My fish are in Labour

[Striker]

My 2 Maroon Clown fish had eggs yesterday....I am going to have a go at bringing the little Junior clowns up into this world in another small tank I have made up specialy for this situation.

They say its fairly difficult but I'm going to give it a go...there going to die anyway so I'm not going to loose anything trying.

They should hatch within 2 weeks and then stay as larvae for around another 2 weeks...then they metamorph into tiny little clowns after this period.

If I fail they are said to breed every 4 weeks so I get plenty of chances.

I'm a bit excited just giving it a go.

[h0ughy]

Strikers going to be a Grandpa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice photo too BTW

[toetoe]

Go for it Tony :thumbsup: i wish you all the luck in this adventure. I do hope they survive though. :prey:

[davidpretorius]

my daughter will want to know if his name is marlin, and do you have a large barracuda ready to eat the eggs and the mother fish?

[xstream]

I hope you know which clown is the male Tony?
As you'll need to put him in the tank with the fry, if they are to have any chance at survival.
The male clown (which was born female BTW) takes on the role of motherhood.
You'll need a ready supply of plankton, algae & Brine shrimp to feed the fry to juvenile stage. It is possible to rear them; as it has been done.

You may be interested to know we have had Anemone's and soft corals spawn on the full moon once a year. Was interesting to watch, wondering what was going on the first time it happened.

Anyway good luck mate you're going to need it. :)

[ballaratdragons]

Don't forget to seperate them when they are old enough (if they survive). Not good to keep more than 2 of the same breed of any Marine fish together. Preferably only 1 of each breed is best in a tank. Fussy things Marines!

[ving]

coolies... be great if it works out huh! :)
congrats!

[Striker]

I have absolutely no chance taking the male out to stay with the kids....for this to happen I would have to pull the tank apart just to catch him....the male is easy to spot as he's only 1/4 the size of the female.

I have got Rotifers breeding in some artemia tubes feeding them this special concentrate of algae and I have also got some decapsulated brine shrimp ready for hatching when the time arrives.....they say you have to get them to feed within the first 24 hours of hatching or there dead......I have done some homework on how to do it but there can be some factors that can affect your result.

Also I have to get them out of the tank once they hatch before their eaten or chomped up by the filters.

I'm not epecting any real results first time but like I said I have many opertunities considering the lay eggs every 4 weeks.

[TidaLpHasE]

:thumbsup:Good luck with the little doods, it would be a buzz to get some to survive, i would be happy to come around with my fishing gear and some worms to tempt the male out:D

[TidaLpHasE]

:shrug: How did it go ? Have you gat any new family pics:D

[Striker]

Yeah there going well and are 10 days old now...they should morph into tiny clowns over the next week...very exciting...they still are lavae but cant wait till they morph.

Lots have died.....I have about 50-60 left

I tried taking some photo's but they are still too small to get any real detail...anyway they only look like tadpoles ATM around 5 mm long.

If I am successful I will try to get some pics once they Morph.

PS...my mature clowns layed eggs just 6 days after these ones hatched..but unfortunetly I can not raise another batch so quickly....there is a fair bit of work involved producing the culture feed needed to feed them...and these cultures change as they grow so I can only do 1 batch at a time...but once these have grown I will do another.

[davidpretorius]

that is what you telescope is for!!!

for you noobies to imaging, turn off tracking on your scope, point the scope, line up the eggs in the finderscope, work thru from largest mm eyepiece to smallest mm eyepiece, take lens off camera and snap away. stack em in registax, a little light processing in PS to bring out the colour of the fish!