Picasso clown breeding journey

[Law88]

Dear reefers, I starting a tread to share my process and journey of breeding clown fish. Do send me your comments and feedback as I'm new to this journey as well  

To start of with, let me share my humble DIY setup:

It consist of a 15L tank which I've used a card board to wrap around the sides to ensure no direct lighting will penetrate into the tank which will case the fries to "headstand" and die trying to swim thru the glass. 

Inside the tank is pretty simple, it is just a airline tubing powered by a air pump. An air stone will be attached after the fires are bigger. 

Beside the tank, that's my rotifier culture which is a very important food source for the fries especially in the first 5 days after hatch. I've T-off an air line to supply air into the rotifier culture, just light bubbling will do. 

I've a table lamp light ready and will start to turn it on after 48 hours of the hatch. Defused thru a piece of cloth. 

And that's it! It's pretty simple setup and ready to go  

In the next section, I will share on progress so far of the egg thru hatch 

[Law88]

Here are some picture of the progress of eggs hatching journey. 

In sequence, the first picture is the pot that clowns had laid their eggs in. To attract them into the pot was a easy task for me (perhaps I'm lucky ). First I observe where the clown pair usually gather,  which in my case around the hammer. Then I simple placed the pot next to the hammer and within few days, they had swam into it and start spwaning inside. 

The subsequent next few pictures are taken on 4th, 6th and 8th days where you can clearly see the silvery eyes on most of the eggs. That's the sign of they will hatch that night when lights goes off. For my case, it has been consistent on the 8th days to hatch. 

Next section will share a little of what I'm preparing before the hatch night. 

 

[Solo77]

Well done and thanks for sharing. Need more sharing spirits. All the best. 

[08zawmoe]

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[Clamence]

Congrats, keep us updated

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[Clown Fish]

Good job. Must learn here

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[Harlequinmania]

Well done ! Did you get ready your live rotifer as their fish food already?

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[Law88]

Thanks all for your comments and encouragements. Let me continue to share my pre work to laying/hatching of the eggs.

I've started cultivating the rotifers 3 weeks before the eggs were laid. This is to build up the volume of the rotifers to last thru at least 5 days after hatch where I will start mixing live baby brine shrimp then. To further increase the volume and to avoid using a big container, I've also cultivated the rotifers in the fry tank right after the eggs where laid. So when the small little guys hatched, right away they had food. I've did water change twice a day to ensure the fray tank parameters are in check as close as my DT.

I use the below test kit bottle to check for the density of rotifers by shining light thru the 2-5ml of "green water". You will be able to see small little white dots bouncing around which are rotifers. That's all I've done on the prep work before the hatch.

On day 8 before lights goes off, I used the below scoop to move the pot from DT to fry tank. Take special care not to expose the eggs to air. So I submerged the whole thing inside the DT and place the pot in the scoop with water covering the whole pot. The fry tank is now filled with about 10L of water which I've kept it low to ensure the fries don't have to swim too far to get their food. Once the pot is in the tank, I've placed the airline tubing (without air stone) inside the pot with just couple of bubbles a sec onto the eggs. This is to ensure the eggs has some movement and also getting oxygen.

It was certainly an exciting moment the next day morning to check on the fry tank. Walah, the tank was filled with baby fries. Below is a quick video of the fries on day one.

https://vimeo.com/176538177

That's all for now. I will continue to update as I move along

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[Law88]

Attached was day 3 of the fries. They have done well and have grown a little bigger. Thanks to the abundance of rotifers. I think the cultures within the tank had help to keep the numbers up given I've a smaller volume offline. Remember to feed the rotifers with microalgae food (the green stuff) every day to keep them going and multiple and do wc as well.

https://vimeo.com/176684991

Do note rotifers has very high metabolism and produce a lot of waste, of which a major fraction is ammonia that can quickly reach toxic levels. Hence frequent water changes is key to keep the water parameters in check.

Day 3 is when I've done the first water change of about 20%. Using a airline tubing to siphon the debris in the tank floor especially.

As the fries are still very small, high tendency there will be some got siphon out. Hence use a clean container where you can later rescue these babies being siphoned out using a small little scoop. Avoid using net as they are still very delicate. I've rescued 4 fries during last wc.

That's it for day 3 updates. Below is just the setup for day 3 which I have removed the top cover and replace with tinted glass with a lamp to slowly expose them to lightings as they grow.

Next update will be on setup and prep to move the fries into live baby brine shrimp. Stay tuned.

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[josephwzr]

Any plans to sell them in the future?

[maldini]

did the breeding take place in a DT where there is other fishes? 

[Law88]

It's still sometime to maturity the breeding must take place outside of DT. Else it will becomes food for the rest of fishes

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[alexcyf]

It can do that in e DT. But expect many fries to be eaten or lost before u can harvest them. I kept my breeding pair in my isolated refugium too

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[alexcyf]

Law, do u use rotifer sieve to harvest rotifer?

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[Law88]

Yup. DIY. Will show in next update

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[Law88]

Today I'm gonna share their day 5 progress. Did 20% water change as well to ensure water is in pristine condition. Had some casualties which I believe I might have not enough rotifer volume . From the video, clearly they had grow bigger.

https://vimeo.com/176821987

This is a time ready for live baby brine shrimps along with rotifers. Below is the setup which is pretty simple consist of the hatchery and eggs. I bought the hatchery from FnM and eggs from a fellow reefer. Keep the eggs refrigerated.

Fill the hatchery with salt water then add 1 to 2 scoop of eggs, close the cover and that's it. All you do next is to wait. Within 24 hours the bb will be hatched and you just feed them to the tank.

Earlier someone asked about the tool I use to scoop rotifer. Here is what I've done. Take a normal tupperware and cut the base open. Then get a 50 micron mesh and use the tupperware cover to clamp it on. With that, you are ready to scoop these fellows Hope this helps.

Next update will be on fries going thru metamorphosis. Stay tuned.

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[alexcyf]

It's me who asked la, lol. Where did u get e 50 micron mesh?

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[Law88]

Haha Alex oh Leon pass it to me

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[alexcyf]

Haha that's e hardest thing to find. Lol. Waiting for my order to reach from states man

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[Law88]

Good luck

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[Law88]

This is a quick video of the baby brine shrimp hatched. This hatchery works great with no hustle. Simply just lift up the white netting and dip into the tank.

https://vimeo.com/176912666

Here you see the fries enjoying their new food The small little black dots are the bb.

https://vimeo.com/176912782

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[alexcyf]

Nice! How's ur survival rate?

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[Law88]

Bad haha. I believe due to lightings as well as lack of rotifers in the 3-4 day

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[Law88]

I've loaded up another big tub of rotifer culture, ready for next round

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[robinlin]

Nice Bro.

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