Clown Fry

[ornel]

Background:
I have a customer with a pair of clowns that are spawning every three weeks or so. We have transfered all (most) of the fry into a 10gal (only 3 gallons full to start) grow out tank. The tank is supplied with nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Tetraselmis and rotifers to start. The fry appear to be eating because they get plump bellies after feeding. Unfortunately we were not having any luck keeping them more more that 48 hrs with this routine. After the 4 batch at 48 hrs, we begin to introduce a very small amount of artemia. We were able to keep them no longer than 62 hours. This last batch has about 35 fry left and is going on 60 hrs in the morning.
Water:
33% change a day. ph/amo/nitri/nitra/S.G. are all good

Any ideas as to what else I can do?

 

[bigfootsdamsels]

your water quality probably is going down hill i use a 40g breeder myself

 

[Anonymous]

I just use a 4 gallon plastic oil pan. Black with a light shining from above to make the Rotifers easy to see. The small container makes it easier to provide a high density of Rotifers. I keep the water clean by siphoning out detritus daily and replacing the discarded water with water from the parents tank.

If the larvae are dying at 48 hours then they are not eating. That's exactly how long they last without any food.

Rotifers concentrations need to be very high for the first few days. The larvae can take up to 24 hours to figure out how to hunt, some never figure it out. To learn how to hunt they need practice, lots of practice. They should always have a few rotifers withing one body length so they can see them and practice striking. If you see them curl their tail and then lunge forward then they're getting it down.

Artermia shouldn't be introduced for 5 or 6 days IMO. I see a lot of dead Ocellaris if I feed before that time. I think they choke on them. This varies per species so whatever Clown you have might be different.

 

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to add that I don't co-culture. Bigfoot might be right about needing a bigger tank if you're going to co-culture Rotifers and microalgae. That makes perfect sense to me.

 

[insearch]

Is it manditory for the survival to use live rotifers or has anyone done it with frozen?

 

[acroman]

the live rotifers move. the feeding response is triggered by movement...at least until metamorphosis.

also if you an decapsulate the artemia they have a better chance not to choke on the cysts

 

[Anonymous]

Get Joyce Wilkerson's book.

 

[rayman]

sciguy2,

i heard that its a great book, have it on order should be here soon