Breeding the Black Ocellaris

MantisReef

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About 20 years ago I got into Reefkeeping after keeping and breeding African Cichlids. Well, I finally have come full circle in my aquarium keeping hobby. After wanting to breed some kind of saltwater fish for many years, I finally decided to go for it.


I have had several breeding pairs of clownfish over the years but have never tried to raise the fry. Truthfully, I didn't have any idea how to begin.


My Black Ocellaris had been faithfully laying clutch after clutch of healthy looking eggs. So I decided to give it try. Let me tell you, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.


After 7 successful batches of fry, and 500 baby Black Clowns, I think I can call this experiment a success.


As with all good threads, now for some pics.

First off a picture of the proud parents on my display
6801816262_25ac951409_b.jpg



The first batch hatched 1 hour after lights out on Dec. 4th.
Here is batch A at day 3
6801766410_72339a5cbe_b.jpg

As you can see I'm using the green water technique.
 
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MantisReef

MantisReef

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After about 7 days of eating rotifers the fry go through metamorphosis where they change and start to look like baby clownfish.


Here they are at about 2 weeks old, second stripe starting to come in.


6801768886_364b608057_b.jpg
 
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MantisReef

MantisReef

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At about 2 months in age and 1" in length, I sent a pair off to live with my friend Kindler.
Here is a pic he took of them in his tank.


6801766734_6171191df5_b.jpg
 
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MantisReef

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Now at approximately 3 months in age and 1.5".
After eating lots and lots of Otohime, which is a Japanese fish pellet that breeders use. They look like this.


6801769906_72e9a95d4f_b.jpg
 
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MantisReef

MantisReef

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Thanks for checking out my thread. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.


6947878579_2889f87642_b.jpg
 
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MantisReef

MantisReef

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cool thread! what is the green water technique?

You tint the water green with Phyto for the first 7 days when the fry are eating rotifers.
Serves a couple purposes, first baby clownfish are very sensitive to light, so it makes the water murky and the fry more readily swim out into the open to hunt for food.
Second reason is you produce more rotifers in the nursery tank because they need phyto to reproduce.
I'm using RGcomplete phyto from Reed Mariculture, I also use this to keep my rotifer cultures going.
 
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allabout

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Very cool. I love the black percs, I really want to get a breeding pair! What's the difference between these and the onyx clowns? What do you do with all the babies, do you sell them?
 

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You tint the water green with Phyto for the first 7 days when the fry are eating rotifers.
Serves a couple purposes, first baby clownfish are very sensitive to light, so it makes the water murky and the fry more readily swim out into the open to hunt for food.
Second reason is you produce more rotifers in the nursery tank because they need phyto to reproduce.
I'm using RGcomplete phyto from Reed Mariculture, I also use this to keep my rotifer cultures going.

Thanks for the info! would love to breed some clownfishes some day. i have mated pairs before but never had any eggs..
 
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MantisReef

MantisReef

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Very cool. I love the black percs, I really want to get a breeding pair! What's the difference between these and the onyx clowns? What do you do with all the babies, do you sell them?

Onyx Clowns are Perculas these are Ocellaris, both are beautiful.
I'm planning on going to the Western Ohio Reef Club Frag Swap in Dayton, Ohio on March 24th to sell some pairs.
Probably a little far for you to get some :)
 
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