Breeding Amphiprion Ocellaris aka Clownfish, Part 3

Feeding

The first stage of feeding is rotifers. When feeding rotifers, you want to use a strainer to sift out the rotifers, but not the water. If you don’t have a rotifer strainer you can use a coffee filter, or scoop up some rotifers using a clear container, and then shine a small light from the side. The rotifers will be attracted to the light, and then you can use a small pipette to siphon out the rotifers and feed them to the tank.

For the first week, you’ll need to feed at least 5 times a day. As far as how much rotifers to add, that’s trial and error and experience. You’ll want about 100 rotifers per inch square, so that the larvae can run into rotifers without having to swim. Also, keep the nursery tank water a translucent green (add phytoplankton) so that the rotifers will have food to eat as well.

Week 2:

After the first week, when you start seeing the first white stripe on the larvae, you can start adding powdered flake and brine nauplii to their diet. Visit http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com for more information on culturing brine nauplii. To make the baby brine more nutritional, soak them in Selcon. Selcon contains fatty acids for the larvae. Continue to feed rotifers as well for a more nutritional diet.

Week 4:

You’ll see all three white stripes developed. At this point you can introduce Cyclop-eeze, a very nutritional food source, to their diet.

Week 8 and on:

They’ll eat anything.

Cleaning

I do about 30~50% water change daily for the first two weeks using water from the main tank, and then after that it’s every other day for another two weeks until the larvae is about two months old and transferred into a 10 gallon tank. Make sure that the salinity is consistent. Our nursery tank salinity is at 1.020.
In the first set up, I just siphon out the bottom of the nursery daily. I took an 8” hard tubing and connect it to a piece of soft tubing so that it’s easier to use the hard tubing part to vacuum the bottom of the nursery tank.

After transferring to a bigger tank at week 3, I started noticing slime build up on the walls and bottom of the tank. This is when I wash out the tank weekly. I simply set up another nursery and transfer the larvae over, then I can clean out the first nursery and get it ready for the next cleaning day a week later. I have found that some of these factors contribute greatly to the survival rate of the fry, ranked in order from highest priority: 

1. Food

Clownfish fry would survive best when fed good amount of rotifers from the beginning. I have guided many people on breeding clownfish, but the majority failed due to poor food source. Many people just could not keep a good dense rotifer culture to keep the fry fed, and by the end of week 1, they all dropped like flies. If you don’t have a good dense rotifer culture, you won’t be able to raise a good batch of clowns. 

2. Lighting

Actually by lighting, I mean the amount of light on the tank. When these fish are born, they can barely see. Most of the time, any light on top of the tank would send them diving to the bottom or spin in circles trying to hide from the lights. When you see this, just prop the lights higher until they can swim freely. I just use ambient lighting from other tanks. Another VERY important thing is: make sure to wrap the tank in black plastic or paint the fry tank black so that light doesn’t penetrate through. You can also add live phytoplanktonplankton into the tank to help the fry see better, AND the phytoplanktonplankton can be food to keep the rotifers in the fry tank fed as well. 

3. Water Quality

Of course, water quality. Yes, you have to do water changes daily in the beginning. Don’t you change your kids’ diapers multiple times a day?  I do about 30~50% water change in my fry tank since it is very small. I just used main tank water, it’s more convenient, but I do add some RO water each time to lower the salinity to
1.020. When you do a water change, you should use an airline with hard tubing attached to one end to vacuum the bottom of the nursery tank. 

4. Temperature

I keep the temperature of the fry tank above 80 at all times. Actually I keep it at 84~85 because I’ve noticed a big difference in the speed of growth when the temperature is higher.

5. Follow the Instructions!

I’ve seen so many people fail just because they don’t follow the instructions! I would tell them to feed rotifers and they would try baby brine to see if it works… or they would try different salinity and temperature, and then wonder why after one week they only have 10 fry left.