Egg survival rate?

The Fisher King

New member
For an experienced breeder (Specifically of clownfish) taking all recommended steps and precautions to ensure the health of their fish's offspring, what would you say is the average percentage of eggs that actually hatch successfully? And of those that do hatch, what percentage on average make it to adulthood?

Just curious as to what people's actual experiences have been.

And also quantity-wise, how many healthy fish do you end up with in your average spawning?
 
The short answer is it depends.

It depends on the age of the parents, how long they've been spawning, how healthy they are, your water parameters, etc...

That being said, once you get comfortable with your husbandry techniques, you can expect a very high percent of the eggs to hatch. I usually see some initial die off within the first 48 hours, but after that, very limited die off from then on. Some people claim additional die off during meta, however, that hasn't been my experience.

It's really hard to give specific numbers, but I typically get ~90-95% hatch rate. I probably lose ~15-20% within the first two days, and then maybe another 5% after that. I also cull any fish that are not "breed standard", but that tends to be a very small number.

I've been breeding for several years now and currently have 6 hatches per month, so I do have it somewhat down to a science (at least for me). When I started, my results were not as good. I'm also sure that large scale hatcheries have a higher success rate than I'm seeing.

Hope that helps.
 
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