Help with baby fish please

[rayjay]

There are rotifer collectors you can use, but in my case, I bought mesh bags from Brine Shrimp Direct and made nets with them.
I stop the air and let the crap settle in the containers and then remove the portion of rotifers/bbs I want to gut load, rinse and place in gut load container. After gut loading I again let the culture settle with air off and siphon off the rotifers/bbs into a container which in turn I pour through the mesh to capture the rots/bbs. Then I hold the mesh net under the cold water tap for rinsing.
I use the 250 mesh for rotifers and the 150 mesh for bbs.
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c9/Mesh-Bag-c65.html
I also have a 53 micron rotifer sieve but I like working with the mesh bags a heck of a lot better.

 

[ac7av]

I see now, I didn’t realize they were big enough to do that. That makes a lot of sense now.

 

[ac7av]

Rayjay
It looks like I have a few things I need to get together before trying again. I think I have a better understanding of the process now after talking with you. I’m sure I’ll have more questions after I get things together. I will keep an eye out for a couple of those water bottles with out the handles like you have. I can see how they are a really good design for this kind of thing.

 

[rayjay]

First of all, there are many successful ways to raise rots/brine/fry so it's best to check out all the ways and then decide which you might want to go with.
Even at that, you can modify aspects of a method to suit what you have available.
For instance, while I use the water bottles for culturing the rotifers, just about any container can work, but keep in mind you need to keep the food in suspension as long as possible to lessen the frequency of cleanings.
Ideally, round tapered containers would work best for this but they are not absolutely necessary.
Containers like aquariums are not as suitable because of too much dead spot.
Pick a size though that is appropriate for what you anticipate your future needs will be.
As for raising your damsel fry, I suspect any of the methods used for raising clownfish fry will work for them so again, just pick the procedure that you feel you can make work for you.
I have never raised clownfish but I do supply breeders of clownfish, and none of them use the same method to a "T".
I raise seahorses, and the way I raise them is probably more different than any other two methods used for seahorse fry, but it works for me, and many other methods did not.
You may not get everything right on the first or second try, but experience should make each successive round much better for you.

 

[ac7av]

I like your ideas, I have read about several different ways of doing it. I have a good idea of what I’m going to try and with the information from you I think I have a better understanding of the process that needs to happen. I have to admit the water bottles are an excellent way to go and I’ve seen more then one write up about using 2 or 3 liter pop bottles with the round bottoms on them to help in the suspensions. I was going to use 2, 10 gallon tanks with 3 compartments, for the nursery but I think that the round bottles may be better suited for that too, and easer to clean.