Another Baby Clownfish Thread

[UltraKelius]

My Ocellaris pair laid eggs and they hatched last night! Hatch was on day 9, and I was ready from day 7 and waiting very impatiently!
I have no fry catcher so I had to scoop by hand, and have no idea how many I managed to get but I’m happy I got most of the fry.
Thought I would document my progress for anyone who may be interested, and also very happy to receive tips/advice as this is my first time raising fry.

Here are the fry in parents tank just after hatch:

I have no clue how this is going to go! I will update as often as I can and hopefully this will help anyone else thinking of giving this a try!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

My Ocellaris pair laid eggs and they hatched last night! Hatch was on day 9, and I was ready from day 7 and waiting very impatiently!
I have no fry catcher so I had to scoop by hand, and have no idea how many I managed to get but I’m happy I got most of the fry.
Thought I would document my progress for anyone who may be interested, and also very happy to receive tips/advice as this is my first time raising fry.

Here are the fry in parents tank just after hatch:

I have no clue how this is going to go! I will update as often as I can and hopefully this will help anyone else thinking of giving this a try!

I see those tiny bitty fish and that background pump intake water slots... and I think - bye, bye babies...

Remember those old school sponge filters from freshwater, old saltwater days?

I put into search engine "sponge filter baby fish" and got all sorts of hits, including just putting covers over intakes.

I applaud you. You're so much further along than mine ever got. I work too many hours and lacked resources, so I gave my breeding pair to a friend thinking some future day I'd get back grand-grand-grand-grandbabies... but they stopped breeding for him! I applaud you.

Grow babies, grow!!

 

[UltraKelius]

I see those tiny bitty fish and that background pump intake water slots... and I think - bye, bye babies...

Remember those old school sponge filters from freshwater, old saltwater days?

I put into search engine "sponge filter baby fish" and got all sorts of hits, including just putting covers over intakes.

I applaud you. You're so much further along than mine ever got. I work too many hours and lacked resources, so I gave my breeding pair to a friend thinking some future day I'd get back grand-grand-grand-grandbabies... but they stopped breeding for him! I applaud you.

Grow babies, grow!!

Oh don’t worry, all pumps/power heads etc were turned off before they hatched! Thank you, I hope they grow too, I just hope I don’t get too attached as I’m running out of places to put tanks!

 

[UltraKelius]

Four days old today!

 

[freepizza80]

Wow, good luck buddy.

 

[UltraKelius]

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Today the fry are 6 days old, and I was very pleased to see no losses this morning. I was semi- expecting it as I did my first water change yesterday (a bit late I know) but I was worried about stressing them and I’ve had no noticeable losses so far as a very small first hatch.
Today I plan to change another 1-2 litres and replace with parent tank water.

The fry look like little peanuts in a shell now and are growing well! I introduced TDO A three days ago and I’m certain they are eating this when it’s sprinkled in the tank. I have chosen this route rather than feeding BBS as I hope this will mean I don’t loose any fry to SFS. I will try and add another video I took this morning, just after feeding TDO and before I tinted the water!

 

[UltraKelius]

Video link: 6 Days old

 

[Sean Clark]

So exciting!

 

[UltraKelius]

Day seven competed with no loses. Did a 1.6 litre water change and clean up today. I think we are hitting meta, not much information online about this stage, if anyone can give me more information on what signs there are ( I know about tail curling) but do they slow down their feeding etc? They are looking a lot more fish shaped now

Mum and dad laid another load of eggs today, so they seem to be a 16 day cycle and a 4-4:30pm spawn time.

 

[UltraKelius]

Day 9 nearly done and dusted with no losses still. Feel quite proud of that considering I feel as though I’ve bumbled my way through a little!

I’m doing daily water changes at the moment, and the babies look like they are getting deeper through the body today. No sign of any head stripes yet, maybe tomorrow will be the day!

 

[UltraKelius]

Good evening all (well it’s evening here in the UK!)

Day 10 today, still no losses. I’m adding Seachem AmGuard and doing water changes every day but still showing ammonia on my Seachem badge. It’s showing as 0.2ppm, in the blue area. I’m wondering if any experienced fry folk on here can advise if they think I should do a large water change? All the fry seem fine, and I have saltwater ready to go. I’m worried this reading will affect them through meta, though I’m assuming this ammonia is not free ammonia, so does this have the same effect on the fry if it’s present?

Here is a quick video of the babies today:

Ten Days Post Hatch

 

[RaisingKane]

Good evening all (well it’s evening here in the UK!)

Day 10 today, still no losses. I’m adding Seachem AmGuard and doing water changes every day but still showing ammonia on my Seachem badge. It’s showing as 0.2ppm, in the blue area. I’m wondering if any experienced fry folk on here can advise if they think I should do a large water change? All the fry seem fine, and I have saltwater ready to go. I’m worried this reading will affect them through meta, though I’m assuming this ammonia is not free ammonia, so does this have the same effect on the fry if it’s present?

Here is a quick video of the babies today:

Ten Days Post Hatch

This is so cool! I have read that the ammonia will still be present and show up on the readings but that its non-toxic since you are using a binder. My eggs just turned a grey-silver color so I think we are close but I wasn't ready (had no idea they had even spawned) this time to even try to raise them. I'm hoping they do it again and next time I will be ready - so watching your journey very closely!

 

[UltraKelius]

Wishing you the best of luck when you do decide to give it a go! It’s very interesting, and the babies will literally consume your entire headspace and spare time but so far it’s been very worth it.

Day 11 for me today and some not so great news. The temperatures have plummeted here in the UK, and when I woke up this morning my tank temp had dropped to around 24.5 degrees centigrade (76.1f). Not wanting to take any chances, I switched my heater out to the one I had been using to heat water in the garage for water changes, as I thought I could trust that I knew it worked!
When I arrived home from work this evening, the tank temperature was showing as having dropped to 15 degrees centigrade (59f) much to my absolute horror. I’m really not sure how this happened, especially as the heater had obviously been heating during the day, the tank high temp had reached 89.4f. Also, the heating light was still coming on so maybe just faulty thermostat in it.

So I quickly plugged another heater in to bring temps back up slowly, and took 1.5 litres of water out to help ease the load on the heaters. I think I’ve been a little lucky and only lost one baby so far. I’m praying that it’s the only one, and that the stress doesn’t wipe a load more out. Very sad this happened, but safe to say a new heater is on order to arrive tomorrow. I took a photo of the casualty, so you can see the size of them for reference at day 11.
Thanks for reading and please pray for me and my babies!

 

[UltraKelius]

Day 12 and I have the temps back under control thank god, still freezing cold here in the Uk.

No losses today, and just been working on water quality, as ammonia still showing on the Seachem badge, though now it’s in the green zone. I’ve just added more ammonia binder and done a 1.5litre water change.
They seem to be less active today, I’m hoping this is because they are going through meta and that they perk up and swim about more tomorrow. There are a few that don’t seem to have stopped swimming. They seem to be feeding well on the TDO as they all have lovely orange bellies!

 

[Sean Clark]

Glad to see you back on track.

 

[UltraKelius]

Glad to see you back on track.

Thank you, let’s hope it continues!

 

[UltraKelius]

Day 13!
It may be unlucky for some, but clearly not for me!
We have some through meta

Still at least half of them to get through. Hopefully more progress tomorrow.
I have now taken the front cover off the tank, and will start weaning right off the rotifers.

 

[Sean Clark]

Day 13!
It may be unlucky for some, but clearly not for me!
We have some through

Still at least half of them to get through. Hopefully more progress tomorrow.
I have now taken the front cover off the tank, and will start weaning right off the rotifers.

If you have a clownfish phone case then I will stop being scared of the big one into the background.

 

[UltraKelius]

If you have a clownfish phone case then I will stop being scared of the big one into the background.

I do have a clownfish phone case

 

[UltraKelius]

I can’t believe that they are two weeks old already! Another day in the bag with no losses. I’m a little concerned on the lack of rotifers in the fry tank, despite me adding so many. Think one of my cultures has crashed. I’m fairly sure they are all eating TDO now, so hopefully they will be ok.
I’ve also got a BBS hatchery on the go now as a backup in case the rots fail me. I think the cultures need a couple of days to regrow. So can anyone advise, how many times a day should I feed TDO if relying on it as a main food source? I still have a few babies yet to get through meta which is why I’m concerned.