Clownfish Breeding Diary

[fishnchip]

Hey Reefers!

I wanted to start this thread as a personal diary of sorts to follow my clownfish breeding journey and to share my experience in case it's useful to anyone looking to give it a go themselves.

To start, this is my first go at breeding saltwater fish. I've had reefs for about a decade, but have never given breeding a go, but figured, why not?

For my clownfish, I currently have two pairs and a few younger, unpaired fish. I thought today would be a good time to start this thread, as my Cquest x Doni F1 pair laid their first clutch after being in my care for a little over a month! Here's a picture from this morning:

Day 0:

I've been feeding my pairs about 3-4 times a day. A mix of LRS Fertility Frenzy, TDO ChromaBoost pellets, frozen mysis, and frozen brine shrimp. The mix each day is a little different. I keep their salinity at around 1.022 and their temp at 80F.

I have the APBreed Compact Culture bucket and rotifer sieve on hand, and just ordered the Rotifer Starter Kit from Reef Nutrition as well. I'll get those rotifers up and running as soon as they're delivered, and I'll throw a sponge filter in my tank now to seed for later use.

So I guess as of right now, I'm just crossing my fingers that the parents don't eat the eggs, and hopefully I'll be able to catch some pictures of the eggs developing in the days to come. Will keep this thread posted!

 

[Gman83]

Congrats! That's awesome! Do you know what the incubation period is?

 

[fishnchip]

Congrats! That's awesome! Do you know what the incubation period is?

Thank you!! I've seen people say hatch night is on day 10ish, so I'll be keeping a close eye once we get close for sure.

 

[fishnchip]

Clutch is looking pretty good this morning! Fingers are continuing to be crossed lol.

Also, don't mind my photography skills. Still learning how to use my camera, and there's a pretty thick biofilm going on on the glass that I refuse to clean until the clutch of eggs is out of there.

Day 1:

 

[fishnchip]

Definitely less eggs than before but we still have some going strong!

Day 3:

 

[gar732]

The clutches will get bigger the more they lay and hatches will get bigger as they better at tending to the eggs. I suggest running two rotifer cultures so that you have a back up if one crashes. You can just start another once the first gets established. Try to keep track of everything you do. There is a learning curve as you figure out what works best for you. Try not to get discouraged by loses, it happens unfortunately. I used to pull the pots on hatch day so that the fry didn’t get eaten by the parents or taken out by filtration or power heads. Just ran an air stone to keep the eggs from going bad.

 

[fishnchip]

The clutches will get bigger the more they lay and hatches will get bigger as they better at tending to the eggs. I suggest running two rotifer cultures so that you have a back up if one crashes. You can just start another once the first gets established. Try to keep track of everything you do. There is a learning curve as you figure out what works best for you. Try not to get discouraged by loses, it happens unfortunately. I used to pull the pots on hatch day so that the fry didn’t get eaten by the parents or taken out by filtration or power heads. Just ran an air stone to keep the eggs from going bad.

I'm going to work on setting up the second rotifer culture, possibly tomorrow!

Any tips on where to place the airstone if I were to pull the pot the eggs are on? I've seen some people struggle to find the right spot to get the right flow for the eggs, so I was planning to catch the fry once they hatch.

 

[gar732]

I used to put the air stone towards the back of the pot so that the air runs through all the eggs. You also want to make sure the air isn’t too high or too low, have to find that sweet spot. Your initial plan is probably best for the time being until you get a good feel for when they’ll hatch. Sometimes they can hatch a day early or a day late. You want to let them tend to the nest as long as possible. I’m looking forward to see what you get, my Picasso breeding pair was from doni as well, they should be some nice fish.

 

[jdubsquared]

This is really cool!

 

[fishnchip]

Egg numbers are down to about 40ish. Definitely less, BUT these guys are holding strong! I'm starting to see some little silver eyes as well.

I'm going to get their fry tank rock and rolling today in case they hatch a little early, as @gar732 mentioned they could.

And I'll definitely make sure to clean the glass next time so you can actually see the eggs lol.

Day 8:

 

[fishnchip]

I used to put the air stone towards the back of the pot so that the air runs through all the eggs. You also want to make sure the air isn’t too high or too low, have to find that sweet spot. Your initial plan is probably best for the time being until you get a good feel for when they’ll hatch. Sometimes they can hatch a day early or a day late. You want to let them tend to the nest as long as possible. I’m looking forward to see what you get, my Picasso breeding pair was from doni as well, they should be some nice fish.

Noted! Thank you! Yes, I'd be so excited to have some little Doni babies swimming around. I'm sure yours turned out awesome!

 

[fishnchip]

This is really cool!

Thank you!!

 

[litsoh]

Hey you’re starting, nice! Hope it goes well

 

[fishnchip]

Hey you’re starting, nice! Hope it goes well

Thank you!!

 

[gar732]

How’d it go?

 

[fishnchip]

How’d it go?

On day 8, I was helping a friend move and was gone for most of the day. The pair ended up eating the remaining eggs.

BUT today is day 14 since the last batch was laid, and we have some new eggs! Going to feed more often throughout the day to prevent that from happening again.

 

[gar732]

It might not have been lack of feeding, it could just be the clowns still getting used to tending to the nest, though I’m sure they’ll appreciate the extra grub. It’s common for them do that. The more the lay the better they’ll get and you’ll get more eggs making it to hatch. Hopefully you get to raise theirs next clutch.

 

[fishnchip]

Oh good to know! I’ll go with that to make myself feel better hahah

 

[fishnchip]

Little eyeballs are starting to shimmer. I know most hatch around day 8 and the eggs lose their orange coloration, but are there any other telltale signs it's hatch night? I'd hate to be off a day and miss it.

Day 6:

 

[strich]

Exciting stuff! Keep us updated!

One thing I read a long time ago somewhere was this guy who setup a flashlight at the top of the tank where a little hang on overflow weir was. And the babies went for the light and got carried away into the weir and to safety away from the big fish. I don't quite remember for kind species this was for so no idea if clown babies do that, might it seemed like a really cool idea to me at the time.