KCaquatics
Premium Member
I recently sold my baby Picasso clownfish, some on this forum. Someone asked me to start a thread to show how I was able to raise these little guys but unfortunately I didn?t take pictures the first time around. So I decided to raise another clutch and this time I will be taking pictures when I can (with an iphone sorry it?s all I have). Hopefully I can show how they progress and what I do to keep them alive. As well as spread the joy of being able to raise these guys from little fry to healthy clowns. Maybe even a few of you might spot one you would like to buy in the pictures . Feel free to post any questions you might have or how you might have done it differently as I want to learn the best method too. I really want this thread to be very helpful so if I don't post something you want to know about please ask, or if you want more detail about something. I have been meaning to start this sooner but I've been busy so the baby clowns are actually already 8 days old today. I will start with the day they eggs were laid and catch up to where they are now.
First off some background info about me, I got my first tank five or six years ago. It was just a cheap 30 gallon and I made all the rookie mistakes but I liked it and learned a lot. I have a 150 gallon reef ready tank now. I am 22 years old, and a pre-med biology student in my final year of undergraduate college. I began raising these clowns as a way to make extra cash so I could afford more reef stuff of course. When I first started I had no idea about raising fry as I had no previous experience. I bought a book called ?Clownfishes? by Joyce Wilkerson. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to try their hand at raising clowns, it gives a good foundation. Then do tons of research online to see what other breeders have done. This will all help but the best method of learning is just doing it.
As stated the parents live in a 150 gallon tank with 3 rose anemones (approximately 3 years in our tank, started as 1 anemone), 1 blue gig (approximately 2 years in our tank), and I recently purchased a pink haddoni carpet anemone (super excited about this guy, baby clowns actually funded this purchase and I expected it to just be a faded red haddoni but it has held its color for almost 4 months now, never seen one like him, even with my crappy iphone pictures he looks pretty good, better in person though). The parents host the 3 rose anemones, occasionally venturing over to the blue gig. I raise rotifers in 2 five gallon buckets and feed them rotifer diet. I raise my brine shrimp in an inverted 2 liter sprite bottle. Will go into more detail on everything as I post pictures.
Here we go:
Full tank shot to see what we're working with
Morning just opening up
[attachment=2]Full tank morning.JPG[/attachment]
Afternoon spread out and enjoying the light
[attachment=1]Full tank.JPG[/attachment]
Rotifer Growing Setup
[attachment=0]Rotifer Setup.JPG[/attachment]
Two five gallon buckets with airstones in each to keep water moving and oxygenated. Feed a few squirts of rotifer diet twice a day. Enough to keep the water a light green color. Harvest 1/3 of the rotifers each day by filtering water through a coffee filter which catches the rotifers but lets the water from the buckets through. The blue bucket under the two white buckets in the picture is catching this water. The water is then returned to the bucket or changed out for new water. I change 1/3 of the water in the buckets once a week. To feed the rotifers I just take the coffee filter and shake into the fry tank and ocassionaly into the reef when the fry don't need anymore rotifers. The flashlight is used to shine into the bucket to judge the rotifer density to see if more or less need to be harvested.
First off some background info about me, I got my first tank five or six years ago. It was just a cheap 30 gallon and I made all the rookie mistakes but I liked it and learned a lot. I have a 150 gallon reef ready tank now. I am 22 years old, and a pre-med biology student in my final year of undergraduate college. I began raising these clowns as a way to make extra cash so I could afford more reef stuff of course. When I first started I had no idea about raising fry as I had no previous experience. I bought a book called ?Clownfishes? by Joyce Wilkerson. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to try their hand at raising clowns, it gives a good foundation. Then do tons of research online to see what other breeders have done. This will all help but the best method of learning is just doing it.
As stated the parents live in a 150 gallon tank with 3 rose anemones (approximately 3 years in our tank, started as 1 anemone), 1 blue gig (approximately 2 years in our tank), and I recently purchased a pink haddoni carpet anemone (super excited about this guy, baby clowns actually funded this purchase and I expected it to just be a faded red haddoni but it has held its color for almost 4 months now, never seen one like him, even with my crappy iphone pictures he looks pretty good, better in person though). The parents host the 3 rose anemones, occasionally venturing over to the blue gig. I raise rotifers in 2 five gallon buckets and feed them rotifer diet. I raise my brine shrimp in an inverted 2 liter sprite bottle. Will go into more detail on everything as I post pictures.
Here we go:
Full tank shot to see what we're working with
Morning just opening up
[attachment=2]Full tank morning.JPG[/attachment]
Afternoon spread out and enjoying the light
[attachment=1]Full tank.JPG[/attachment]
Rotifer Growing Setup
[attachment=0]Rotifer Setup.JPG[/attachment]
Two five gallon buckets with airstones in each to keep water moving and oxygenated. Feed a few squirts of rotifer diet twice a day. Enough to keep the water a light green color. Harvest 1/3 of the rotifers each day by filtering water through a coffee filter which catches the rotifers but lets the water from the buckets through. The blue bucket under the two white buckets in the picture is catching this water. The water is then returned to the bucket or changed out for new water. I change 1/3 of the water in the buckets once a week. To feed the rotifers I just take the coffee filter and shake into the fry tank and ocassionaly into the reef when the fry don't need anymore rotifers. The flashlight is used to shine into the bucket to judge the rotifer density to see if more or less need to be harvested.