Clownfish breeding behavior?

[Brewman1987]

hi everyone,

So my ocellaris clowns that I bought as a pair 3 years ago have been starting to act strange. Lately during the day time I will notice a sand storm in the tank, and when I go to inspect I see both male and female on the sand making a small bowl in the sand. Last night when I was preparing to feed the tank I noticed they were practically laying on the sand bed, female in front and male directly behind her. They acted almost like they were in a trance and finally came about.

Does this sound like pre breeding behavior?

 

[ludnix]

It's a very common thing for clowns to do. Try googling "Clownfish stirring up sand" and you'll see a lot of other people having this happen across the genus. I don't know if it's breeding behavior necessarily, it sounds like a lot of other people are seeing this happen even with a single clownfish. I would checkout Joyce D. Wilkerson's book on clownfish, it's filled to the brim with really interesting information and helped my successfully breed my pair. It was more work than I'm willing to put in for me to do it again, but maybe when I'm retired!