They did it!!

[reeferdude]

They finally did it! my calrkii clowns finally spawned for the first time. I noticed teh eggs this morning and fortunately they put the eggs right in the front!! I will attempt to attach a couple of pics.....

[stipe]

Thats great. How old are they? Also how long have you had them? I think you should move the eggs out, mabey your other fish will eat the fry.

[reeferdude]

I have had them for almost a year. To be honest I wasn't really expecting them to spawn so I am not set up to attempt to raise the fry. At least on this go round. This time the fish and corals will get a nice treat. I know that sounds horrible but what do you do?

That is unless there is someone in Houston that raises them and would be willing to come get them.....hint hint!!

[blue hippo]

where in houston and what all do you need to do to raise fry

[Jamokie01]

experience, patience and the ability to cope with loss :)

[blue hippo]

i am wondering because i want to make my tank raised percs. and reeferdude doesnt want to raise the fry i was thinkign i could try and maybe learn a little in the process. and i am in houston. so what all will need.

[reeferdude]

Don't get me wrong I would love to be able to raise the fry just don't have the set up, time or money(I just had to buy a new vehicle). You need a constant supplier of live rotifers for the first 12 days then live newly hatched brine after they go through metamorphisis. In order to raise rotifers you need constant supply of "green water" for them. The fry need EXCELLENT water conditions in a tank with little movement becuase you don't want them to get sucked up in powerheads or over flows. The set ups I have read about show air stones under the heater and little to nothing else. The first few days they need a blacked out tank since they gravitate towards the light (you even have to put tape over the heater light). Before you delve into this I would highly recommend reading "Clownfishes" By Joyce Wilkerson. This is my clarkiis first spawn and they have so far gone pretty much by the book so I expect to start seeing eggs every couple/few weeks going forward. I am a tad concerned about this batch, they seem to be disappearing slowly and there were not as many eggs as anticipated but I chalk this up to the fact it is the 1st spawn. Send me a PM and we can discuss the possibility of working together to raise some of these and I will let you know where in Houston I am.

[blue hippo]

i would love to help i sent you a pm so you can email me there and let me know if you want to try. maybe we can both learn from this

[Jamokie01]

Actually they will usually start eating artemia after the third or fourth day.

[reeferdude]

Have you successfully raised clowns from eggs, JAMOKIE01?

[Jamokie01]

No I actually just got my first pair of true percs, a friend of mine in Cleveland has raised a few batches though. He uses rotifers the first 3 days, then tries to start them on artemia, and I think after a week and a half he starts feeding pulverized flake as well as the artemia.

Im waiting patiently for my clowns to spawn, playing Barry White music near my aquarium all night long, still no luck. I have a 10 gal waiting for some fry. Im also trying to find a substitute for rotifers, as I dont like culturing them. Artemia are really easy and you get a batch every day, but rotifers are a pain. There are alot of foods small enough for the fry to eat, you can even get frozen rotifers from hikari, but I doubt anything prepared is going to remain in the water column. Also, I would imagine that the movements a rotifer makes is what stimulates the fry to feed.