Can Clownfish eggs be moved?

nnhchase · Sep 7, 2023

Well, in a very surprisingly and lovely turn of events, our saddleback clowns have become parents! However, I worry about the eggs they have laid in our 215 gallon tank as I do not want the eggs or fry to be eaten. The eggs are attached to the wall of the tank. Can these be transferred/removed safely? Or should I leave it be until they hatch and worry about it then?

KrisReef · Sep 7, 2023

I always left mine to fend for themselves. I never had the time or talent to raise rotifers to feed them, so I didn't worry about which coral or fish ingested them. Cruel world, but scraping them off is going to mess with mom & dad's nest/minds. If you can scrape them, then you need to set up a refuge for them, another tank, and I have been told that its a lot of work. Great if you want to do this, but to do it right you need to plan. That said, mine would throw down a new nest every couple of weeks. Give you time to plan for the next one. Put something near the nest to catch the next batch so you can move it away from harms way?

CoralB · Sep 7, 2023

When I bred discus back in the day we got them to lay eggs on clay pots . And I would either let the parents rear them or on occasion especially with a new pair that I thought would eat them or abandon them I would remove the cones or the fish and artificially raise them . Once your sure that they’ve been fertilized and you choose to go that route it will be time consuming in feeding multi times a day , keeping their tank extremely clean by sucking out crud and doing partial small water changes etc. all the time , keeping a slight aeration to create current over the eggs to keep debris and stuff from attracting and rotting the eggs . It’s definitely a job and that’s just getting the eggs to hatch . The next part like KRISREEF stated is another story with raising food and feeding multiple times during the day to eventually culling them etc. as far scrapping them off the glass that’s a tough one although I’ve never done that I could only imagine how difficult not losing most of them would be . But I wish you the best of luck

Cell · Sep 7, 2023

Rearing those eggs is quite a process, if you aren't prepared I would just wait for the next clutch.

D-Nak · Sep 11, 2023

I guess the question is, what are you planning to do with the eggs/babies?

The recommendation is typically to wait a few cycles before you plan to raise the babies. The reasons are:

Making sure the eggs are viable. Sometimes the female will lay eggs and the male isn't good a fertilizing them.
Giving the parents time to get used to raising babies. It's primarily the male's responsibility to properly tend to the eggs (removing infertile or dead ones, preventing disease/infection, removing algae/pests, etc.).
The parent's diet can be adjusted now that they're laying (I recommend LRS Fertility Frenzy) which oftentimes results in larger, healthier clutches.

If you can place a tile near the original nest location, the female may end up laying on it and then you can easily remove the tile. I have a tile clamped onto the wall of one of my breeding tanks and the female always lays on it.

nnhchase · Sep 11, 2023

D-Nak said:
I guess the question is, what are you planning to do with the eggs/babies?

The recommendation is typically to wait a few cycles before you plan to raise the babies. The reasons are:

Making sure the eggs are viable. Sometimes the female will lay eggs and the male isn't good a fertilizing them.

Giving the parents time to get used to raising babies. It's primarily the male's responsibility to properly tend to the eggs (removing infertile or dead ones, preventing disease/infection, removing algae/pests, etc.).

The parent's diet can be adjusted now that they're laying (I recommend LRS Fertility Frenzy) which oftentimes results in larger, healthier clutches.

If you can place a tile near the original nest location, the female may end up laying on it and then you can easily remove the tile. I have a tile clamped onto the wall of one of my breeding tanks and the female always lays on it.

We're hoping to rear them if we can, I've been monitoring them and the parents have been doing great protecting and keeping them clean. We never even thought about them actually reproducing (they're not even in a breeding tank, just our general tank) otherwise I would've put a small pot or a flat rock where they host in the tank. If this clutch ends up not working out I'll be doing that in the future.