Breeding Clowns!

[vic622]

So, how do you tell when your clowns are ready to breed?

If they've suddenly established a territory in a coral cave and are acting really protective of the cave, they might have eggs ...

Imagine my surprise this evening when I realized this & then had a close look and this is what I saw ... WoooHooo!

Vic's got happy feet!

The eggs are the dark brown stuff (lighter in normal light) stuck to the rock in front of the male's nose on the sideways "V" shape:



Another view:

[Cheebs]

I see them! A very decent first batch!! Congrats

[vic622]

Thanks, Phil.
They're my first marine batch, so I'm kinda pleased

[vic622]

I can see tiny litle eyes, now.
Hopefully the turbo snails don't hoover them up before they have time to develop!

[Greatwhite]

Don't be surprised if the first batch doesn't take...  I've heard that you have to hit them with Rotifiers as soon as they hatch, or their a gonner.  You should try to scoop them out and into a small tank with an air-driven skimmer if/when you can.  Otherwise, it'll be an all you can eat clown buffet for the rest of your fish (parents included)

[vic622]

... it'll be an all you can eat clown buffet ... (parents included)

Strangely unsettling visual metaphor, that one ...

I think I'll let this batch be.

When I had FW's that did their first batch I found that they had a higher success rate if I let them have one batch uninterrupted - they seemed to develop a stronger parenting drive for subsequent batches.

If I nabbed the first batch as soon as they hatched, the parents didn't seem to associate with it and then never got the hang of protecting the little-uns.

Then again I could be way out in left-field

[Cheebs]

I think that's a good idea... You should notice that each batch gets progressively bigger until they plateau at some point. I'd wait for a couple more batches so you have more, healthier eggs!

[vic622]

Yeah, I'm not sure how many eggs there were this batch, but when I first noticed it there was probably only 40-50 max.
That was probably 2-3 days after they were laid & I'm sure that some got hoovered by the clean-up crew before I noticed them.
Either way, this doesn't strike me as being a particularly large brood, but certainly acceptable for their first time.

[gvv]

As far as I can see, the eggs were laid not on the rock you may easily remove...
That mean that you need to check every night whether they hatched or no.

Silver color and eyes - means they are ready to go (it may take a day or so)

If you don't get the first hatch - it does not matter. Clowns are actually breeding machines. About week or so it takes from eggs to fry and another week later you have new eggs. Unless you will distress them in any way. Than it may take more time for them to settle down.
As soon as fry start to swim - usually from 15 minutes to an hour after the lights go down, you will have to remove them from tank. You will have to shut down all the pumps, return pump (a must) if you have sump and than carefully start removing the guys.
You may pass this step if you don't have rotifiers (a LOT of them), as they will die in a day or two without enough food provided. From my experience - only live rotifiers are counted. Even frozen were not taken by fry - they need a stimulus to start feeding

What I will suggest if you planning to breed them is to start preparation process. Check how much time it takes from clowns laying the eggs and fry hatches. Usually (if you are not changing the temp in your tank) it always take the same time for the following hatches. Prepare a large amount of rotifiers. You need to supply rotifiers to the fry that just hatch - if you give the rotifiers the next day, you are too late. Think how you will be doing water cleaning in the fry tank - they will produce a lot of waste and good water parameters are the must.

Regards and good luck

[vic622]

Yup, one week like clockwork!

The 1st batch didn't last long - I did see the silver eyes and of course, the next morning there were no more eggs on the rock. I thought it was the clean-up crew, but from what you said, it might have been a midnight hatching ...

One week after that, they had another clutch. This clutch didn't last more than a couple of days & none of the eggs matured. They were all gone after only 2-3 days.

I'm thinking that if the Clowns follow the same pattern as other spawning pairs I've had:
The 1st brood (almost) success was luck,
The 2nd brood was more typical
Subsequent broods will slowly have higher levels of maturity

If I want the fry to survive & grow out, I'll need to rethink my setup.
I have no sump, only a 75gal display, so rotifers are not an easy option unless I do a HOB fuge.
The rock face where they lay is reasonably accessible & if I'm diligent, I should be able to catch any fry when they arrive using a siphon tube I have used in the past.

I'll keep posting any updates as they arrive ...

[gvv]

I mean not to feed the whole tank with rotifiers...
Not sure how much you will need to get the desirable density  

You have to get the fry into separate tank - I think 5G is perfect for the beginning...

You have separate tanks for growing the rotifiers; these guys are eating phytoplankton - you will need large amount of it. So there are 2 ways - grow your own phyto ( ) or buy phyto or special rotifiers food.
Once I lost the whole bunch of fry just only because I didn't realize that if there are a lot of fry they need a lot of rotifiers and they ate it all. Before I was able to grow more food - fry already gone. So, sometimes if you see that you have a lot of fry - better to "save" less of them than loose everything...

I managed to successfully grow the first group of clowns after nearly 6-9 months of try... This is because my first attempts I was trying to grow them on the frozen/artificial food

[vic622]

Curious, did you ever try the commercially available or the homemade fry-foods?

The one that I used for Aquidens rivulatus (Green Terror) was essentially egg-yolk in water, beat so that it was small particles - the size of very small rotifers.

I know it worked very well with FW fry - I wonder if the SW fry would stick up their noses at it?

At the least, it could be a good supplement if you're short of rotifers.

[gvv]

I would suggest only one thing - try it and port the results. Considering the frequency of hatches - it is possible. But, personally, I don't know about this food. I used one prepared food, but only after the fry is several weeks old. I don't rememeber how it is called, when I will be back home, I will check
There are advantages and disadvantages of using rotifiers, so I will be happy if somebody will find the alternative.

[vic622]

I'll see when they have a brood that develops & hatches. If I can get the fry, I'll try to see if they take the artificial food.

I would think, it would be good to augment rotifers, even if it doesn't prove useful as a replacement.

[gvv]

I checked - I used Otohime brand of food to feed the fry. It has different sizes, but looks like the smalles is just of the size of hatched brine shrimp. More, all fish loves this food - I checked on SW fish, FW fry and adult - all accept it.

[vic622]

I agree, all the fish - especially the adults - LOVE fry food!   

I don't think I have the container anymore from the commercial brand I had, but it was a big name (like Hikari) or similar high-end maker & like you said, it was for FW & SW.

No eggs last night - we'll see this morning if there is a fresh batch ...

[gvv]

Here is the link:
http://www.reedmariculture.com/product_otohime_marine_diets.html

Regards

[Hookup]

Awesome thread!  I'm hooked

[gvv]

Hi,

So how the things are going?

While browsing I found this page:
http://sloreef.com/bojan/AmphiprionEphippium.htm#1.%29External%20Larval%20Rearing%20Tank
Really like the idea with internal Rearing Container, but not sure where to get the mesh screen... This may resolve the problem with water changes in larvae tank, which I hate

Also saw some suggestion of having phyto (1/3 of volume) in the separate tank - this, as it was suggested, may help with absorbing of nutrients from water, that pollutes the tank...

Regards