WS Maroon Clownfish Spawned!

Yesterday I noticed that my pair of maroon clownfish finally spawned!  I have had them since September 7th and they produced a clutch of eggs a short time ago.  The hard thing is that the eggs are in a slight crevis on the back of the tank.  It is actually difficult to see them, so I don't know if this is their first one or not, but still it is exciting to think that shortly I might be able to try to raise some fry!  The only reason I noticed the eggs was that the clowns were acting a little strange that day and I wanted to see what was going on, and to my surprise there they were.

On to a question about cultures.  What have people been using for fertilizer to produce 'green water'?  I figure that once I get that down, it is just a matter of placing that water into a rotifer, brineshrimp, and mysis cultures to provide an ample supply of food.  I have thought that I could use Miracle Grow or some others that disolve in water.  Any thoughts?

A hobbyist on the East coast, Joyce Wilkerson wrote one of the best books about breeding and rearing Anemonefish. I believe the club has a copy, if you want to check it out.

I wrote an article about my own experience raising Tomato Clowns. Let me know and I will email it to you. I used Mountain Corals' Velvet Green (see phytoplankton post) and rotifers and started my own cultures which were a lot of work. But it is satisfying to still be able to see one of my babies (now three years old) at Adam's house.

Mark [email protected]

Well, on Friday they hatched while I was out that evening, but I did get to see some of them in the tank.  However, none of the fry lasted for very long.  I guess its time to get some cultures going so I can try next time to raise some.

Thanks for the information on the fertilizer, and it appears to be the prefered way to go with algae cultures; however, I think I will give some other commerially available fertilizers to see what results I get.

If they are like mine, they will spawn like clockwork, unless their spawning site is disturbed. If you follow the points in Wilkensens book and my article, you should be able to prepare for the next hatching.

Have fun,

Mark   "Thinking outside the box"

I actually used a ladle to scoop them out, so the water in the tank was the same as in the hatching tank.  I think the problem was the tank I was using.  The tank as a plastic wash basin that I use perodically for coral cuttings and such, but it was un-heated (mainly because it was plastic).  So I think that the water reached a temp of about 65 degrees, and that is what probably did them in.  I placed in a piece of LR and turned an air pump for some circulation and oxygentation.

So as of right now I am assuming that I am not quite ready with all the equipment I need to raise the fry.  I really just need to get me a new heater for the main tank (one of the titanium ones with the digital read outs), then I can use that in the rearing tank.  Also I need to get a light source for them too, along with a timer.  Other than that I currently have a 5 & a 10 gallon tank that I can use as rearing and grow out tanks, two air pumps that I can use, so I think that I am only lacking a few things on the rearing tank. 

However, I don't have enough stuff for the aqua-cultures.  I have two florescent shop lights that I can use.  Then I still would need to get quite a list of things.  Here are the things that I have on my list of things still to get:

two air pumps (since my existing ones will be used in the rearing tanks), four three valve brass valves, ??? feet of flex air tubing, 10 1foot ridgige air tubing, 12 2 liter bottles, Mixing jug, Micro Algae Fertilizer (www.florida-aqua-farms.com),
Bottle of Green Velvet, Bottle of rotifers, Strainer/cup BB-PC 53nu (www.florida-aqua-farms.com), squirt bottle,Brineshrimp eggs (www.brineshrimpdirect.com)

Comment on the last post by whitereef:

Unless washed VERY well with soap and rinsed and wiped clean, the container used for cuttings has toxic coral chemical residue which may have killed the larvae before they froze! I've seen stray hermit crabs die within minutes because they were in a container with cut leather coral. Live and learn

An unregulated air pump will move the water too fast for the larvae. Of course in the ocean they are thrown all around, but most of them are also lost. You will want to turn down the amount of bubbles coming out of the air stone/block.

The best heaters (my opinion and Randy Olsen, who uses a lot of heaters) are Ebo-Jeager. The Titanium ones often stop working.

To strain rotifers simply requires good disposable coffee filters!

Light over the baby's tank is only for seeing them so anything, not too bright, works.

Fish-4-U has used Velvet green since Tim Weidauer developed the company six years ago. They say something has changed lately. It's not the same as it used to be. It's as though it is being pateurized, because the cell walls are blown. It's harder than ever to keep cultures going. You might talk to Kris Fidone about this before you begin a culture.

Personally, I didn't bother with brine shrimp naplii because ground up brine shrimp worked (rubbed between your fingers).

My Opinion, Mark

Kris Fidone is at Fish-4-U (originally fish-r-us until toys-r-us made a stink about the name!) Telephone # is on the LFS page here on the WMAS website. Kris recently purchased the store.

Frozen brine shrimp rubbed between fingers (thawed first!)