I caught another spawn of clownfish on the 29th of Sept. I keep forgetting how small the larvae are when they are born (man are they tiny, like 3mm). I did things a bit differently this time. I only fed reefroids on day 1 and 2 then skipped straight to BBS because I just didn't have the time to do multiple water changes throughout the day and dry foods go bad quickly. The last batch died I think because I used poor collection methods (don't ever get impatient and use a net for clownfish fry--even if they never leave the water the net traumatizes them and they die) coupled with weaker fry as the parents were not getting enough nutrition. I found that tidbit out after they ate the next batch of eggs. So I fed them really well, fed them often 2 or 3 times a day in the hopes the next batch (this one) would be stronger. I took the coral and rock they had laid eggs on and hatched them out with a bubbler on the 9th day after they had laid the eggs--about half did not hatch and died that night because I couldn't position the bubbles very well without harming the frogspawn coral that was attached to the rock. If I were going to make a 'real' go of breeding clowns I would have them in their own tank with a clay flower pot or tiles to lay on instead of on my rocks with coral.
For those of you catching up, clowns are supposed to be raised on rotifers, then step up to BBS and so on--but I don't have rotifers. After reading about all the culturing and expense to culture my own I am not terribly interested in raising rotifers either. Not too many babies will live percentage wise by my doing it this way, but I think I am getting some of the stronger/bigger individuals who are able to ingest the BBS a bit earlier than their siblings. Whoever makes it past day 3 has a chance of living as 24-48 hours after hatching, the yolk sack has depleted. On this hatch there must have been at least 200 babies. There was a lot of die of from day 1-3, then it started to peter out and less and less died (but still there was die off). By day 9 I had 12 survivors (out of 200, yikes!). On day 10 three had morphed (got their first stripe, have the clownfish body shape and the 'wiggle'). Morph is a delicate time for clowns as they basically turn from larva into fish--which is hard on them. It is to be expected that some may die at morphing time. Other than feed them I don't bug them around day 10--I do an extra 50 to 95% WC (depending on how gross the water is) the day before using water from the reef (as a side note all their WC's are with reef water, never with new saltwater). Today 10 are post-morph and a few have started on their second stripe. The two that remain unmorphed may or may not live, we shall see.
I just figured I'd write this quick note in the breeding section for those of you who have clowns, would like to try raising a few but have not tried to raise the young because you don't have all the equipment. It is possible as long as you are satisfied with having a crummy percentage rate of live babies vs. how many hatched.
Next time I do it (if I do) I think I might skip the reefroids altogether and go straight to BBS because of the water quality issues associated with the 'roids. Not too many will live but if some live I am ok with that. The older batch continues to grow and they are eating a main diet of NLS pellets as well as NLS, tropical fish flakes and occasional frozen BBS as a treat. A few individuals may end up being black later as they have quite a bit on their tails. Most of them have entirely black pelvic fins, which is interesting because clowns generally have a black rim on their pelvic fins, the rest being orange. It's a cute coloration. I'll be really happy if some of them turn black or even partially black at some point down the road because so many people seem to like black clowns.
First batch of clowns--this thread has pictures
