Clownfish Fry Raising Journal Update 05/24/12

This is all pretty sweet and it looks like you are also storing the HULK under you tank cause those jugs are so green.

 

Very sad to report... no fry are left as of today.

In Joyce Wilkerson's book, she describes the first few days of the fry's life as being the "critical period." She describes the introduction of brine shrimp as possibly being the "catastrophic period." It was exactly that for me and my last batch of fry. The problem is, brine shrimp are roughly 3x as large as rotifers and don't just give up when swallowed by a clownfish. They can kill the fry in several ways including choking (too large), damaging internal structures (as they struggle within the body of the clownfish), overeating (fry can't seem to judge when to stop and can literally eat themselves to death), and somehow can contribute to death from shock. On Sunday, I had 3 apparently healthy clownfish fry. I added a few baby brine shrimp to the fry tank in the morning and by that evening I was down to one fry. Upon closer examination, the 2 fry that died on Sunday had the internal red spot that, as Joyce says, is indicative of internal damage caused by the baby brine shrimp. This morning, the last fry was acting wierd and I knew that this batch was going to end in failure - last fry died early today. I can only assume it has to do with the baby brine shrimp. I'll test the water when I get home to confirm that water quality wasn't an issue. Very, very sad with the outcome.

On the brighter side, our efforts have resulted in new bests... previously our best, was 1 fry to three days. This time around, we managed 5 to day 5, 4 to day 6, 3 to day 7, and 1 to day 8.

My mistakes this go around:
1. FOOD! Had a shortage of rotifers from the very beginning and wasn't able to add a sufficient amount between days 2-6, on day 7 I found that the outside rotifer culture was thriving, but the damage had already been done. Malnourished fry don't have much of a chance.

Solution: maintain (2x) 5 gallon rotifer cultures with religous water changes and harvesting even in times of no need (in between fry raising attempts). In emergencies, call on the outside rotifer culture sooner. Bite the bullet and buy OTOHIME! =)

2. TEMPERATURE! The first 5 days or so, the fry tank was at 76 degrees because I failed to put a thermometer in with the fry tank. Once I put the thermometer in the tank and saw that it was only 76 degrees, I quickly adjusted the heater to maintain 80 degrees. I believe the low temp and lack of food contibuted to the fry not being ready for baby brine shrimp even by day 7... I think they were progressing at about a 50% speed which means that they MIGHT have been ready for baby brine shrimp by day 10 and MAYBE hit meta by day 14 (in Joyce's book, she estimates that by each degree under 80 degrees that the fry are subjected to can delay meta by 1.5 days!).

Solution: Don't put off putting a thermometer in the fry tank and maintain a temp of 80-82 degrees at all times.


WOW, this is certainly not an easy thing to do! Anyone who has successfully raised a clownfish from an egg has definitely accomplished something to be very proud of.

Round 5 or 6 begins Thursday! :-/

 

Thanks for following! Constantly learning. =)

I would highly recommend checking out Pickle's thread as well: Pickle's N-R Breeders Lounge - Nano-Reef.com Forums

His thread actually has happy endings. Jump to the last two pages to see some of the beautiful fish he is currently raising. :thumb_up:

 

Pickle, just checked out the last few pages of your thread. Beautiful fish in post 2166 and the videos! You are the man.

What is your current ratio of broodstock water and aged new saltwater in your fry tanks during setup? What ratio are you using for water changes?

 

Every time you do this you learn what works and what doesn't work.It's called progress.You will get there.Some people just get lucky their first few go arounds-myself included.It is when you can repeat your success you know you are doing the right things.Keep at it, you're doing great.
Daniel

 

Thank you so much for the compliments...

Are you ready for this?

I'm doing 10 - 20% brood stock water and the rest is aged salt water - and by aged I mean it's been mixing with a power head for a couple of days. For my water changes I'm dripping in 100% new salt water. I only pull brood stock water on hatch night.

I'm hatching in a total of 6 gallons of water. So of the 6 a little over a 1.5 gallons is brood stock water.

My last 2 hatches have been 0 losses through day 15 (at least that's how far along they are right now)

The other thing that's helped me out with the larger hatches is air flow. I leave it up higher and hang a small airs stone in the tank so it is not hitting the sides or bottom - but down in one corner. I do not want the fry competing for oxygen with one another or the rotifers in large hatches. The fry have no problem hunting in the flow. I shine the light more towards the side away from the flow - win win - they get plenty of air and calmer water in the area that they hunt.

 

Thanks Daniel.

 

I'm gonna try your aged salt water method. What salinity do you like?

I'll be mindful of airflow as well. I think it was pretty good this go around, but if the hatch is larger, I'll make adjustments.

 

Zero losses would be amazing! Very impressive.

 

Otohime starter kit is on it's way!

Tested the fry water and there was no indication of an ammonia spike which further suggests that temperature and food (not enough rotifers and brine shrimp too soon) were the culprits.