Cool.

When do they develop the black color??  It looks like a couple of those may be misbars?

6/11/14
Spawn 4 Hatch - Was able to collect most of the fry this time around. I made sure to feed the tank about an hour before the lights went out to ensure that the Bangaai's weren't hungry.

6/12/14
Woke up this morning and checked on the fry. Siphoned out 43 dead fry. Something isn't right, this is similar to Spawn 2 which I only have 3 fish from. Purchased "Clownfishes" by Joyce Wilkerson in hopes of gleaning some sort of insight into what I could possibly be doing wrong.

After looking at the "Clownfishes" book I realized that I should already be weaning Spawn 2 from baby brine (BBS). I ordered a mortar and pestal to grind up food for them, it should arrive on Saturday. In the mean time, I am feeding them a combination of BBS and BRS Reef Chili.

I'm seriously entertaining the idea of setting up a dedicated breeding tank and getting another pair of clowns. I'm afraid if I move my current ones to a new tank that they will quit spawning (I've already waited 2.5 years for them to start respawning and don't want to mess it up.) I'm going to keep an eye on the Divers Den for a bonded/mated pair of something cool.

Thanks for the reply Chris.

I have checked my water temp in the fry tank and I think that is probably the problem. The thermostat on my heater isn't very accurate, I had it set for 80 degrees, but the water temp was actually about 72.

I'm probably doing several things wrong, so I'll describe the process and setup a little better. The evening of hatch night, I take about 5 gallons of water from the main tank and put in in a 10 gallon tank that is blacked out on all sides but the front. I add a heater set to 80 degrees (which I now know has not actually been at 80 degrees). I then add an airstone with just enough air flowing through it to keep the surface of the water agitated.

When the hatch occurs, I use a flash light to draw the fry to the surface and scoop them out with a ladle. I then use a pipette to collect them from the ladle and add them to a measuring up that I then dump into the fry tank when it gets full. (I wonder if the pipette is possibly harming them also, I really only do this because I don't want to keep dumping the measuring cup that I dump them into.) Once collection is complete and they are in the fry tank, I add about 64 oz of my rotifer culture. I have a low power light set on a timer to run for 12 hours a day to light the tank.

Update:
6/14/14 Began weaning Spawn 2 off BBS and onto New Life Spectrum Pellet food. Using a pestal and mortar to grind it up very fine.
6/15/14 Spawn 5 laid
6/16/14 No survivors remain except for the initial 3 that have already undergone metamorphisis from Spawn 2. (this is why i suspect that water temp has been the issue, I used a different heater for spawn 2)

Clownfish from Spawn 2 are developing their rear fins (real dorsal, anal and caudal fins), one of them has also developed its 3rd stripe.

Overall sounds good, only several steps u may wanna improve a bit.
move the rock to hatch is always better than letting them hatch in the main tank. If u can't move them, try to collect them more careful. Pics is the way I collecting them.
always set the temp higher than 80, 81-82is better.
filter out the rotifers, do not put rotifer water in ur fry tank & if u r using the green water method, it's better to buy phyto instead of culturing urself.
even with low light,  use some paper to cover the light. Breeders  usually keep the light on 24h/d on the first 3 days.
For grow out: if u can't stay at home all day and feed them 6 times a day, keep BBS in the tank 24/7 with some phyto, they will grow a lot faster

They are great looking fish. Kind of ironic they had to go only to be replaced by a bunch more.

Cool stuff man.  Any chance you could post some pictures of your breeding setup?  I have eggs now myself and will be giving this a go in a couple of months when I get a good breeding setup and place to keep it

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

Very cool thanks for sharing

Just got back from vacation, was gone for a week, and remarkably everything is still alive. We had a riend staying at the house watching the dog and cat, who I was able to walk though managing my BBS culture and feeding the Spawn 5 larvae. Everything else I had set up with auto feeders. When I got home yesterday, it was clear that Spawn 5 underwent metamorphosis while I was gone with no casualties. I ordered some new phyto to start new cultures and also ordered new rotifers.

7/6/2014 -  Spawn 6 Hatched (not collected)
7/9/2014 - Spawn 7 Laid (estimated date) 

Spawn 2: Day 58



Spawn 5: Day 19