Indonesian Skunk Clown Breeding

[Huskymaniac]

I have a pair of wild caught skunk clowns. Definitly a male/female par based on size and have had them since November. I wanted to attempt to breed them but other than sharing an anemone and chasing each other around every now and then I haven't noticed any type of mating behavior etc. I also noticed that jo one has really ever sold this fish via aquaculture. Is there something different about this type of clownfish? Any tips? I am already feeding upwards of 4 times a day.

 

[Peace River]

I have a pair of wild caught skunk clowns. Definitly a male/female par based on size and have had them since November. I wanted to attempt to breed them but other than sharing an anemone and chasing each other around every now and then I haven't noticed any type of mating behavior etc. I also noticed that jo one has really ever sold this fish via aquaculture. Is there something different about this type of clownfish? Any tips? I am already feeding upwards of 4 times a day.

Congratulations on the clowns! For clarification can you clarify what species of clownfish that you have. I am assuming it is either the Amphiprion akallopisos or the Amphiprion sandaracinos. Even with the Amphiprion perideriaion (pink skunk), Wilkerson lists them as difficult to breed.

#clownfish #clowns #breeding

 

[Huskymaniac]

A. Akallapisos

 

[Peace River]

Beautiful fish!

@OrionN - do you have any thoughts or tips on breeding A. Akallapisos?

 

[OrionN]

I am sorry, I have never try breeding them.
In general, keep them well fed and you should get them in breeding condition. Dry food are a lot more calories dense than frozen food. Don't feed 100% frozen, they will not have good offspring. You must feed either all (good) dry food or else mostly good dry food in order to bring them into breeding condition. Once you get them into breeding condition and spawn, they you can worry about raising the babies.
You will have difficulty selling the babies. I try breeding as a challenge, and for fun. There is no way you can breed them for profit. volume wise, Ocellaris and Percula, or variance of these two species sell the fastest.

 

[Peace River]

I am sorry, I have never try breeding them.

No worries. Few, if any, have bred this specific species, however I am assuming they would be comparable to the others in the Skunk complex.

In general, keep them well fed and you should get them in breeding condition. Dry food are a lot more calories dense than frozen food. Don't feed 100% frozen, they will not have good offspring. You must feed either all (good) dry food or else mostly good dry food in order to bring them into breeding condition. Once you get them into breeding condition and spawn, they you can worry about raising the babies.
You will have difficulty selling the babies. I try breeding as a challenge, and for fun. There is no way you can breed them for profit. volume wise, Ocellaris and Percula, or variance of these two species sell the fastest.

Thank you for the tips. This is helpful to anyone trying to breeding clowns (and even for other fishes).

 

[LatinKing]

Many breeder and myself feed our broodstock TDO & LRS Fertility Frenzy.

 

[Snowcassoking]

Beautiful

 

[Huskymaniac]

Still not breeding. Feeding LRS 4 times per day. I have noticed the female in a few occasions had wounds on its which I am assuming is from the Male. They have been in this tank for roughly 9 months

 

[OrionN]

Males clownfish do not inflict wound on females, it is the other way around. It must be from another animal.
Before breeding start, you will see the female full of eggs, she appears to be full even before you feed her for the day. Keep on feeding them.

 

[sabeypets]

They are, and have been commercially available for years through Sustainable Aquatics. They are more challenging to get to spawn than typical clownfish, and being wild caught makes them even more challenging. Wild caughts mature much slower than tank raised and may need to be at least 4 years old to spawn.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Almost a year later and still no babies!!!

 

[ichthyogeek]

Let's see...it's was either the Wittenrich book, or another author, but there's definitely an anecdote I found about breeding clownfish...it went something like this:

Pair of clownfish were kept in a 30 gallon tank with an anemone for a long period of time and did not spawn. Pair was then moved to a bare tank with only a clay flowerpot for cover, and (almost) immediately spawned for the breeder. Conclusion: bored fish have sex (ichthyogeek comment: "wow, what a mind boggling concept!").

It could be that they're too young. It could also be that they got an improper diet when younger. Or it could be that they're just facing a calorie deficit right now, and won't spawn until that deficit has been surpassed. How chunky are the fish now?

 

[Huskymaniac]

Let's see...it's was either the Wittenrich book, or another author, but there's definitely an anecdote I found about breeding clownfish...it went something like this:

Pair of clownfish were kept in a 30 gallon tank with an anemone for a long period of time and did not spawn. Pair was then moved to a bare tank with only a clay flowerpot for cover, and (almost) immediately spawned for the breeder. Conclusion: bored fish have sex (ichthyogeek comment: "wow, what a mind boggling concept!").

It could be that they're too young. It could also be that they got an improper diet when younger. Or it could be that they're just facing a calorie deficit right now, and won't spawn until that deficit has been surpassed. How chunky are the fish now?

They get fed 3 times a day with a combo of lrs, spirulina brine, and mysis. In terms of relative they definitely aren't calorie deficient.

 

[sabeypets]

Sometimes mimicking there spawning season will trigger spawning. Warmer temperatures, Raise the temperature a couple of degrees to 80F - 82F. Longer days, run lights a couple of hours longer, from 12 hours a day to 14 a day. Abundance of foods, feed live foods, brineshrimp, black worms, ect.

 

[ichthyogeek]

They get fed 3 times a day with a combo of lrs, spirulina brine, and mysis. In terms of relative they definitely aren't calorie deficient.

Have you considered changing the spirulina brine for fattier foods like squid or black/white worms? And how chunky are the fish?

 

[Huskymaniac]

Have you considered changing the spirulina brine for fattier foods like squid or black/white worms? And how chunky are the fish?

They are fat. Their main diet is LRS Reef Frenzy and they only get spirulina Brine is because I have to feed some smaller nano fish and this is all they eat. There are times I feed them up to 6 times a day.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Finally some progress. The male is cleaning rocks and doing the shimmy dance. Female is still not showing interest but hopefully this is the start of it. Video of the male below.

 

[ThRoewer]

It can take years before a pair of Amphiprion starts spawning, especially if you got them fairly young. It also depends a bit on which group they belong to.
The ones of the percula group seem to be the slowest. Some of the wild percula i got as juveniles or young adults took between 3 to 5 years to spawn for the first time.
On the other hand, the members of the clarkii group (the 16+ species lumped together under A. clarkii, and A. tricinctus) and Indo-African group (A. bicinctus, A. allardi, the 3 A. latifasciatus forms/species, A. chrysogaster, A. omanensis, A. nigripes, and the elusive A. fuscocaudatus) seem to get busy faster. My bicinctus spawned almost immediately after their 3 months of quarantine and my milii got down to business after almost precisely a year.

What I found to help a lot is to add other spawning fish to the same tank or system. I think the hormones these other pairs release into the water makes the Anemonefish horny. Best suited for this purpose are Pseudochromis dottybacks as pretty much nothing can stop those guys from trying to make more of their kind. Adult Marine Betta also usually spawn within a month after putting a male and female together.

In general, unless you're doing it as a business, I would recommend to wait. Unless you bought a seriously geriatric pair, they should spawn sooner or later.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Finally!