Now the eggs are ready to hatch and be collected and the tank is ready to receive the larvae. It’s time to collect!
The method we use is “au natural.” Our clownfish lay their eggs on the side of a rock under their host toadstool in the 180g – which also houses 23 other fish and critters – so we can’t use a tile and have the eggs hatch in a broodstock tank. Most breeders will house the parents in a separate tank for breeding, and most hobbyists have the ability to place a tile in the parent tank as a nesting site. While those methods of collecting larvae are more convenient and easier, we don't have that as an option. (I also believe that waiting until they hatch on their own in a natural environment is healthier for the larvae.) So, the “au natural” method is what I’m going to discuss.
Here’s what we use:
- Wide-rimmed coffee cup
- Pocket light
- Paper towel
Since the eggs will usually hatch 45-90 minutes after lights go off, we turn off our pumps 30 minutes after the light go off. This is extremely important because the larvae will get sucked into the pump if they aren’t turned off.
After the pumps are turned off, turn off all lights in the surrounding area. (We light a couple of candles so that we can see what we’re doing.) Once it’s been 45 minutes that the tank lights have been off, shine the flashlight near the egg patch periodically until you see teeny tiny larvae swimming toward the top of the tank. You are now ready to collect.
Here are our Ocellaris parents on the day before hatching:
The eggs are on the rock just under the fish on the left. I couldn’t get a good photo of the eggs because they’re hidden and the parents are moving too quickly (we’ll try for better ones the next hatching).
Here’s what we use to collect them.
A coffee cup, small flashlight and a paper towel. This little light is really bright so I fold the paper towel over a few times and rubber-band it to the flashlight.
If the light is too bright the larvae freak out and beat themselves up on the sides of the cup.
When the eggs start hatching we place the cup in the tank like this.
Only a small part of the rim is under water and most of the top part is pointing up. Then we stick the flashlight really close into the dry part of the cup (not in the water) so that all the light shines into the cup and none down into the tank. This makes the inside of the cup glow and within a few minutes larvae are swimming right into the cup. When we get 40 or so larvae in the cup we take them down to the larvae tank and start over.
This method works best if you have 2 people working it. The first person collects 40 or so then gently lifts up the cup – keeping the flashlight shining into the tank. Then the second person handles the flashlight and starts collecting while the first person is gently emptying the larvae into the tank. And so on.
The collection will go on for 1-3 hours. So if you do plan on collecting “au natural” then plan to take a day off of work the next day! You’ll probably be collecting from about 1:00 am until 3:00 am.
Here's mom and pop right before the eggs hatch
This is how we collect them
And this is what they look like in better light
When you empty the larvae into the larvae tank, you must be extremely gentle with them If you simply dump them into their tank there’s a good chance you’ll lose them.
Now you have your larvae in their tank. The next step is raising them! Check out the “Raising Clownfish Larvae” thread.