clown fry are staying against sides of tank.

[lizardlady58]

I have been raising clowns for awhile now and with lots of hard work and questions, I am slowly becoming more successful at raising babies to the juvenile stage. I have noticed that in a few of the batches of fry I have had, the majority of the babies will swim nose first against the tank walls. I have black mac tac on the sides of the tank, temp. is 81, salinity is o.018. I have tried subduing and brightening light above the tank, changed the amount of aeration (I use a rubber 10 inch airstone), added more rotifers, added or removed greenwater, and gently brushed the fry from the walls of the tank to no avail. I don't know if this behavior is normal or if it affects the survival rate of the fry. I am curious to know what causes this and any advice would be appreciated.

 

[teresaq]

How are your fry?? I was sure Bang would post here, as he is the only one I know that use to raise fry.
T

 

[shrimpy brains]

Are you talking about pre meta fry? After meta clowns will stay near the sides or float on the top of tank. I often thought they were dead when I first started raising them, but it is just something they do.
Pre meta, you need to keep them in the center as much as possible. I always used a 1 gallon fish bowl with flat sides. Put an airline with rigid tube about 3 inches up one side. Let it give about 1 bubble per second to create a circular flow. This forces the fry to swim against the flow and also brings the rotifers around for constant food availability.
I know alot of people use a 10g tank, I don't move them to this until after meta. Is that what you are using?. Can you find a way to create a circular flow? Not too strong that they can't swim against it, but strong enough to bring them off the sides.

 

[lizardlady58]

I talked to an acquaintance of mine who raises clowns and he suggested co culturing-basically keeping lots of rotifers in the tanks with lots of nanochloropsis. I put enough nano. in the tanks to keep the water dark green. The fry seem to feed better and for the most part they stay away from the tank walls.

 

[lizardlady58]

I am using ten gallon tanks for the first one month of life, keeping them in about three gallons of water for the first week or so paying close attention to amonnia levels. then I gradually add water until the tank is three quarters full. I then I move the babies to a grow out system.

 

[lizardlady58]

Fry are doing much better now. thanks

 

[bang guy]

Instead of a bubbler I used to use a PVC riser similar to the riser for an undergravel filter. This way the waterflow can be directed in a single direction to create a circular water flow. This points the larvae into the water current instead of into fixed objects like a wall.
I went to far as to use a black plastic circular container to remove the corners from the larvae tank.