to a plumbed tank, but I'd advise against attaching it to any other system as they produce so much waste, your other system will likely suffer.


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[FDdragon]

I see.
What if the entire system was large enough that 10g of water from fry waste won't affect it much.


Let's say for example you have a 300g, 40g, and a 50g cube and a large sump all plumbed together.

20g - 40g will probably be the fry sections. I'm thinking a 20g tank separated into 3 chambers with the 1st chamber as the parent area, water flows into 2nf chamber which will be the egg hatching and I up raising area, them water flows into 3rd chamber which will be a growing out section which will be the drain chamber as well. (Possibly 2 tanks setup this way if trying to breed another pair).

I'm thinking this could work but I'm new to clown fry so just thinking out loud.

[FDdragon]

So update:
They spawned their 3rd set of eggs and only about 20 hatched by day 10. Day 13 and no more hatched. I turned off the lights at the same time every day and took out the eggs on day 7 (which two babies hatched that night). I also covered the tank so no light gets in (tank is also covered on all 4 sides).

At about day 4 we saw about 15 babies swimming. Day 5 I saw about 8. Today (day 6) I only see two and they barely hanging in there.

I added rotifers daily and also changed a little bit of water since I'm assuming the babies poop a lot. I also added some bbs but I still see the swimming around so they didn't get eaten.
Water temp is stable at 80 and salinity is perfect. I have airstone in there and below the heater so the babies don't get stuck on the heater itself.

Don't know if it's because it's still a fairly new batch of eggs for the parents....or something else. I didn't see them eating much but did notice some twitching while they were swimming (I read this is them jolting towards their food).....my guess is they weren't eating much.

I have a 10g filled about halfway so maybe it's too much area for just a few babies to search for food?

Any thoughts and advise is appreciated.