Clowns Quit Spawning?

[phender]

I am a little confused by your statement (not trying to sound argumentative), however you say the water on the reefs is devoid of nutrients yet at the same time if it were not for the reefs the tropical seas would be deserts. Those points seem to contradict each other, but perhaps I am misunderstanding what you are saying?

And I respectfully have to disagree with the assertion that coral reefs are low in nutrient levels, in fact the entire reef biome is driven by nutrients. That is why abundance of life (ie. reefs, tropical, temperate and otherwise) are centered around land masses such as continental shelves or volcanic guyots where they recieve nutrient rich water via wind blown sediments, runoff and upwelling.

And as you said microscopic organisms so prevalent in reefs, which is of course due to the nutrient induced phytoplankton blooms.

Just my $.02

Like the rainforests, reefs sort of create their own nutrients. Run-off from inhabited islands/areas tends to harm coral reefs more than help them.
Compared to temperate and cold seas, the tropical seas don't support much life outside of the coral reefs. The water in tropical seas is very clear compared to temperate and polar seas. This is because the amount of plankton is quite low in the tropics compared to other areas. One of the reasons is that it is harder to float in warm water than cold water.
Some whales visit tropical seas to have their babies and mate, but they can't live there year around. They have to go back to the polar seas to get enough food.

 

[phender]

For some reason these guys like to spawn at night. The female's tummy is squared off. Do we use that term in the marine world? I used the term when I kept guppies because the female's tummies would be square-like before they gave birth and I noticed that my female clowns tummy is square before she lays eggs... so yeah. Oh wait... the point I was trying to get to is: I can see the bottom bit of her breeding tube and I've noticed that the breeding tube comes down quite a bit before spawning, so either they'll spawn in the wee hours of the morning or FRIDAY!!

Are my clownfish weird for laying eggs at night or do they just want to do their business in private? :worried:

All of my clown pairs have tended to spawn in the early to late afternoon. I have heard of a least one instance when a pair would spawn shortly after "lights out".

 

[MarineBioHSU]

Phender: Oookay, I think I misunderstood what you had said. Thanks very much for clearing it up, and interesting point on the density issue regarding the warmer water, I had not even considered how that would effect planktonic bouyancy.

 

[MarineBioHSU]

My pairs spawn at all times of the day. The difficult thing about having 30 pairs is that it seems like I can never clean the tanks without disrupting at least one pair. But at this point most of them don't get too upset when I show up, they stop spawning and then go back to it when I am done.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

The female is no longer fat and there are no breeding tubes down. Maybe they spawned last night and they have a new secret location. o_o
Could she have aborted the eggs? D:

 

[phender]

It is not unusual for female clowns to get a little constipated or to eat a little too much at mealtime. Both things can cause a distended belly that looks like eggs. IME, constipation can could the ovipositor to protrude a little. Check to see where your male clown is hanging out. If you have eggs he should be tending them, at least once in a while.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

It is not unusual for female clowns to get a little constipated or to eat a little too much at mealtime. Both things can cause a distended belly that looks like eggs. IME, constipation can could the ovipositor to protrude a little. Check to see where your male clown is hanging out. If you have eggs he should be tending them, at least once in a while.

I don't see him tending the usual spot. He's just swimming around with his girl.