Amphiprion allardi (African Allardi Clownfish) Breeding Log!

[mwp]

An update on the Allardi...it's been a couple weeks since I noted their behavior. Lately, it seems that during the day, the larger fish is pretty dominating over the smaller allardi (which also is the smallest clown in the tank). At night however, both the Black Ocellaris pair and the Allardi pair hang with their respective mates. So far, it seems that the presence of the Allardi has strengthened the Black OC pair bond, but conversely the Black OC's presence seems to have weakened the bond between the 2 Allardi...

HMM.

Matt

 

[Kmiec123]

Very cool clowns Matt, Just wondering if having two pair in a tank, even though different type, can prevent the small juvi to change into/take on male role or remain juvi, being it's the smallest of four. You know I don't know, Just askin'/thinkin' Best of luck..Carl

 

[mwp]

Carl, you're actually thinking along the same lines I'm thinking....

Matt

 

[Kmiec123]

That really scares me

 

[vaporize]

oh wow, Congrats Matt, you are doing great with all these unusual clowns breeding, keep it going.

 

[mwp]

Well Vaporize, the Allardi and Black Ocellaris haven't spawned yet...but I DO have the GBG juvies as my 2nd feather in the cap!

Matt

 

[vaporize]

sorry what's the GBG stands for?

 

[TomRep]

Green Banded Goby

 

[mwp]

12-15-06 The level of aggression in the female Allardi is on the rise. She REALLY no longer likes the Black ocellaris pair, and from what I can tell, she's really putting on the pounds. I caught both Allardi in the Rhodactis sancithomae again yesterday evening. Just pumping them full of food to get them to grow (and hit maturity) as quickly as possible!

Matt

 

[vaporize]

how big are the Allardi?

 

[mwp]

12-26-06 - Strange happenings...sometime today the little Allardi felt comppelled to jump...and landed in the breeder net with the 3 remaining 60 day old Juvenile Onyx Percs (batch III). I'm guessing he and his mate have had somewhat of a falling out...as soon as I can free up the 6 gallon tank I think the Black OC's are going over there as I may have to re-pair the two Allardi????

No other news on this front...all is quite

Matt

 

[mwp]

12-29-06 Time to post some pictures...compare these to earlier on because I'm pretty sure the female has taken off on a huge growth spurt.

It's odd, she has the biggest appetite, while the male barely eats at all (but this isn't a health related thing, I think he just isn't feeding to put on size and weight like the female is). The big question for me is whether the pair of black Ocellaris has the Allardi male in "bottom of the totem pole" mode where he's staying inactive vs. becoming an active mate in the pair. However, it is pretty clear that at night, or when spooked, the respective pairs run to their mates for security. Bottom line, I just didn't expect a pronounced size disparity between male and female Allardi. I wonder how long it'll take to spawn these guys!

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

1-13-07, 1:45 AM - this is BEYOND wierd. I didn't make note of this here in this thread, but a few days back the "male" Black Ocellaris of the Black OC pair that share the tank with the Allardi, virtually vanished.

Tonight, I turned on the lights in the room and glanced at the tank that houses the single remaining "female" Black Ocellaris as well as the pair of Allardi. The small Allardi is at the surface, the "female" Black Ocellaris and large "female" Allardi are hanging out together at the cup coral??!?!??!

HMM.

Matt

 

[tmays]

You might end up with one heck of a cross! What will you call the babies?

 

[mwp]

Well actually Tmays I'm hoping I can get a new male for the Black Ocellaris and get them into their own tank...I'm much more interested in breeding both species as species, not a hybrid cross!

FWIW,

Matt

 

[xfury]

I realize i am probably way late on this one but i am curious on how you sexed your flames?

 

[mwp]

Flame Angels? Bought 'em young and introduced them at the same time....there's a thread on the experiment here. It worked for a while until the "female" turned up dead for no reason...

Matt

 

[xfury]

can you link that thread?

 

[mwp]

Josh - this thread on RareClownfish will point you to ALL my other Breeding Logs - http://www.rareclownfish.com/forums/showthread.php?t=804

1-14-07 - so the update on the Allardi. As you recall, I lost (literally, vanished) the male Black Ocellaris that shared the tank with the Alalrdi pair earlier this week. This morning, I woke up and looked into the tank, only saw the "female" Allardi and the "female" Black Ocellaris. The "Male" Allardi had VANISHED!

I literally flipped my lid, waved my arms eratically in the air, and wanted to break something. My plan was NOT to pair up an Allardi with a Black Ocellaris, but it sured looked like that's the direction things were heading.

After calming down a bit, I looked into the filtration and found both a mandarin AND the Male Allardi in the pump chamber. Saturday night, the male Allardi had been tucked way back into the corner at the surface while the other 2 clowns hung out, so I'm not surprised that he was chased out of the tank and jumped into the filtration. It's quite possible that this is what happened to the Black Ocellaris - why he wasn't found is still a mystery.

So I've come to the tentative conclusion that the female Allardi is getting a bit aggressive. With a replacement Black Ocellaris (thanks Joe Lichtenbert) arriving this evening, and it being beyond small (compared to the prior Male Ocellaris) I made the call to REMOVE the female Allardi from interacting with the other clowns. So, the female Allardi is now in a breeder net, able to see what's going on but not do anything about it.

So far she's pacing, and the male Allardi (who has been spending all day in the Rhodactis with the female) is now geting some attention from the female Black Ocellaris...he's doing what he can to defend the Rhodactis from the Black OC's but I won't be surprised if that power dynamic has shifted....I may be setting up yet another breeder net tomorrow.

That's the news...as soon as R. can come pick up the Perc babies, the Black OC's will get their own home.

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

Another thought: move the black ocellaris to the breeder net since its the odd female out. Let the allardis stay as a pair.