Spawning Clownfish

[JSweeney76]

Hey all. So I did a water change on my 75 gallon reef last night with no problems. I cleaned the glass and sand real well because I wanted to take some pictures of the tank and track how it's progressed. I start snapping some pics and notice that my two ocellaris clowns have spawned on the rock right adjacent to their anemone. I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've had discus spawn a couple of time, but never saltwater fish. I'm going to start researching this, but figured this site could be a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Thanks for the help.

 

[JSweeney76]

Some pics

 

[Widdy]

Here's an excellent primer, and comes highly recommended by breeders:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1890087041/?tag=reefs04-20

I'm at my 8th or 9th attempt with a pair of spawning gold striped maroons. It's been tough, but finally I'm able to keep 3 alive for about 13-16 days, finally seeing some physical fish characteristics. Food source is probably one of your biggest concern, you'll need constant supply of rotifers. Then there's the phytoplankton culture that you'll feed to rotifers, as rotifers itself has very little nutritional value. You can skip the phytoplankton culture, like I did, entirely by using algae paste/instant algae; particularly Nannochloropsis 3600. It is a bit pricey, but saving me from having another 2 (1 for backup) cultures is more than enough reason for me to use the algae paste.

Check www.marinebreeder.org for more info on breeding. Reed Mariculture and Brine Shrimp Direct has good articles on rotifers.

Be prepared to buy a good amount of equipment, unless you have a lot of spares laying around.

 

[fish keeper 7]

www.mofib.com everything you will need to know will most likely be here... just might have to do some digging. but its worth it.. some of these people are absolute PROFESSIONALS in breeding.

imo if you want to be able to one day get those little clown fry into a growout tank, find some nannochloripsis phytoplankton (live).. and try and set up 2-4 cultures of this (in case of a crash) and if you can do that.. you can have a constant supply of rotifers (also id say 2-4 cultures depending on space) there are a lot of techniques, 5 gallon bucket techniques, 1 gallon jar techniques.. its a lot of research but the payout i would imagine is remarkable.. if you can keep a phyto and rotifer culture happy and constant... you will definitely be able to get the little guys to adulthood.

(i dont want to sound like an expert or anything, i have NEVER had an egg layed in my tank, the most ive had is a breeding pair of mandarins who crashed along with my tank a couple of months ago so i never got them to reproduce and i never saw my female even hydrate =/) ive just done A LOT of reading since i would love to fill my room up with tanks and become a breeder one day. so im reading more on the MOFIB forums than i am here these days (sorry im cheating on you guys!) good luck if you decide to go through with it! you can find live phyto sources/rotifer sources on the mofib site or im sure some of the vendors on here have the supplies readily available.

 

[fish keeper 7]

i didnt even read Widdys post.... lol he pretty much said the same thing i did in a few less words... what i said is what i plan on doing. all the techniques are pretty much the same thing just slight variables. such as live phyto culture vs. algae paste. so good luck with whichever path you choose to use! i feel like i double posted now... lol hope you post your experience with the fry!

MOFIB and marinebreeder.org are the same thing.. btw.