Breeding My clownfish??

Bafumi64

New member
Hello, I have a 55 gallon reef, with 1 yellow tang, and 3 clowns, ( one snowflake clown, 2 ocellaris ), and a lawn mower blenny. Then I have 12g fluvial tank, with live rock and a neon dottyback. I REALLY want to breed my clowns, I am assuming that my snowflake and the bigger ocelleris are a pair because they swim/sleep together, and leave out the smaller one, ( planning on getting one more clown so the small one is not alone ). After watching thousands of breeding videos, I "think" I know what I am doing, so my plan is to remove the dottyback from the 12g, ( prob gonna sell him, too worried about putting him in the main reef cause hes aggressive, and not sure how he will do around my corals ), And then use the "flower pot" method with them, ( forget to mention, these clowns show many signs of being a pair, kicking up sand, one is twitching on the other, etc, but will this work despite one being a snowflake clown, and one a basic? ), then if they spawn I would leave them ( eggs and parents ) in the 12g for one week, than instead of removing the eggs to a different system, I was planning on keeping them in fluvial, than putting my clowns back in 55g. Now this is where im confused, so I have the eggs in fluvial, and they hatch,so now what, I have heard of rotifers or whatever they are called and im lost, are they like copepods, or what. And I feed the hatch-lings those things? And shut off filter for 12g, but get an airstone for circulation?. Any experienced breeders wanna help instruct me on what to do?:rollface:
 
I would strongly suggest getting the book clownfishes by joyce wilkerson. Also the is a fish breeding forum right below this one, go around and read a bunch of those threads.

I also would not add a 4th clown and would suggest removeing the 3rd or if the 2 ever do start breeding the 3rd will usually end up dead.

If you move the parents from one tank to another after they laid eggs be prepared to wait along time for them to start laying again, i suggest removeing the eggs to a new tank not the parents.

Good luck
 
Good thing I didn't pick up the 4th clownfish, and I'm considering removing the 3rd clown, not sure to get a 3rd tank started just for him, or sell. Once I get rid of the dotty act im not sure if I should either put the 2 clowns in the 12g together and then once they spawn take them out, or do I have to start a small tank just for the fry, I'm wondering if even my clowns have spawned in the main tank and the eggs would have most likes be eaten by the Blenny or yellow tang, I'm not sure. So I should keep the parents in the same breeding tank? Then with the whole Rotifers thing seems confusing, I've heard feeding the fry egg yolks? I'm gonna talk to LFS guy later and see what I'm gonna do, I wanna breed them, but this seems much more complicated. I even ordered a BTA , hearing that it will help them spawn ? Any thoughts
 
You have a lot of time to do research while you wait for your clowns to spawn.

If you Google "Pickle’s Guide to Breeding Clowns" you'll find a great thread on another forum that will provide you with all of the information you need.

After you read that thread, go to the Fish Breeding Forum located here and ask SPECIFIC questions:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86

If you ask general questions in this forum, most people tend to ignore them since the answers to the general questions are already available via Wilkerson's book (all serious breeders should have this book) or threads such as the one I suggested.
 
If you ask general questions in this forum, most people tend to ignore them since the answers to the general questions are already available via Wilkerson's book (all serious breeders should have this book) or threads such as the one I suggested.

Especially now that Wilkerson's book is readily and cheaply available via Amazon for Kindle.
 
I would definitely read up on breeding beyond what others advise you. Getting the clownfish to mate and breed is only the first step, but ensuring they, or other fish don't immediately eat their young is a problem in its own. I would also suggest removing the third clown.
 
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