Maroon an gold laid eggs... any ideas?

[redpheonix]

Whats the probability of being able to hatch them an keep them alive... she didnt put them on a rock she put them on the glass.... any suggestions on what to do or try to keep them from being eaten as soon as they hatch?

[sb1227]

Well, if they laid them on something removeable and you have all the time in the world to feed them, you can try.....but what would you do with all the babies that lived? I went thru the same thing when my clowns started breeding. Honestly, with the million plus eggs that have hatched in my tank it's best to leave it. I do still tinker with the thought of just once trying to raise them but it's pretty time/labor intensive. Besides, it's really nature taking care of itself, and interesting to watch.

You'd be best, if you really want to try....to set up a seperate system, with a way to feed rotifers on a constant basis and try it next batch. They need to be comfortable breeding in the tank anyway. Feed them well right now, especially him...he's gonna be busy for a few days.

[Amphiprion]

I agree with Sue. If you are still interested, then take a look at the books of Martin A. Moe. He was among the first to breed clowns and his book has a lot of tips on how to rear them. Mine have spawned continuously, but I have never bothered trying to raise the fry.

[redpheonix]

The eggs were laid on the glass... they are slowly starting to develop... I have considered building a small cage out of plastic grating and filling it with chaeto and placing it directly next to the eggs in the tank... will see what happens and see if any survive this time... if they lay again and its on something removable we'll see what happens... may try to drip some rods into the tank directly into the containment area ... maybe i'll get lucky and some/one will survive. will check out that book and see what i can figure out. thanks Sue and Andrew...

[Scootman]

Let me begin by saying that I've never delt with this issue, but I've been reading various materials on the subject. My conclusion, so far, is the problem is two fold. Protecting the hatchlings and feeding them. I assume the newly hatched clowns will have nutrition from the egg, but eventually they will quickly need a new food source. That's where the rotifers come into the picture.

I recently purchased a copy of "Plankton Culture Manual" by Frank H. Huff & Terry W. Snell (published by Florida Aqua Farms). It's sort of a "How To" guide on culturing phytoplankton, rotifers, amphipods, copepods, Ciliate, Artemia, Mysis and Daphnia. You may want to consider adding this book to your library as well. As the others have said, it's a lot of work culturing the rotifers because you also have to brew up food for the rotis as well. Everything eats something smaller than itself, so it's an endless cycle of culturing.

I hope you give it a try. I'd love to see someone locally with experience and success in breeding and raising marine fish. If you do this, please take photos and post a thread on the subject. Who knows, you may create a following.

[redpheonix]

First batch hatched already and disappeared... and before we could get another rock where she laid the eggs before she already laid again in the same place.... we will see how things go... keep you posted if anything comes about of it other than random feeding in my tank...

[snoopdog]

I am definitely no expert and have put no time into this subject but I have a thought. Anytime I have had any hatched creatures survive in the tank it was when there was massive amounts of caulerpa in the tank, mainly grape or cup. During that time I had many things hatching and surviving. I actually had baby linkia stars breeding there and surviving, one made it to full size.

[kristo]

Now that is think about that, it is true. I had a pair of sunrise dottybacks breed. I had them in a 29 with not much calerpa, then put them into a 40H and it was full of calerpa and they breed amazingly. Snoop you refreshed my memory.

[snoopdog]

Nice to know I do something right every now and then. If you could just convince Amy of that, I would be set.

[kristo]

Don'tcha know!

[Squirrelboy]

The only thing I've heard or read about saving fry clownfish is to look for a silver line in the eggs which should appear just a day or so before hatching, this was for your run of the mill nemo but may hold true for the Maroon as well, you do have the advatnage of knowing what they looked like when they were about to hatch and just about the time they hatched, but anyway what I read was that if you keep the filtration off, or even better turn it off as they are hatching and on the surface of the calm water shine a light making sure it is the only or at least the most significant light source, and scoop them up as they swim to the light, they young ones are extremely attracted to it from what I've read. Then you get to have fun growing the food which everyone has discussed and rotifers are the best starter food from what i have read too, it sounds hard but im sure you can do it man.

[jason214]

if you want to raise these guys, i would get a 10g tank and set it up for a rotifer farm. Then you take a peice of tile (like bathroom floor tile)and put it where they lay the eggs, once they lay them take the tile out and put it in the roti tank. From what i've been told, these things eat like crazy so i would have the farm tank going for a couple months.