can i collect zoo plankton from the sea to feed clowns fry

[q8breeder]

good day
My name is sultan and i am from kuwait , i am new to breeding and would like to start with clown fish .
i have done allot of readings about clown fish first feed to find that rotifer are the first feed for almost every one who is in breeding ,
in my case rotifer would be hard to culture simply because i have to order every thing from out side the country as our shops don't have , live plankton , rotifer cultures , plankton feed and so on . so i was thinking to capture some zoo plankton from the gulf to use as a first feed.
what i would like to know.

1 - is this a good first fry feed for clown fish.
2 - once i capture the zoo plankton how can i keep them healthy.
3 - is their any thing more i need to know or do to this work.

any comment will help ,
thank's

[ichthyogeek]

Umm...from what I've read, it also has to do with micron size, and ease of capture. All of the following I've learned through reading, and none through experience, so take this advice as you want to:
1)Rotifers are good because they act as nutrient transporters, in that the larval fish gain whatever nutrients that the rotifer just ate (such as algae high in HUFA's). The rotifers also do not act like normal plankton, in that they glide rather than jump like plankton. If you could isolate what the fry are eating, then culture/collect that specific organism, then yes, you could feed zooplankton to the baby fish.
2)You would have to feed the zooplankton some sort of unicellular free floating algae (phytoplankton)like Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis, Isochrysis, etc. The zooplankton would need to be enriched before you fed it to the fry.
3) If you can, what books/magazines/web sites have you used while looking up marine breeding? What is your breeding setup? What is the broodstock like: normal display tank clownfish that you're interested in breeding, or juveniles that you are purposefully raising for the purpose of breeding?

[Luis A M]

Welcome Sultan to MOFIB!
Yes,wild plankton is an excelent first food and you can perfectly raise clown larvae with them.Or you can collect and culture copepods as explained here: viewtopic.php?f=144&t=508
But if you still don´t have a spawning clown pair,you have time to try to obtain the things you need;a phyto and rotifer starter,Artemia cysts and a good dry food.

[q8breeder]

thanks ichthyogeek
for your explanation , and the information
your 2nd point about feeding rotifers is indeed important and i will make sure to have my zoo plankton on phyto , about the books i am reading , are
the complete guide of breeder's guide to marine aquarium fishes. and many other books but i fined this on is the most complete .
about the breeding stock i am planning on purchasing juveniles and raining them for breeding, i will try with a couple reedy pairs if i can get my hands on some. in kuwait their is not many breeders of clowns . i have yet to find one .
my set up now will allow me to have 16 breeding pairs and can grow .

[q8breeder]

thank you luis for welcoming me ,
and thank you for your feed back and the link you posted .
i have already ordered some rotifer cysts to try culturing them , but did not arrive yet , my problem is if i do any order from the stats it takes 10 days to 2 week to arrive to kuwait and that is a recipy to kill any roti or cysts .
thats why i am tring to go the other rout and capturing zoo plankton, i got the net ordered and i made one my self i used it and got my first capture .... boy their are sooooo many ....... in their . so many different sizes but it looks good and promising. i will keep feeding them green algae and see if they will hold.

thanks again

[q8breeder]

thank you luis for your support , i will collect zoo plankton and give it a try , the link was very helpful as well
regards