Breeding problems...please help

[sarno]

Hello all,

I was recently lucky enough to notice that my clownfish have decided to start breeding. Wasn't trying for this but am happy that they are having fun in my tank. Since I didn't anything about it I started to research what to do next.

I read at least 2 or 3 times Joan Wilkerson's (I think thats right) book on Clownfish breeding and read just about every forum, internet site or general info on the subject I could find.

So anyway for the past few months I have been trying without any success to keep the babies alive for more than a couple days.

I am currently culturing my own phyto and rotifers. I have been able to get the Clowns to lay the eggs on a tile in my display tank. I then transfer the tile right before hatching over to a 10 gallon tank that is only half full with water from my display, it is temperature regulated at 79 degrees and is getting slight aeration. I have been able to successful hatch all of the eggs from the tile. I have been frequently cleaning the tank and doing mild water changes when possible. The tank also has a light over it.

I have been adding rotifers, using the method Rob described in his video podcast once a day. So having said all that I can't get the little guys to live, they just don't seem to want to eat. My most recent batch hatched late Sunday night and had hundreds swimming around on Monday, as of this morning I only have about 50 or so left, if that.

I'm at a loss for what to do. I have tried live rotifers from my LFS and now am trying to use my own cultured ones. I'm concerned that maybe I am not producing enough of them or producing them at all. But in my container I add Roti-Rich food or phyto to cloud the water and within a day the water is clear. So I'm thinking they are being cultured properly. When I extracted them from the container to feed the larvae I didn't see anything moving, are they visible to the naked eye?

So now I'm feeling stuck. I've made a significant time/money investment into making this work. I'd really like to be able to raise them, I can imagine it will be quite rewarding if I can get them to survive into becoming juveniles.

Sorry for the long post, just don't know what else to do, thanks in advance for any help!

Jamie

[Rob]

to me it sounds like you are very close. my first recommendation is to increase feeding. once per day is not enough. go at least 3 times.
I would feed them before i left for work, as soon as i came on, then again later at night. they need to eat a lot. you need to keep that tank packed with food.

[sarno]

Thanks for the advice! My biggest concern is that I don't feel like my rotifer production is going that well. There is this "stuff" on the sides of the container but I think that's just algae. But it is getting clear, so they are eating the phyto. I only have one container going right now, so I think I need to start producing more containers of it like u were showing in the video podcast.

I'll work on upping my phtyo and rotifer cultures and start to feed them more often.

Btw, my wife just told me that all of the larvae are now dead. Hopefully I'll have the rotifers right for the next batch!

[Rob]

yes, that is algae, and if ther eis light on or neat the container its normal.
you will need to drasticly increase your rotifer production to keep up. i woudl keep about 3 - 5 gallons of rotifer cutures going when you have larvae.