buying a breeding pair of clowns...

[Ian]

I have a chance to buy a pair of clowns that a guy whose tank cracked brought them in to a DFW area LFS. A guy bought them and held them for a month but is getting impatient so he wants to sell them.

It doesn't sound like waiting a months is long enough to get them back into the swing of things and assuming I get them, I know there's a chance they won't produce and eggs any longer but say they do, how long might it take?

The male is 1,5" and the female is around 3 inches so they're definitely of age to be mating...

Thoughts?

Thanks, Ian

 

[Ambition]

Could be a matter of a couple weeks or months... Giving them a varied diet, keeping temps up, etc. should hopefully get them spawning sooner rather than later. It really is a gamble.

 

[Ian]

can anyone else comment?

 

[OrionN]

For clowns, they must be comfortable. I find that keeping them in a reef system with anemone is best. I always able to get them lay on tiles so removal for hatching is really easy.
Nutrition wise, they need mostly flakes with only 25% or even less frozen to lay well. I feed mine exclusively dry food but I mixed about 5 diffenent brands together to feed them. If you keep them in a bare brookstock tank, you must have somewhere ther is littel or no foot trafic and hidding place like flower pots in it so that they feel comfortable.
Clean water and a variety diet is a must to have healthy babies.

 

[Eric Noa]

which brand/type of dry food do you feed them?

 

[shifty51008]

I feed mine a mix of nls and io marine chips 4 times a day. Mine lay every 16 days on a tile also which does help when removing them. But i agree stability and making sure they are comfortable is key.

 

[OrionN]

I use Cyclopree flakes, ON formular one flakes ON prime reef flakes, OSI Marine flakes and Tetra Marine salt water flakes all mixed togehter. Orcasionally frozen mysis for my angels and Marine Betta.

 

[Eric Noa]

Has any of you used HPD (High Performance Diet)

Also is there any major difference between flakes and pellets? Why choose one over the other one?

 

[OrionN]

Pellets drop to the bottom quickly. You just have to drop a few at a time and if well train, the fish will eat it as it drop.
I just mix the flake in water and dump it into the tank and everybody have a go at it.

 

[radiata]

I have a chance to buy a pair of clowns that a guy whose tank cracked brought them in to a DFW area LFS. A guy bought them and held them for a month but is getting impatient so he wants to sell them.

It doesn't sound like waiting a months is long enough to get them back into the swing of things and assuming I get them, I know there's a chance they won't produce and eggs any longer but say they do, how long might it take?

The male is 1,5" and the female is around 3 inches so they're definitely of age to be mating...

Thoughts?

Thanks, Ian

Why are you interested in them? If you're already successfully grown T-Isochrysis/Tetraselmis/Nannochloropsis/Pavlova as well as Rotifers, then go for it. If not, I think you'd be better off gaining some experience with microalgae and rotifer culture before you waste your money on them.

 

[Ian]

Why are you interested in them? If you're already successfully grown T-Isochrysis/Tetraselmis/Nannochloropsis/Pavlova as well as Rotifers, then go for it. If not, I think you'd be better off gaining some experience with microalgae and rotifer culture before you waste your money on them.

I want them because they're a beautiful pair of clownfish, perfect to display in my 29g nano by them selves and the fact that they could breed is definitely a bonus. There's no promise they'll lay but it happens I'll be stoked. It's not like once they lay it's a rush to start producing babies.

I've never grown any of that stuff as I've never had any sort of reason to. I got the pair and I've had them for a month and a half now. I've noticed them starting to pick at the rocks which I hear is a sign that they're cleaning off a surface to lay on. I'm looking at getting an APBreed Rotifer culture system to start going with culturing rotifers. From what I've read about them, they're very efficient in culturing them and where other methods fail side by side, the APBreed system keeps on going

Can anyone link me a thread that has a very comprehensive walk through of how to raise baby clowns as well as culture the food for them? I really want to read up on this just in case they do decide to lay.

I'm sure it's a lot of work but it'd be really cool to say that I've raised baby clownfish in my lifetime!

 

[Twistofer]

Spend a couple of buck for this book:


Clownfishes: A Guide to Their Captive Care, Breeding & Natural History
by Joyce D. Wilkerson (Author) , Thomas A. Frakes (Foreword).

It's a great reference and you can get if for the Kindle on Amazon

 

[Slpolo121]

moving Clown can take Week Or Months for them to be Comfortable. then you need to keepthe tank. Stable and Clowns Well fed. if they spaWn before then it a good Chance they will again. with the right condition. Good luck and yes Joyce Wilkerson's Book is great.

 

[D-Nak]

Why are you interested in them? If you're already successfully grown T-Isochrysis/Tetraselmis/Nannochloropsis/Pavlova as well as Rotifers, then go for it. If not, I think you'd be better off gaining some experience with microalgae and rotifer culture before you waste your money on them.

There's no real need to grow all that - RGComplete works well. Rotifers are fine eating it. Besides, there will be plenty of time for research while waiting for the fish to begin breeding and laying down a few clutches.

 

[nemoboy1]

Well looks like you got yourself into a heap of trouble there. I agreed...having them be comfortable in the tank will help the process move quicker along with a stable diet and good lighting cycle. Food choice whether frozen or dry doesn't matter as long as it has the right nutrition. I personally feed frozen along with pellet but not flakes. My clownfishes has an average of 300 plus orange healthy looking eggs all the time. Cleaning of rock or tile is a good sign although not enough to say they will breed. Once the female fattens up and I mean fattens up then she will be ready for now if her belly is the same size as before then you might have a long way even with the rock cleaning. Do more research n more research on cultering rotifers, raising frys... Breeding them is easy raising the fry can be painfully exhausted. The trick is to get over 50% survival to an 1" to make it pay off for all the effort if you are planning on becoming a breeder. Most people do it to say I bred n raise a few batches and that is the satisfactory one gets... Good luck on this wonderful headache venture.