Losing Clownfish larvae After first 8 hours after hatch
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 8:51 AM
( permalink)
I have been raising Ocellaris and Percula "onyx" clowns for about a year now. I have a problem with losing the entire batch of clowns of either species within 8 hours after hatch. I have had some good batches that when they make it past 8 hours I raise them up without any major losses. I cannot seem to put a finger on what may be the problem. Once they hatch the larvae look pretty good and are swimming around and active. They seem to start eating right away if I add rotifiers. My rotifiers are grown on rotigrow plus in 5 gallon buckets. I have been using a 5.5 gallon tank with the four sides of the tank blacked out with a garbage bag, the bottom pane is light colored. I use a 50watt heater and an airstone with adjustable airflow. The airstone is placed under the heater. I use a clip on light with a 13 wattt compact flourscent bulb for lighting. I have had the most success when lighting the larvae tank 24 hours a day until they are four days old. II have tried keeping the tank dark for the first 8 hours and putting no rotifiers or greenwater in and had the same results. Up until the last batch I have lightly tinted the larvae water green with rotigrow plus. For the last batch I switched to rotigreen omega and still lost the entire hatch. The temperature of the tank is 80F and the salinity 1.025 which is the same as the broodstock system. Both species of eggs hatch on night 8. I have just found out on the broodstock tank that my apex was not calibrated correctly so the temperature was around 78-79. I have adjusted it to 80 but the first set of eggs at the new temperature still hatched as 8 days. I have tried letting the eggs hatch in the broodstock system and artificially hatching them. I tend to get better results hatching them in the larvae tank but losses can be seen either way. The parents are feed three times daily with Rods food original and breeders blend, formula one and spectrum pellets and mysis shrimp and pacific plankton. The ocellaris spawn every 10-11 days and the onyx about every 15 days Somes things I plan to try on the next batch is maybe changing the light bulb to a 9 watt compact flourscent bulb and blacking out the bottom of the tank. I think the lighter color bottom may be reflecting light and attracting the larvae to the bottom. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know Thanks
|
|