What exactly would I need to try rasing Lyretail Damsels?

[andrewkw]

I believe the species is Neopomacentrus azysron but I could be wrong. To be honest I've always considered them yellowtail chromis.

I have 2 males and 2 females. They have been laying eggs behind the rockwork in my reef for several months perhaps longer. I've actually had them about 5 years in 3 separate tanks. Bought 5 and one died in QT the other 4 have been fine since. These guys have no retail value at all. I think I paid $6 each for them. I know this. I also know damsels have smaller fry then clownfish so they need S rotifers not L. What I don't know is exactly how much rotifers do I need to try and raise them?

Would one bottle be enough to give it a go? Would I need phytoplankton as well?

I have no experience breeding fish, but I have raised dwarf cuttlefish from eggs and kept mysid shrimp alive ect. I hatched baby brine to feed the mysid to feed the cuttlefish and have extra small tanks / sponge filters, air pumps, heaters ect.

Would I have to catch the fry after they hatch with a rotifer screen or something similar or could I siphon the eggs off the glass? Not looking to start a breeding setup just want to see if I can raise a few to adulthood and then maybe try another species at a later time. I have time on my hands and fish laying eggs. I don't mind investing a little money and a moderate amount of time but if I need to spend 100s of dollars to raise a few $6 fish I will probably pass. They aren't likely to stop laying anytime soon so at the very least creating this thread will let me know what I'd need to try if I don't end up trying right away. Thanks in advance.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I wonder if maybe someone on the #reefsquad might know.

 

[Shep]

I would assume it would probably be very similar to raising clownfish fry

 

[melypr1985]

I agree with Shep here. Clownfish, after all, are just damsels. I would assume the rearing of the fry would be very similar.

 

[andrewkw]

So would one bottle of rotifers be enough to give it a go? Do I need to feed them additional phytoplankton? Do I have to catch the babies or can I remove the eggs? I suppose once I figure out how long it takes for the eggs to catch it would be easier but since they lay at the back of the tank I would probably have to do some serious reaquascaping to catch the fry but probably could remove the eggs.

 

[Saltfishlover]

So would one bottle of rotifers be enough to give it a go? Do I need to feed them additional phytoplankton? Do I have to catch the babies or can I remove the eggs? I suppose once I figure out how long it takes for the eggs to catch it would be easier but since they lay at the back of the tank I would probably have to do some serious reaquascaping to catch the fry but probably could remove the eggs.

How did this turn out? I'm trying this now and can't keep the fry past day one.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

How did this turn out? I'm trying this now and can't keep the fry past day one.

If you can't keep the fry past day one, I'd guess you're running into one of three issues:
1 ) The eggs themselves aren't healthy enough to support the larvae (the baby fish) until they develop enough to feed.
(From what I've seen, this is typically remedied either by the parent fish figuring out what they're doing with breeding by waiting for future egg batches, or by boosting the parent fish's - the broodstock's - diet; most people I've seen with this issue start feeding blackworms or similar in addition to whatever they're currently feeding the parents in order to get the parents some more nutrients and good fats - I'm not sure if that would help in this case or not, but it may be worth a shot.)

2 ) The larvae need to eat the day they hatch but they aren't accepting the rotifers (assuming that's what you're offering them).
(If they're not accepting the rotifers, they may be too large, or they may not move in a way that entices the larvae to eat; so you can try offering adult copepods if they're not too large, but in many cases you would need to offer copepod nauplii - if small foods are needed but rotifers aren't cutting it, the current, best alternative to try would be Parvocalanus crassirostris copepod nauplii screened typically to something like 50 microns.)

3 ) There's something wrong with the tank/water conditions of the rearing tank you have them in.
(What's your setup like?)