Clown Fish Eggs

[kodiak23]

My clown fish have been staying in their corner lately an I just noticed a bunch of eggs. Yay!! Not so fast.
All my nassarius snails started heading for the eggs, then all of a sudden the clown fish ate all the eggs!! Ouch.
Any suggestions would be great, incase they have more eggs in the future.

I have a QT tank if needed in the future. I guess I have some reading to do.

 

[kodiak23]

Whoa more eggs are coming out right now, crazy!!

 

[northbay-reefer]

Nime do that through out the year and none of the babies survived. Fun to watch though. If you want to raise them you will need a separate tank and raise your own Roties to feed the frys.

 

[Grant W]

Thats pretty cool Cody. If you could film that I'll bet I'm not the only one that would like to see that.

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

I congratulate you success in creating an environment such that your pair feels comfortable enough to spawn. But unless you are going to go down the road of rearing the fry, I would not do anything. (not to be Debby Downer!) if you are, you should contact latte hiatus. Again, congratulations, it is a very cool thing. Now you have to catch them doing it! At this very moment, I have a pair with a clutch of newly hatched fry in a 200 leather dominated reef. The fry are consumed by the wrasses, kleini b/fly, and shrimp. This cycle happens ever 3 weeks or so.

 

[kodiak23]

Thanks. It sounds like it could be fun to go through the entire process one of these days. I'm glad to hear how often this could happen. Its been a few hours and there are still about 30 eggs still attached to my overflow. I am assuming they will be gone in the morning. I watched them lay the eggs, then eat them, then lay more eggs and eat those, this happened over and over. It lasted a couple hours. I filmed a few minutes for you guys. Its not great video, cant see much from my angle, but here you go 4 1/2 minutes of the same thing over and over

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yiFQQyhJYD0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[gonzalez78]

My old pair used to lay their eggs and they would be still there for 3-5 days then they would disappear. Some batches I could even see their little fry eyes black clown and a true percula was the pair I used to have.

 

[Grant W]

Cool stuff guys

 

[woodnaquanut]

That's so cool!

Chances of raising any fry in a community tank are VERY small. If you can get the pair out to a 10 - 20 gal. bare tank you will probably get the eggs to larval stage.

If you'd like to go for it I suggest you take a look at 'The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes' by Matthew Wittenrich. I have it checked out from the library right now but if you put a hold on it I'll return it in a day or two.

Also a nice website, fishtalpropagations.com, has good info and pics. The website author, Tal Sweet, will be speaking at the Oct. 13th meeting of Bay Area Reefers. I'll be going and would be up for car pooling if you are interested.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Raising the fry would be a fun thing to do especially if I can put my hand on a pair of the lighitng clown fish.

 

[latte hiatus]

Congratulations on seeing eggs! I would place a tile or clay pot close to their current spawning site, so that you can easily remove the eggs if they take to the tile/pot. With respect to eating the eggs, I would give the parents a few more clutches before considering it a problem. It's not unheard of for new parents to eat the first clutches, which are likely to have poor hatch rates anyhow. Experienced parents typically defend their eggs very well against potential predators, be it snails, shrimp, fish, or a human hand.

+1 on Wittenrich's book, it is top-notch and up-to-date on rearing techniques and larval nutrition. Joyce Wilkerson's "Clownfishes" book is still the bible if you can find it at a reasonable price, since it is out of print, although I've heard rumors it is destined for another print.

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

As I told David, I have a female that has drawn blood on more than one occasion.

 

[Grant W]

Erin you just reminded me why I have never had clowns. LOL

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

I'm not sure I wanted these!!

 

[kodiak23]

Its been 11 days and the clown fish layed eggs again this afternoon.

Thanks all for the advice, I am thinking about adding a clay pot next month after I do much more reading.

 

[Grant W]

Are you going to raise them? David(lattehiatus) from BAR raises them also and Im sure he would be willing to give you some pointers.