New clownfish larvae (Hatch#8)

[Rob A]

These guys hatched last night. Approx 2/3 of the nest which had about 460 eggs. The thing in the middle is my nest aerator with the tile on top of it. I have it turned off so as not to disturb the water while making the video. There are still eggs on it so I turned it back on after taking the video, hopefully the rest of the eggs will hatch tonight.

 

Edited April 26, 2015 by Rob A

[NamReefs]

nice what are their parents ?

[Rob A]

They are percula x percula. I don't have any of the fancy clowns.

[BigJohnson]

Did the rest of the eggs hatch?

Keep us posted on the growth.

The video was great.

[Rob A]

I pulled the nest after the 2nd night. I looks like only 20 didn't hatch.

12 hours post hatch I pulled out 20 dead larvae, and 6 hours later there were 88 more dead ones. Since then, when cleaning the bottom, I have only found a few each time...so it seems like there still ought to be a couple hundred larvae but it sure doesn't seem like that many...

I don't know for sure why they died. It's my understanding that the most losses occur in the first 24 hours and then again at metamorphosis. I did find one with the egg case still stuck on its head In the first batch of 20 deaths, but I'm pretty sure there was just one like that. I have a picture of that one that I will post later.

[Scubaguy]

That is too cool!!!!

[gioNVA]

Hey Rob, any updates?

[Rob A]

I have not done well. I'm down to 3 on day 9. I think I had too many rotifers in too little water. Also had a couple accidents with the heater-turned it off during a water change and forgot to turn it on so temp went down to 70. Apparently I did this twice. I gave no idea why I would have done that a second time after the first mistake. I don't know if it mattered for sure.

Next batch will go in 6 gallons with less rotifers to start and less light in the beginning. Next batch of eggs should have been laid already but they aren't there yet.

[gioNVA]

ouch...yeah they don't like big changes.  I now understand how they can get light shock.  My fish finally laid eggs on tile and they all hatched.  When I turned the lights on, I forgot to put the 3 sheets of paper that I normally put to block off light.  Most of the fish dropped dead instantly and I was left with about 30 that were shocked.  

[Rob A]

I was going to ask you about how you set up your light. I had a 15 watt light aimed at the tank initially and lost 100+ the first night. Then I aimed it at the ceiling to see if the reflected light would be suitable (still not sure). But I definitely had too dense of a rotifer population.

Lots of my babies were pressing their noses against the sides too. I had the rank wrapped with black felt (my wife made it for me). I don't know why they werd doing that.

[DaveS]

5-6 gallons sounds about right.  Less than that and ammonia, salinity swings and other things can be a problem.  I'm curious why you think the rotifers were too dense.  I normally have a very dense rotifer population in the fry tank.  I've been told they should be able to get a rot within 1/2-1/3 a body length away.  That means 2-3 rots per length of larvae!

 

I also put some RGcopmplete in the fry tank to give it a green tint so the rots in the tank can keep eating and have phyto in their gut.

[Rob A]

I'm curious why you think the rotifers were too dense.  

 

By day 6 my ammonia was high, despite daily water changes of close to 30% (new water dripped in). I've read somewhere that too many can pollute the water so i assumed that was it. I would scoop up some water in a small glass vial and they seemed pretty dense. I'm trying to be mindful of the 1/2 to 1/3 body length thing though. I was tinting the water twice a day with about 1 ml of RG each time and I thought maybe the rots were just multiplying like crazy since my dwindling fry population wasn't could only consume so many.

[DaveS]

Maybe try the same density at the beginning and then letting it naturally thin out.  What I mean is, feed some phyto in the main tank but don't add any more rots for a few days.  The rots should continue to reproduce while your fry are learning to eat them.  Once they really start to figure things out, the rot population should drop much faster than they can reproduce.  Then you can start adding more from your rot bucket.

 

For the Chromis, since they hatch over the course of 2-3 nights, I've found that many of the fry in the tank aren't eating rots right away.  So if you keep adding rots like crazy, you will be putting in more than they can eat.  Whether that causes a pollution or rot starvation problem I haven't fully thought about.  Either way, it's not good.

[Rob A]

Will do! Thanks!

[Rob A]

Out of the 3 survivors 2 made it through meta a couple days ago. Next batch of eggs was laid 3 or 4 days ago but they did it on a giant rock instead of the tile.

[mling]

My 2 pairs of clowns, in 2 different tanks, lay eggs all the time. I only have live rock and they seems to always laid eggs on the very same spot. 

 

Any idea how you would entice them to lay it on a tile ?  Color of tile ? Position ?

[Rob A]

Mine laid eggs in the same place a few times so I put the tile on that spot. Then the next couple of times they did it somewhere else but then started using the tile. Their anemone was usually right there so maybe that enticed them.

When I took away hatch #8 they seemed annoyed (I replace the tile right away with a spare each time) and now hatch #9 has been laid in a new spot...Maybe I should make the switch late at night in the dark?

 

I cut a round piece of tile with the glass cutting hole saw because I felt like a round piece would fit in that spot better than trying to lay a big square piece there.