Clownfish Breeding Success

[litsoh]

About a year into setting up my first saltwater tank I was met with a pleasant surprise while my clownfish were in their “time out” tank:

Eggs! I knew my clowns were paired, but I didn’t think they would start laying this soon since pairing up. Since I was unprepared, I didn’t have any feed for the fry or any grow out tank to try and raise up this clutch so I left them alone and let the tank do its thing. I wanted to take up the challenge of breeding so I began the long research process. Thankfully I was able to get a lot of information from here and on youtube on what I would need to do.

This was August 2024, fast forward to November 2024 after some trial and error and I now had:

A nice little clutch that my clowns finally laid in the flowerpot that I placed in the tank. By this point I had my culture of rotifers going and I began to track the days until the expected hatch date.

This log of my clowns has continued on my text messages since then. I pretty much have their timeline dialed in, eggs hatch on days 8 and 9 and then I have about a day or two until she lays another clutch.

My first successful batch was first held in a simple 5 gallon bucket stocked with rotifers and a simple airstone. I would siphon out the debris on the bottom every day and do a 25% water change to keep ammonia down.

Once they grew a bit more I started feeding TDO pellets as well to help get them ready for meta, where I expected the most losses to come.

Post meta I moved them from the bucket to an actual tank so I could more clearly observe them. I now had two separate clutches going, one in the tank and the other waiting for meta in another bucket.

Eventually the second batch made it through meta and were moved to another tank to begin the grow out. By this point the hard part was done, all that was left was to feed and watch them grow.

Here’s batch 1 taken this January:

And here’s batch 2, also in January:

Since then my clowns have laid clutch after clutch and I’ve noticed the number of eggs has grown as well. When I collected that first batch they were only laying about 50 eggs, but now it’s easily in the 100s. Unfortunately I have not taken any of the clutches apart from these two that are currently growing otherwise my house would be filled with tanks. Can’t have that just yet :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Fast forward to today and here’s how they’re looking:

Batch 1

And Batch 2

I have noticed that batch 1 is much larger than batch 2 overall despite only being 10 days apart. I figure this is due to the numbers of fish. Since batch 1 has less overall, there’s less competition for food so they can eat more food. As of right now most of the first batch is about 1.5” in length and the second batch is more towards the 1-1.25” mark.

To this day I still have no idea how I was able to get this far but I’m glad to be at this point!

 

[littlefoxx]

Super cool! Are you going to sell them??

 

[litsoh]

Super cool! Are you going to sell them??

Yeah I already talked with my LFS and they said they are interested in buying. I’m definitely keeping two of the nicer ones for my big tank.

 

[Tahoe61]

Excellent job!!!!!!!

Thank you for sharing your journey. Rearing clowns is no easy task.

:)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Congrats on being able to breed clownfish!

 

[litsoh]

Thank you guys! It was definitely time consuming. Going forward I'm probably just going to raise one clutch at a time to make it easier on my end. I definitely would not have been able to do it without reading up on all the breeding threads here. It was such a huge help.

 

[afboundguy]

Congrats! I tried raising a batch but I couldn't catch the larvae and the ones I did catch didn't like the 3D printed setup I used and I think they got injured going through the piping. I even tried the vossen larvae trap and no matter what I've tried my clows won't lay eggs on a tile and I don't want to move them from my DT.

So I am going to try and catch some eggs from my mated mandarin pair one of these days! Why not just start out hard and not easy?!?!?!?! I also have what I believe is a mated pair of dottybacks with a male Indigo and a female Orchid that I have been trying to see if they are breeding but the darn Indigo is awfully tricky with his 2-3 caves and I can't see inside!

 

[rhitee93]

Wow, that is cool!

 

[litsoh]

Congrats! I tried raising a batch but I couldn't catch the larvae and the ones I did catch didn't like the 3D printed setup I used and I think they got injured going through the piping. I even tried the vossen larvae trap and no matter what I've tried my clows won't lay eggs on a tile and I don't want to move them from my DT.

So I am going to try and catch some eggs from my mated mandarin pair one of these days! Why not just start out hard and not easy?!?!?!?! I also have what I believe is a mated pair of dottybacks with a male Indigo and a female Orchid that I have been trying to see if they are breeding but the darn Indigo is awfully tricky with his 2-3 caves and I can't see inside!

I had that same issue. When I first started collecting fry I would use a light to attract them to the surface and then scooped them out using a cup. I think that stressed out the fry too much and they wouldn't survive.

I eventually switched to using a flower pot. My clowns didn't immediately take to the pot as well. What I did was I placed the pot to block the spot where they would usually lay to kind of "force" them to use it. Then when they did I moved it to where I wanted to pot to go and they followed. That made it easier for me and easier on the fry when they hatched out since I could just remove the pot and transfer it to a bucket to have them hatch out.

Good luck with the Mandarins! Those are my absolute favorite fish.

 

[Freenow54]

About a year into setting up my first saltwater tank I was met with a pleasant surprise while my clownfish were in their “time out” tank:

Eggs! I knew my clowns were paired, but I didn’t think they would start laying this soon since pairing up. Since I was unprepared, I didn’t have any feed for the fry or any grow out tank to try and raise up this clutch so I left them alone and let the tank do its thing. I wanted to take up the challenge of breeding so I began the long research process. Thankfully I was able to get a lot of information from here and on youtube on what I would need to do.

This was August 2024, fast forward to November 2024 after some trial and error and I now had:

A nice little clutch that my clowns finally laid in the flowerpot that I placed in the tank. By this point I had my culture of rotifers going and I began to track the days until the expected hatch date.

This log of my clowns has continued on my text messages since then. I pretty much have their timeline dialed in, eggs hatch on days 8 and 9 and then I have about a day or two until she lays another clutch.

My first successful batch was first held in a simple 5 gallon bucket stocked with rotifers and a simple airstone. I would siphon out the debris on the bottom every day and do a 25% water change to keep ammonia down.

Once they grew a bit more I started feeding TDO pellets as well to help get them ready for meta, where I expected the most losses to come.

Post meta I moved them from the bucket to an actual tank so I could more clearly observe them. I now had two separate clutches going, one in the tank and the other waiting for meta in another bucket.

Eventually the second batch made it through meta and were moved to another tank to begin the grow out. By this point the hard part was done, all that was left was to feed and watch them grow.

Here’s batch 1 taken this January:

And here’s batch 2, also in January:

Since then my clowns have laid clutch after clutch and I’ve noticed the number of eggs has grown as well. When I collected that first batch they were only laying about 50 eggs, but now it’s easily in the 100s. Unfortunately I have not taken any of the clutches apart from these two that are currently growing otherwise my house would be filled with tanks. Can’t have that just yet :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Fast forward to today and here’s how they’re looking:

Batch 1

And Batch 2

I have noticed that batch 1 is much larger than batch 2 overall despite only being 10 days apart. I figure this is due to the numbers of fish. Since batch 1 has less overall, there’s less competition for food so they can eat more food. As of right now most of the first batch is about 1.5” in length and the second batch is more towards the 1-1.25” mark.

To this day I still have no idea how I was able to get this far but I’m glad to be at this point!

Wow congratulations. I had a same experience time after time with cichlids' the big challenge was unknown to me they are cannibals. Never seen that with clowns I really would not mind trying

 

[litsoh]

Wow congratulations. I had a same experience time after time with cichlids' the big challenge was unknown to me they are cannibals. Never seen that with clowns I really would not mind trying

If you do leave the fry in there long enough the clowns will eat their own fry, but in my experience you have a good amount of time to collect them before they get eaten. Often after hatch nights I would still see fry swimming around the morning afterwards. I do feed my fish twice a day though so that may also be the reason they leave the fry alone for a longer time lol

 

[afboundguy]

I had that same issue. When I first started collecting fry I would use a light to attract them to the surface and then scooped them out using a cup. I think that stressed out the fry too much and they wouldn't survive.

I eventually switched to using a flower pot. My clowns didn't immediately take to the pot as well. What I did was I placed the pot to block the spot where they would usually lay to kind of "force" them to use it. Then when they did I moved it to where I wanted to pot to go and they followed. That made it easier for me and easier on the fry when they hatched out since I could just remove the pot and transfer it to a bucket to have them hatch out.

Good luck with the Mandarins! Those are my absolute favorite fish.

I tried putting tile where they were laying and they just kept changing where they were laying and then I'd move the tile to the new spot and then they'd just keep moving where they were laying!

 

[litsoh]

I tried putting tile where they were laying and they just kept changing where they were laying and then I'd move the tile to the new spot and then they'd just keep moving where they were laying!

Maybe try a pot instead of a tile to make it a little more secluded and secure for them? I've noticed that they lay more in the overhang/shaded area when the pot is on its side.

 

[afboundguy]

Maybe try a pot instead of a tile to make it a little more secluded and secure for them? I've noticed that they lay more in the overhang/shaded area when the pot is on its side.

I might have room for that but it would ruin the aesthetics of my tank at the moment. Coupled with not being totally setup for a larvae and grow out setup plus trying to plan a huge tank upgrade. I have thought about keeping my 35 DT if and when I upgrade and make it into a clownfish harem setup full of anenomes and if I did that I could throw in lots!

 

[litsoh]

I might have room for that but it would ruin the aesthetics of my tank at the moment. Coupled with not being totally setup for a larvae and grow out setup plus trying to plan a huge tank upgrade. I have thought about keeping my 35 DT if and when I upgrade and make it into a clownfish harem setup full of anenomes and if I did that I could throw in lots!

A clownfish harem is definitely one of my "If I won the lottery" kind of tanks :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[afboundguy]

A clownfish harem is definitely one of my "If I won the lottery" kind of tanks :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

Easy to do in a 35 gallon cube! Especially if I catch and raise their babies!!!

 

[Chadster]

About a year into setting up my first saltwater tank I was met with a pleasant surprise while my clownfish were in their “time out” tank:

Eggs! I knew my clowns were paired, but I didn’t think they would start laying this soon since pairing up. Since I was unprepared, I didn’t have any feed for the fry or any grow out tank to try and raise up this clutch so I left them alone and let the tank do its thing. I wanted to take up the challenge of breeding so I began the long research process. Thankfully I was able to get a lot of information from here and on youtube on what I would need to do.

This was August 2024, fast forward to November 2024 after some trial and error and I now had:

A nice little clutch that my clowns finally laid in the flowerpot that I placed in the tank. By this point I had my culture of rotifers going and I began to track the days until the expected hatch date.

This log of my clowns has continued on my text messages since then. I pretty much have their timeline dialed in, eggs hatch on days 8 and 9 and then I have about a day or two until she lays another clutch.

My first successful batch was first held in a simple 5 gallon bucket stocked with rotifers and a simple airstone. I would siphon out the debris on the bottom every day and do a 25% water change to keep ammonia down.

Once they grew a bit more I started feeding TDO pellets as well to help get them ready for meta, where I expected the most losses to come.

Post meta I moved them from the bucket to an actual tank so I could more clearly observe them. I now had two separate clutches going, one in the tank and the other waiting for meta in another bucket.

Eventually the second batch made it through meta and were moved to another tank to begin the grow out. By this point the hard part was done, all that was left was to feed and watch them grow.

Here’s batch 1 taken this January:

And here’s batch 2, also in January:

Since then my clowns have laid clutch after clutch and I’ve noticed the number of eggs has grown as well. When I collected that first batch they were only laying about 50 eggs, but now it’s easily in the 100s. Unfortunately I have not taken any of the clutches apart from these two that are currently growing otherwise my house would be filled with tanks. Can’t have that just yet :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Fast forward to today and here’s how they’re looking:

Batch 1

And Batch 2

I have noticed that batch 1 is much larger than batch 2 overall despite only being 10 days apart. I figure this is due to the numbers of fish. Since batch 1 has less overall, there’s less competition for food so they can eat more food. As of right now most of the first batch is about 1.5” in length and the second batch is more towards the 1-1.25” mark.

To this day I still have no idea how I was able to get this far but I’m glad to be at this point!

Thanks for posting, im expecting mine to hatch tonight or tomorrow. Honestly I think I will go with your approach and just use a 5 gallon bucket. My first batch I tried to use the fry cages you can get at the lfs but clownfry are smaller than the mesh. Lol this is my second attempt I was about to to enact any second now lol, same fry net with filter pads being used as walls to cut the flow down and stop them from escaping through the mesh.

 

[litsoh]

I’d be careful of the stress that you would put on the fry when transferring them to the bucket. I’ve noticed the mortality rates are higher when the fry are transferred vs. when they are able to hatch out into the bucket already.

If you are using a lighter colored bucket I’d also try to wrap the outside of the bucket with a dark towel or garbage bag to limit the light that gets in. I’ve found that it’s such a fine line between giving them enough light so that they can see the rotifers and giving too much light where they’re bunching up on the edges of the bucket. It was something that I would have to constantly adjust along with tinting the water.

 

[Chadster]

I’d be careful of the stress that you would put on the fry when transferring them to the bucket. I’ve noticed the mortality rates are higher when the fry are transferred vs. when they are able to hatch out into the bucket already.

If you are using a lighter colored bucket I’d also try to wrap the outside of the bucket with a dark towel or garbage bag to limit the light that gets in. I’ve found that it’s such a fine line between giving them enough light so that they can see the rotifers and giving too much light where they’re bunching up on the edges of the bucket. It was something that I would have to constantly adjust along with tinting the water.

Yea, I put a clay pot in the tank but they keep laying on that glass jar my anemone is in. Suppose I could just move the whole anemone over but don't really want to stress my clowns out. How much light do you give them? I was planning on using a low power blue led light I have. With the height I have it at, the par in the bucket is about 30-90.

Also in terms of feeding, I ordered lived rotifers. Are you using separate buckets to culture them or can you do that in the same bucket as the fry?

 

[litsoh]

Yea, I put a clay pot in the tank but they keep laying on that glass jar my anemone is in. Suppose I could just move the whole anemone over but don't really want to stress my clowns out. How much light do you give them? I was planning on using a low power blue led light I have. With the height I have it at, the par in the bucket is about 30-90.

Also in terms of feeding, I ordered lived rotifers. Are you using separate buckets to culture them or can you do that in the same bucket as the fry?

I guess I got lucky with getting my clowns to lay where I wanted them to lol.

In terms of lighting I used a dymax nano light that gave me blues and whites. I never really measured the par, I just kind of eyeballed it. If I noticed more fry were towards the bottom of the bucket I would adjust the lid covering and light placement accordingly.

If I remember correctly fry at bottom = too much light.
Fry at surface = not enough light
Fry hugging the walls of the bucket = tint the water a little more.

Live rotifers are pretty much the only way to guarantee that the fry will feed so that’s good. I managed with a single culture in a separate bucket but it is best to have at least two cultures going in case one crashes. Once add in the rotifers to the fry bucket they can pretty much reproduce fast enough to not be depleted so long as you are on top of tinting the water with your phyto. I never had to harvest after my initial feed since I could see enough rotifers in the fry bucket. I’d suggest starting out the fry bucket a day or two before the eggs even hatch so that you can seed it with rotifers already and they have a chance to get a healthy population. Putting in a seeded sponge will also help with your ammonia issues as well.