breeding clown fish

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mr.cichlid

AC Members
Aug 28, 2008
373
0
0
Phoenix, AZ
Hi Friends,
I have two oscellaris clown fish without an anemone. Both seem to have paired and the reason i am saying this is that there are only two clown fish in my tank, one of them is larger, both dont fight at all, and both sleep together at a corner of the tank at night. I have lots of caves and flat ceramic tiles with overhead shelters in the tank. I will post some pics later. i have just started to feed them frozen food and i still feed them flakes and pellets sometimes. is there anything else i should be doing to get them to spawn?

i have a sixline wrasse, royal gramma, Y. Tang, lawnmower blenny, yellow watchman goby in this tank. All fish are healthy and doing gr8 together. There doesn't seem to be any agression b/n clowns and other fishes.

In terms of corals, i have a hammer head, toadstool (small), mushroom, polyps. I am thinking about adding frogspawn to the group.
 

Nolapete

Monster Tank Builder
May 29, 2007
5,274
1
0
New Orleans, LA
Clown fish will change sex depending on if an alpha female is present. If you start off with two smaller clown fish, they will likely both be male. The dominant one will grow larger and morph into a female. It's simplest way to get a pair in captivity. They usually like a flat rock under an anemone to spawn. The other fish you have in the tank will find the eggs and ravenously eat them though. Fry need rotifers and other small planktonic food to survive. Ken's Fish has Golden Clusters which might work well for clown fry. They are benthic (eggs stick to surface like cichlids) spawners.
 

ke6cdh

AC Members
Apr 2, 2009
7
0
0
Granada Hills, California
I have two gold stripe maroon clownfish that I am trying to breed. Except for the cleanup crew 2 peppermint shrimp and some snails they have a 125 gallon tank all to themselves. I am planning on using a 5 or 10 or 20 Gallon growout tank(s) depending on how many eggs they lay, once the eggs hatch. They hang out together and sleep together, but have not laid eggs yet. I have the brine shrimp eggs for feeding the fry after they are about 1 week old. I know I need smaller live food for the fry during the first week. I want to get some rotifers to culture for the first week to feed the fry. Before I culture the rotifers, I need to get some protoplanton cultures. I am in sunny Southren California, and have tried to get some started in clear plastic gallon water bottles outside in direct sunlight but have not been sucessful. Does anyone have some helpful hints, tips, formulas for culturing protoplanton so once it gets going I can culture the rotifers?
 

mr.cichlid

AC Members
Aug 28, 2008
373
0
0
Phoenix, AZ
my oscellaris clowns sleep together...recently added a clay pot in the tank beside frogspawn coral...they immediately made it their home...
am starting to think that they are too young to breed...
i want to understand how to cultivate rotifiers so i can prepare it when the time comes...
 

ke6cdh

AC Members
Apr 2, 2009
7
0
0
Granada Hills, California
You first have to raise (culture) photoplankton Nanochloropsus algae(micro algae) To feed the rotifers (zooplankton). I purchased some photoplankton from a local fish store and tried to start a culture outside in some Plastic gallon water jugs, and some 3 liter bottles, but the culture quickly crashed. I did not want to get the rotifers until I have Nanochloropsus cultures to feed them.
 

buttered loins

GO SPRINGBOKS!!!!
Jul 9, 2007
305
0
0
Wollongong, Sydney, Australia
I found it hard to succcessfully breed my pair of yellow striped marroon clowns. I had lots of rotifers and the water was kept percfect and I still couldnt get them to live. The longest I could get any to survive was 4 at day 10. that was my 6th attempt and i still failed so i gave it up and i think i might do it some other time.
 
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