Are my clowns going to spawn?

[Martini5788]

So over the last 2 days my clowns have really been going crazy with the sideways shaking seizure thing and are cleaning the crap out of the side of a rock and pushing/ blowing the sand away. They don't consistently stay close to that rock, they will swim around the tank and aren't necessarily chasing the other fish away too aggressively. But they do return to it and continue cleaning and such. I thought it would take longer for them to get to this point, as I have only had them for 2 months. Should I expect eggs soon?

 

[clownfish123321]

From all the threads i have read on breeding clowns yes they are going to spawn soon if i were you i would start my rotifer culture

 

[Martini5788]

I read a few other posts, and I'm hoping that they are just doing the behavior and not actually going to lay eggs. I don't know if I would have a clear conscience if I just left them in there and let them die but I am really not ready to try and raise baby clowns. I suppose time will tell.

 

[Martini5788]

Also, out of curiosity, what kind of cost is involved in raising the babies? Not the tank, heater, air stone, but the food and things like that.

 

[rhdoug]

Unless you have a lot of time and space in which to setup phytoplankton cultures, and rotifer cultures, then don't sweat it. It is time consuming and relatively expensive to get the initial cultures and equipment going to a degree that you can raise larvae. So even if they do spawn, and you decide to try and raise them, you have plenty time for both them and you to get your respective acts together. The first few spawns are "practice spawns", and they will get larger with time. Get the Wilkerson book "Clownfishes" for detailed info on raising them. Mine spawn like clockwork about every 2 weeks. I did raise a few batches about 10 years ago, it's a lot of work. I still have one of the "babies".

As far as guilt, I read somewhere that about one in a million larvae make it to adulthood in the wild, so that is a lot of clownfish hatches to go before you get to have a conscience problem! Seriously the larvae are excellent food for the tank, and they hatch at night while mom and dad are sleeping. Probably to prevent mom and dad from eating them. Your corals with thank you and them.

 

[Martini5788]

Haha that makes me feel a little bit better. How long does it take before they reach a size that they can be sold?

 

[rhdoug]

Too long! If memory serves, I think it was around 6 months. At that point the maroons really needed to be separated because they start killing one another.

 

[Martini5788]

Gotcha. I am considering doing it, if they do start laying, and after a few months of them consistently doing it. But I have no idea what I would do with the babies? The closest fish store is over an hour away from me. I'm assuming that the majority of them do not survive, is that true? I know that is depends on their care and genetics and such, but is there a normal range?

 

[rhdoug]

Yeah that is a problem. Don't expect to get much for them unless they are designer clowns. I thought it would at least pay for the expense of raising them but all I was ever able to do was trade for livestock, but honestly that was fine with me.

 

[Martini5788]

Yeah, I have onyx perculas. I wouldn't mind trading for livestock, but I'm not sure that the expense and time involved is necessarily worth it and would pay off in the long run.

 

[rhdoug]

If you decide to do it, just realize that you are doing it for the experience, not for the money. In that sense, it was worth it for me. Check out the "10 years in the life of a clownfish" thread I started yesterday, you can see the "baby" I mentioned earlier.

 

[Martini5788]

Oh my goodness I might have to do it after seeing the tiny one. That is adorable. I'll look into it, if they start laying that is