Need help with hatching clownfish

shane reef · Aug 16, 2013

My clownfish have laid 6 batchs of eggs. I tried collecting batch 5 with a fry catcher and had zero secess. I waited until night 7 to set trap, turned lights out and aimed light on trap. Did that for 3 hours and nothing swimming to light. Next day noticed half eggs were gone. Learned small light in trap should have been off for those 3 hours. So on the 8th night I turned everything of again and covered tank in a large towel and waited 3 hours. Took if towel and turned on small light for the catcher, nothing. Super frustrating at this point and turned everything back on. Next morning almost all eggs were gone beside maybe 5. Didn't want to mess with them so let them go. I asked around everyone sais pull the rock if you can on night 7. So on batch 6 I pulled the rock and put in a 8g nano. I used water from parents tank to fill it, set temp to 82 like parents and pulled rock from the tank. I used a bag to bag rock in tank to not let air hit eggs or they will die. Someone told me that don't know if it is true or not, but I did it anyways. Also this was hard as rock was on bottom under other rocks, mama was not happy with me pulling it. Hopefully I doesn't mess with her cycle. So I set up bubbler right beside eggs, not on them but next to them. Spoke with a local breeder and was told to put it directly on eggs so I did. Night 7 nothing hatched, last night was night 8 couples eggs remain but no fry or bodies. Am I doing something wrong. Sorry for so much detail just trying to figure out what I need to do. Thanks for any help you can give.

temper76 · Aug 19, 2013

Try pulling the rock on the 8th day 10 minutes b4 lights out make sure everything is dark , wait till am if nothing happens put rock back exactly how it was . I mean exactly .so the parent could tend the eggs all day till lights out again do it over again which would be the 9th day , n u don't need to bag the rock just take it and drop it in unless your rearing tank is on your back yard n not inside your house with the parents ,

Zero Nitrates · Aug 19, 2013

Very cool! I am following along.

Ms. Mermaid · Aug 19, 2013

For the first time I was able to move the rock that had the eggs on it but I did the following:
Put a small bucket inside the parents tank put the rock inside it so the eggs would not be exposed to air pulled the bucket out and placed it inside the fry tank which had some water in it took the rock out of bucket while inside tank "not an easy job when tank is tiny" then put the airline underneath the eggs and turned out the lights in the room. Had ten babies to hatch on day 7. That morning I put the rock back into the parents tank for them to tend to the rest of the eggs and repeat the steps from the night before and remaining eggs hatched but about 4 did not. But I have lost 90% of the fry because I had very little rotifers for them.

shane reef · Aug 19, 2013

The fry tank is right next to it. Well fish laid another batch, looks like few hundred eggs. This is one of the biggest I have seen them lay. They stayed spawning for about an hour. So should I pull rock or try the fry catcher?

Ms. Mermaid · Aug 19, 2013

You have to wait till day 7 or 8 then you can do either one you want to do. Make sure you the eggs have turned silver then that would be hatching time.

shane reef · Aug 19, 2013

Silver eyes, correct? They usually do that on day 7.

Ms. Mermaid · Aug 19, 2013

Yes they start getting the silver eyes on day 7. Not all the time do they hatch on day 7 or if they do it will be a small amount at least for me it has been about 10 that would hatch on day 7. I even had them to hatch on 3 days, 10 on day 7, about 30-50 on day 8 and the remaining about 20 on day 9.
But if you are still having issues there are some great threads on here and on Reef Central for breeding clownfish. Check out Mr. Cobb on this forum and one from Ernieq on Reef Central they have really great threads going.

shane reef · Aug 25, 2013

Ok so last night was hatch night, had a good 100+ eggs on rock. So I turned off pumps and added an air bubbler in the center of parents tank. I covered the tank and went to bed. Woke up about 6am and no fry at all. Shined the light where the eggs were and they had hatched but nothing to be seen swimming or coming to the light. What am I doing so wrong to lose all of them in one night?

NH Reef · Aug 26, 2013

I would pull the rock out next time. just take it out and put it in the other tank on day 7. exposure to air wont bother it.

Ms. Mermaid · Aug 26, 2013

NH is correct the rock needs to be pulled from the parents tank and put in their own tank.

TampaJoe · Aug 27, 2013

Glad to hear it as I just pulled my 7 day and 3 hour old eggs and placed them into a 10 gal hatch tank, lights out, bubble bubbling!

shane reef · Sep 6, 2013

Ok so fish had laid another batch last Thursday afternoon. I pulled the rock Wednesday evening and put in 10g tank with parents water, heater and air stone. I put rock on top of the bubbler to where the eggs where being hit by the bubbles, also had it bubbling pretty hard on them. Woke up Thursday and nothing. So I put rock back in parents tank so they could tend to the eggs. I could not see any dead fry in the tank and seemed all the eggs where still there. Parents tended to the all day. I pulled the rock last night everything the same except I did not have bubbles so hard on them. Still zero hatched. What am I doing wrong? It seems no mater what I do they never hatch. Any advice?

Midway · Sep 6, 2013

Remember is has to be completely dark otherwise they will not hatch. Something else is than when the pair is new at breeding, you have to do this from the 8th night and on to see when the eggs hatch. Since the eggs were laid Wednesday and you pulled the pot on Thursday, that's only seven nights counting the night they were laid. I think if you pull the pot today they will hatch tonight. from my experience that's what I had to do with all my pairs that are breeding, I had to start puling the pot from the 7th night to see what night they hatch, once the batch hatches, that's the night for future batches from that pair will hatch and that's has worked like clockwork for me. Hope this helps somehow.

Good luck!!

shane reef · Sep 6, 2013

The tank has black paper on it, plus I cover it with a large towel. I put rock back into patents tank, still has eggs on it and parents tending to them. Will try again tonight.