Gold Banded Maroons

[danaclown]

I have a mated pair of gold banded maroon clownfish who have already laid several clutches of eggs. I tried to siphon the hatched fry with no success. Now they have laid eggs on a tile I placed near the anemone they host. I am able to remove the tile and place it a fry tank. The first "tile clutch" hatched and then all fry died. The second "tile clutch" hatched and most fry died and the remaining unhatched eggs turned whitish and died. Now most fry are dead at the bottom after 20 hours. I am trying to figure out what is going wrong.
The parents are happy to lay clutches of eggs in the main tank on a piece of tile. I remove that tile keeping the eggs submerged in main tank water in a plastic bag. The fry tank is 5 gallons, has main tank water, an air stone, and a small heater. (The temp might be a few degrees cooler than main tank).
I have a continuous batch of rotifers in a 5 gallon bucket that are being fed with rotifer diet. The ammonia in that bucket is pretty high but the rots are alive and reproducing (confirmed under microscope - I have fun toys at home). When I place the tile with clownfish eggs on it and they start hatching I add filtered rotifers to the fry tank (to keep the ammonia level down).
Could the cause of the egg and fry death be water temp?
Any ideas would be great.

 

[bang guy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by danaclown http:///forum/thread/386388/gold-banded-maroons#post_3393492
Could the cause of the egg and fry death be water temp?
That's unlikely but you didn't mention a temperature.
The eggs need to be fanned to remove waste. Mom & dad do this constantly but when you remove the tile you will need a substiture for the fanning. A gently flow of bubbles vertically right next to the eggs will work. A trick I accidently found was to place the tile on top of something so that the eggs are just barely submerged and then set the airstone on the bottom of the tank so the bubbles rise and force water over the eggs.
After they hatch the need a very dense population of rotifers. They shouldn't have to travel more than their body length to bump into a rotifer. A lot of people add rotifer food right into the fry tank so the rotifers continue to eat and multiply.
Darken the sides and bottom of your fry tank to make the rotifers easier to see. A dim light directly above and in the middle of the tank will give a good contrast to make the rotifers eaven easier to see.
Another trick I learned is to use a spnge filter and put an elbow on the top of the riser to create a circular waterflow in the tank.