A few Maroon Clown Fry surviving... no rotifers

[Squee]

On Thursday night, I checked on the clown eggs by shining a flashlight into the reef tank. The eggs were gone but I did see free swimming fry. I immediately turned off the pumps, filter, and skimmer, and left the room lights and tank lights out. I rested the flashlight on the top glass aimed downward into the tank. The fry eventually swam to the light as did some tiny tank bugs. I scooped out all I could find which was about 25 fry and put them in one of those hang on the inside hard plastic containers. (The kind the pet stores use to bag the fish)


I do 50% daily water changes to the fry container replacing with water from the reef tank. Then I add newly hatched brine shrimp. I have about 10 fry who are now 4 ½ days old with fat bellies. No extra tanks, no rotifers, no blocking the light source... and they seem to be doing well for now. I'm stoked!


The proud parents, (Hillary and Little Bill) have been a mated pair for about 8 years.

[Krabby]

That's pretty neat, congrats

[PortWash]

Congrats. Any pics?

[Squee]

Thanks, I do have pics on the camera... Just gotta figure out how to get them on the computer. I'll have help with that this weekend.

5 1/2 days old... 8 fry remain, 6 of which look really fat and healthy. The biggest are getting a little darker. I'll keep this updated.

[PortWash]

Please do I enjoy seeing/reading about people raising fry I look at it in the same regard to propagating corals. The more we can eliminate wild specimens the better. Keep up the good work.

[Squee]

7 1/2 days old... 7 fry remain. They easily catch the brine now and their body shape is getting more clown shaped. From what I've read, if they make it to 10 days, they should be pretty hardy. More eggs laid yesterday.

A few thoughts for anyone considering trying to raise a few of these clowns... So far the only extra equipment to raise these larvae to metamorphosis have been 2 hang on containers (one for clown larvae and one for hatching shrimp), Brine shrimp eggs, and an air pump with airline tubing to keep the shrimp eggs suspended. (All stuff that I already had anyway.)

Perhaps these fry made it this far because the parents were very mature and the eggs were bigger? I don't know. Despite everything I read on raising clowns, I thought I might as well catch some and give it a try even though I wasn't really prepared ahead of time, and it worked out. I guess what I'm saying is, don't hesitate to try something different.

The first thing I found is, under the right conditions some newborns can survive on newly hatched brine shrimp. That makes it a whole lot easier as culturing the rotifers and green water is alot of work.

Also, I read several places that the clown larvae must be sheltered from light the first few days. Not necessarily true. I'm running white and blue compact flo's and the larvae were suspended near those but not directly under them. Most of my deaths were at night probably due to a lack of light and being unable to hunt.

I know in about a month I will need to transfer these guys to something bigger. I'm thinking about going with a plastic framed net enclosure and continuing to keep them hanging in the reef tank for awhile. (Not sure if the large fish will pick at such an enclosure) My intent is to see if this can be accomplished without all the extra tanks and equipment.

Hope to have pics soon.

[Squee]

Last night the 7 remaining fry turned 10 days old. Unfortunately my baby brine shrimp culture crashed yesterday and only 2 of those 7 fry survived the night. (My mistake for trying to culture too many brine shrimp at a time)
Even with the setback, I consider this attempt to be relatively sucessful. On my first attempt at raising clown fry last month, I started them on liquid plankton and none survived to be a day old.

The remaining 2 fry from this (my second) attempt are now 11 days old.

[PortWash]

Well hopefully we can see those 2 make it to 30 days. Any pictures?

[SouthBayPhoto]

Ya, it'll be cool to get some pics of them and see them "grow up". We'll all feel like Aunts and Uncles. ;)