Clown Babies...

[mike31154]

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.