Hi this is my first post on this site. I have just started to listen to the podcasts. Started at number 1. I find them great to listen to. Well My clowns have had babies. Not sure when they started to lay eggs. I have an open brain coral that the female was hosting. All the fish were picking at it. I thought they just didn't like it any more, but I think that's were she laid the eggs. I put a plastic bottle over the coral to save it from the fish and what did I see a few days later were little fish swimming underneath it. I can't get them out because once I lift the bottle the flow of the tank (Biocube 29) or the hungry fish will eat them. I did get on out of my filter . He was three times the size of the ones with coral. I put him in a fish bowl with a heater and an air stone. How long will they live without the rotifiers? I am trying to get some but the LFS store had just run out and it could take a few days. I put in some cyclopeeze to see if he would nible on it. I not sure if he will live but my sons (7 and 2) want me to try and raise it. I am new to this hobby started in June of 07. I love it . Thanks if any one has any suggestion.

Congrats on the babies! I wish my clowns would breed, I think its really cool. You might want to flash forward in the Talkingreef podcasts to the two episodes on Clown fishes and Breeding. You should get a lot of good info there.

I'll PM Rob. He's real clown fish savvy. I wish I were!

Dave

Wow! good luck Moab44! That's pretty cool....and it's a great way to get your kids interested in the hobby. My couple lay eggs constantly, but I've never been able to harvest the eggs out of there to try to raise the fry. From all that I've read from Rob's threads and listened to on his podcasts, they definitely need the rotifers to survive.

Have you checked out Reef Nutrition (http://www.reefnutrition.com/rotifeast/index.htm)?
I was at a meeting two weeks ago and they were one of the vendors there. I actually won some of their products that I'm going to try to take back to Sweden with me. The only thing with the rotifers is....I'm not sure if they're alive or not...and if they're dead, I'm not sure if the clown babies will still eat them.

hopefully Rob will join this thread soon!

Just noticed that they have LIVE rotifers as well!

Specialty Feeds (http://www.reefnutrition.com/speciality_feeds/index.htm)

PMed Rob...

DSP

hi, unfortunately you have almost no chance of saving the ones that are there, let them be a food source to the tank (its not as bad as it sounds). If you intend on raising them understand its a lot of work, and very rewarding. Check out the podcast episodes on Clownfish and breeding, they will explain a lot. There is no known (to me) reliable replacement to live enriched rotifers. There are some items that have been successfully used in addition to reduce the live rotifer load but they are still needed for various reasons.
please let me know if there are any other specific questions i can help with.

Thanks for all the info. I got my rotifiers today. I think I have 3 babies in the fish bowl. The bowl is holding mabye 1 1/2 gallons of water. I put in 7 tsp of the rotifiers. Is that enough or to much?
I know they probably won't live but I am still trying. I cleaned my tank today and tried to syphine out the other babies by the brain coral but I didn't get anything. Maybe they had died all ready. The other fish starting picking at the brain right away. I will have to put the plastic bottle back on him.

What kind of fish (other than the clowns) are in there? What is picking at the brain?

D

There is a coral beauty angel fish that is picking and the clowns too.

Hmmm never heard of clowns pickin on LPS. The angel fish are always touch and go, but the coral beauty is said to be trustworthy. Do you have any way of taking a picture of the coral? Does it have any sign of disease etc? They may be trustworthy fish, but any fish will take advantage of a sick or dying anything.

Dave

They could simply be eating the eggs or leftover membranes and such too. You may want to try to clean it best you can. If the clowns are hosting in that, you could put a piece of tile, or smooth live rock near it for them to lay on. They may not, especially at first, but others have been able to train them to do so. There are some tiles (Rob, chime in if you can) that clown fish breeders found that the fish take a shining to.

D

I'm pretty sure they are looking for eggs, or the left over membrane. We will see if the clowns lay more eggs on it as the week goes on.

you could try to gently turkey baster the coral in order to get all the remnant off.

We have sort of got off the topic, how much rotifiers should I add to a 1 1/2 gallons of water and how often?

:( Dunno... let me see if I can get Rob to chime in again. I used rotifers for my seahorses, and had a 5 gallon tank. I put in a LOT, like 1 cup in my tanks back then.

Dave

well assuming thats all thats in the bowl is the 3 clowns...
you want to add a lot.. its hard to give an amount in the way you are doing it.
the thing to remember is in the beginning baby clowns cant see, so they open there mouth and flick there tail darting forward. you need to keep the density high enough so that when they do that they almost always get something.
as they get better at hunting you can use less. this is also way its recommended to culture your rotifers. when i do them i culture my rotifers as shown in the video on rotifers, and i add all the rotifers from the gallon of rotifers.

show us some pictures moab!

I have tried to take pics but this fish are so small and move so fast they just look dots on the pictures.

Hi moab and :welcome: to TR.

I think that the babies are pretty exciting and wish you success!

update on the baby clowns. The last one died yesterday. I guess it is really hard to raise them. I will keep trying. Thanks for all the help.

Bummer.

Hopefully the clowns will give you another chance at trying to raise some more. I have heard many times that it takes some practice before you are sucessful.