Clownfish Clutches Getting Smaller?

[Natterjak]

I have an female onyx and a male snowflake/snow onyx (not sure which) that have been spawning for almost a half year now. I've noticed that the last few clutches seem to be getting smaller and smaller in size.

I attempted to raise the last batch of fry, and only got a about 20 or so larvae. On day 4, the dozen or so I had left all suddenly died.

I've been feeding them a little extra the last few weeks in an attempt to boost their nutrition (normally I only feed them once a day), but today they laid their smallest clutch yet - maybe only about 10 eggs. It seems they may have laid more initially, but ate a number of them.

Any thoughts as to why their clutches are getting smaller? Anything I can do to try to get them to lay more eggs?

 

[ernieq]

What are you feeding and how much?

 

[Natterjak]

I feed a homemade mix - shrimp, oysters, squid, New Life Spectrum pellets and flakes, Formula One and Two frozen, Selcon, garlic extract, PE Mysis, brine, nori, etc. all blended together. Generally feed once a day, maybe a nickel-sized clump of food (there's just the clowns, a blue-green chromis, a firefish, and a yasha goby). For the past couple of weeks, I've bumped the feedings to 2-3 a day.

I checked the nest again, and it looks like they've eaten all the eggs.

 

[ernieq]

Try feeding New Life Spectrum Thera A type, it is supposed to help with egg viability. The parents eat the eggs usually because they are not viable (they died).

 

[Natterjak]

Thanks - I'll give that a try. Is there any connection with clutch size and larval health? I'm still wondering why I had a sudden, massive die-off on Day 4 last time.

 

[ernieq]

The quality of eggs determines the larval viability. If the quality of eggs is bad, then your larvae are going to be weak or malformed. The size of the clutch should be more or less the same if the parent's environment and their feeding is adecuate. While I am a strong proponent of homemade variety mixes, it is hard sometimes to narrow down a cause because there are so many variables. Give Thera A a try, it may take a couple of clutches to see siginificant improvement, though you should see some improvement initially.