Clownfish Breeding for Senior Research Project

[Celebrian]

I'll be entering my school's oceanography lab this fall and will be needing a research project. I'm planning on focusing my project on clownfish breeding. However, I have never bred marine fish before. I currently have a mated pair of DaVinci clownfish that have been laying eggs repeatedly for almost as long as I've had them. I also have a breeding tank that attaches to the back of the nano tank with the adult DaVinci clowns. My main concern is getting a steady supply of rotifers started to feed the fry once they hatch. I've heard that this and other aspects of breeding can be challenging, so any advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

[Bruleyii]

I dont know if you have searched around here yet or not but there are some good threads with people successfully bread clownfish. They have lots of good info in them.

[Oxy]

Look for threads on cultivating phytoplankton, rotifers, etc. There is also a lot of good info online.

Keep us posted as you prepare for and execute your study. There are many on here that would like to follow along.

[NamReefs]

yeah you need rotifer for the first 10 days . after that you need to have baby fry food . better to go with dry food to save you a lot time and trouble for hatching brine shrimp. i just quick breeding from clown fish it took me way too much time in to it . i got almost 2k babe at one point but now still only have around 500 in grow out tank . good luck 

[Jon Lazar]

Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson is a pretty good reference for breeding clownfish.

 

IME, rotifers are the tricky part to culture consistently.  It's not exactly hard, but they're more susceptible to all dying just when you need them most.

 

Phytoplankton is pretty easy to culture, and commercial phyto is available as a backup.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Jon Lazar

[Celebrian]

Thank you all for your help.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Celebrian