Clown Babies...
 

..are everywhere in our reef tank!!! We were in the process of setting up ma & pa into their own tank, of course with the huge green Haddoni, cause they are constantly laying. But this is a first, and everyone is having a feast on them.
Should we contain them somehow or let nature take its course. Shane did put a few in the frag tank but there is danger in there as well.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

catch them if you can save as many as you can put them in a QT and feed them rotifiers untill they are able to be fed flakes a guy on saskreef raised 160 of them im not sure if he is on here or not but talk to him he can help you out i bought 4 from him:) teenie weenie clowns. some ppl ha ve flea circus's i want a clown circus.

I am just setting up my tank, so in about a week or two I would buy a couple.

If you can get hold of a book called 'Clownfishes' by Joyce D. Wilkerson that will go a long way towards helping you raise the fry. She's one of the pioneers who helped develop successful clownfish breeding techniques.

I have a Maroon pair that has spawned and there's a batch ready to hatch shortly. In fact they may have hatched overnight, I won't be sure until the lights come on and I can check to see if they're still attached to the rock. They placed the first two batches in view just below their BTA, but have now been doing the deed behind the rock so I'm not able to see very well. I've also contemplated trying to raise them, even placed a ceramic tile in the tank near their territory. This is to encourage them to lay on the tile, which can then be easily removed just before the larvae hatch.

To raise these critters, you pretty much need a constant supply of phytoplankton to feed a rotifer population which needs to be in a high concentration in a separate breeding tank. If you can get hold of a reliable supply of sufficient rotifers for the first week, bonus. It's pretty work intensive since the water fouls quickly and the mortality rate is high in the first week or two. After that, the survivors should be able to handle brine shrimp and larger foods. At some point the larvae metamorphosize into actual fry (after the first week?). That's another event with high mortality. Once they've done that, they'll be recognizable as actual little clown dudes and the survival rate of the remainder should be good.

Edit: Lights came on, eggs are gone, I guess they hatched yesterday evening. No sign of any of them in the display. I reckon they've already become food for the other critters, or they're in the skimmer.

Yep, same here. Even the ones i put in the frag tank are gone. Next time we will be better prepared. Finaly after many years there eggs have gotten to that stage, without the parents eating them. A specimen tank is in the works, with our upgrade.

give sicklid a PM he rases clowns here in Kamloops.

Bill

Thanks will do.

I guess I should think about setting something up as well. Two days after the last clutch hatched, my Maroons are at it right now. The female's been laying for about half an hour and still going. Too bad it's mostly behind the rockwork so I can't yet see the results, but she's making pass after pass & the little male is scooting back & forth doing his thing.

First time I've actually observed a spawn, I can clearly see the female's tube as she finishes each pass.

I've recently raised about 160 little ocellaris clowns. They are now about 4 months old. The biggest problem I had with the whole process was getting the starter food down pat (phyto and rotifers). Once you figure that out you pretty much got it made. Like posted above get clownfishes by Joyce d. Wilkerson it explains everything you need to know.

Here is a pic of one in my 270 reef tank.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1/b0a95ce6.jpg


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1/7d51b478.jpg

Dang, sorry we missed your post. Right on. Hope we can have just a good of an out come. We will hunt down the book, and give this a serious try.

Thanks everyone for the input.