Why do my clownsfish keep eating the eggs?

[ddwatson]

So I am trying to figure out why some of my clown pairs keep eating their eggs. Any input will be appreciated. The platinums in particular have eaten them 5 times now. My mochas laid huge clutches in the beginning and now eat about half or more of their eggs before the hatch. I feed 4 times a day. 2 times TDO and 2 times frozen meat mixtures. Ammonia is at 0 Nitrates are at 10-20. From everything I have read the nitrates are not out of line. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[redfishbluefish]

The one person I knew who raised clown fish would have a tile in the tank where they would lay the eggs. Once the eggs showed up, he would remove the tile to a separate tank.

 

[TrialandError]

They could be getting stressed out or just really new at the whole breeding thing. I know when I was breeding freshwater fish it sometimes took the parents a while to catch on. Some never make good parents and I had to raise the eggs myself.


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[frezel]

lol mine have eaten the last 3 clutches only leaving about 10-15 eggs behind, i do notice that mine get reall skitichs and go over to eggs and seem like there frantically cleaning slash eating but not sure, next clutch im not even gonna disturb them.

can you pull the tile out when the eggs are laid? i gues you would have to aerate them well.

 

[ddwatson]

Not the best scenario to pull as soon as they lay. Hard to mimic the actual tending the male does. I tried it once and the batch of eggs never hatched. Most of the time they eat them for a good reason according to what I have read I just can't figure out the reason in my case.


David

 

[dsmhero]

No don't pull when the eggs are laid. They will eventually get the hang of it, my clowns took 4-6 times before they stopped eating their eggs.

 

[fragman2]

The specific problem with pulling them out early is that they are not being kept clean by the male. This can lead to fouling and/or fungus and that spreads to all the eggs rather quickly. I pull the rock, flower pot or tile on the expected hatching day an hour or two prior to lights out. With mild bubbles directed towards the clutch I usually get half or more to hatch out. The next morning I take the remaining clutch back to the parents who usually accept them. Sometimes they eat the remaining eggs but usually they clean them up by removing damaged or dead ons and I repeat the process on night 2 of hatching with the remaining viable eggs. I'm considering moving the parents out of the main tank and into their own tank to try and increase the number of larvae that I collect and ultimately survive. It's hard to do better than good parents do naturally. Give your clowns a chance and I'm sure that they will come around.

 

[Jescalante81]

My clowns layed yesterday for the first time. And they are in my main tank. But i dont know what to do .


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[akabryanhall]

They instinctually know if the eggs are viable and will eat non viable eggs to replace vital nutrients. What are you feeding them? You may need to start feeding them twice a day, rods food herbivore blend. Its not all veggies, meat as well but more veggies than regular rods. I found that if i fed too much of regular rods food, my clowns would start to bloat. Since I switched, the bloat hasn't returned.