Tom Freeman

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(First post - hope I get it right!)

I have kept several clownfish pairs for 5-7 years. I have read Joyce's book and Hoff's two books (clownfish & plankton). I raised 4 of 10 Premnas larvae captured from the first batch to juveniles, and am having what I think is the same problem with about 10 of 15 in the second batch. At about 5 days of age they swim "head up" at the surface, and with a very much faster rate of tail movement. These seem to be the faster-growing larvae. Of my first 4 the largest two, once through metamorphosis, now look normal and are settled at the bottom. The other two took nearly 2 weeks to reach full metamorphosis and are much smaller and less robust looking. The second batch is now 6 days old, and the largest ones are at the surface swimming frantically. I co-culture rotifers with the larvae and feed DT phytoplankton twice daily. My guess is a lack of food, but didn't know if I should try newly hatched artemia earlier than 7 days.
 

FMarini

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Welcome and thanks for the post.
I have not experienced this heads up phenomenon you write about, however it does remind me of a few things.
One, whats the water quality like, if you have alot of detritus and organics you might have low O2 which would cause these fish to hover near the surface.
Second, clown fry are phototrophic and tend to head for the lights, I would recommend diffuse lighting in fry tanks and third by your description it read like you might be experiencing nutritional issues.
If you don't mind I will forward this post to an experience clown breeder (Jeff-ecotropic) and see if this "heads up" is something he's seen before
frank
 

Tom Freeman

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I am very careful about siphoning detritus, and I change a high % of water daily. When I increased aeration most do seem to orient themselves into the current and swim horizontally. They all have head bars, the other bars are partially visible on all but one, and I haven't lost any over the last few days so I guess we will see how it goes.

I have larval A. Percula that are one day younger, their aeration was higher (by accident), they have brighter light, and I started feeding them artemia two days earlier because they seemed bigger. I only see the "heads up" problem with a few of them when aeration is off for tank cleaning, so maybe I can learn from that. I will experiment a bit with the next group of maroon larvae...

Thank you for the prompt reply.
 

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