Well our clown babies are here!!

They hatched last night!! Looked like we had 200+ eggs, but once they hatched I couldn't really say how many?? My hubby tried the larvae snagger and it did get alot, but when we checked on them there was still alot that swam right past the siphon, so we think the next batch he will need to improve on the design. We did the rest with a clear bowl and flashlight, but we couldn't tell if we were to rough on them or not?? Time will tell I guess.

This morning to my surprise we still have tons in there !! I cleaned out the bottom looking for dead babies and once I counted them I was shocked.....30 dead babies ! It only seems like a couple when first looking at them.

So, I peeped at them trying to get a look at how many, silver bellies etc....and there must be 150+ swimming around. Some look to have the silver bellies, but some I just can't tell. Some seem huge compared to others....I call them little fatties lol.

I will keep you all posted....special thanks to Barbara and Glen (I have read, read and read your posts ).

aw thanks!

Great job on collecting them! Can you put up a pic of your larval snagger? I've seen a few designs that lots of breeders use. I might be able to help you tweak it. I haven't used one myself yet. I've used my brine shrimp net lol.

My hubby is going to clean up the snagger from last night and we will take some pics. Feedback would be great. A tad bit of light shined in the corner of the tank, so that is one of the areas that need improvement.

How do you use your net?

I keep it near the eggs the night of the hatch. I have a blue LED that I shine downward and when they finally release they usually swim straight up and I catch them that way.

This is hubby's snagger

Found 17 more dead....my airstone shifted and smashed them

very nice DIY design.

Here's a breeder that makes and sells larval catchers. only $30. I've never used it, but everyone just raves about it.
chad vossen

and another DIY design that's similar to yours. Might save you some room.
Budget Larval Snagger (diy in progress) | copepodgeek.com

Here's a DIY in use

Glen. This looks badass.

Thanks for the links

Well after I replaced the airstone, no more losses, but the grand total dead so far 119, because I was stupid

There are still about 100 and are eating and looking good nice round silver bellies. It's only day three but how exciting to make it this far!

Congrats and good luck. I cant wait untill mine area able to lay.

WOO HOO!!! congrats on the first collected batch!
how often are you feeding rotifers and how much?
are you adding any phyto?
are you cleaning twice daily?
are you slowly adding back "clean" saltwater yet via drips?
are you testing for ammonia and salinity daily?

I am soooooooooooo excited for you!!!

Ok I have a question. I use to breed fresh water fish alot. I used a special brooder to keep the fry in. It was made out of fine netting. It stayed in the tank were they were born. I was very successful with this. Could this work as well for clown fish fry? That way the salinity is the same as were they were born. You can feed them and they would have fresh water constantly.

prolly the only problem is the fry need to eat 24/7, and keeping the rotifers at the right concentration so they eat enough to grow would pollute your tank - which is why people use the separate tanks...

Originally Posted by Barbara

WOO HOO!!! congrats on the first collected batch!
how often are you feeding rotifers and how much?
are you adding any phyto?
are you cleaning twice daily?
are you slowly adding back "clean" saltwater yet via drips?
are you testing for ammonia and salinity daily?

I am soooooooooooo excited for you!!!

Thanks it's very exciting!! I feed 300ml of rotifers 6:30am, 12:30pm and again about 6-7pm. I'm adding rotifer diet until I'm sure my home grown phyto will do the trick (don't want to take a chance just yet). I clean at the morning and noon feedings and add back water from the DT. But I haven't been dripping it just adding it slowly, temps and salinity are the same though? I check salinity 2x's a day and have a ammonia alert badge.

Does everyone else notice that they seem to grow very, very fast? I didn't expect that...but it's exciting to see them doing well.

Originally Posted by icsd71

Ok I have a question. I use to breed fresh water fish alot. I used a special brooder to keep the fry in. It was made out of fine netting. It stayed in the tank were they were born. I was very successful with this. Could this work as well for clown fish fry? That way the salinity is the same as were they were born. You can feed them and they would have fresh water constantly.

I don't think it would work because you need the rotifers in with the babies and the phyto for the rotifers to eat. The rotifers could most likely go right thru the net too. And the babies can't have the bright light from the display tank at first anyway. But it sure would be easier

I'm sure the netting wouldn't work. The rotifers would go right through it.

Every heard of a kreisel? I'm going to use mine on the next batch of clown I get. Here's a link to the one I built. I found some awesome designs today for another one. I may make a different one.

DIY Kreisel

it took a minute but here it is!!!

Planktonkreisel design

Here's another one I found too that I like







now these would make keeping your babies even easier!!!

Oh wait till I show hubby!! He loves this kind of thing...I'm a little slower to catch on to the techy stuff....lol.

Well so far so good.... day four with the babies. They are eating well and the water seems to be in check. I'm only scared about the food part? They seem to eat so much I hope I don't run out so hard to tell. I ordered the golden pearls.....hoping them come in today. I did make one mistake I fed PRIOR to the cleaning and today should be water change day, so I'm guessing mid day will be ok to change some of the water.

I feel like I'm on eggshells.....looking forward to meta .

you're going to be fine. I skipped the pearls. I started to feed enriched brine shrimp and not oto A. Here's a link to them Otohime Marine Diet | Reed Mariculture It's a new product that's hopefully going to make the raising of fry even easier. So far so good!

Congrats on the fry 2reefnutz!

Ok I have a question. I use to breed fresh water fish alot. I used a special brooder to keep the fry in. It was made out of fine netting. It stayed in the tank were they were born. I was very successful with this. Could this work as well for clown fish fry? That way the salinity is the same as were they were born. You can feed them and they would have fresh water constantly.

I agree with Joanne, the net wont hold the food the fry need from going into the rest of the tank plus, in a reef tank the lights will be way too bright for the fry so they will probably spend most of their time trying to get away from the light.

Originally Posted by rgrking

you're going to be fine. I skipped the pearls. I started to feed enriched brine shrimp and not oto A. Here's a link to them Otohime Marine Diet | Reed Mariculture It's a new product that's hopefully going to make the raising of fry even easier. So far so good!

When did you start the bbs?