How long until spawning?

[NexDog]

I've had 2 Clarkiis for a year now. The pairing process started straight away when they both spent two weeks isolated in QT. The pairing followed the standard process with the submissive behaviour and then the female got big really quick. In the main tank the female took control of the anemome and over time (3-4 months) the male was allowed in. They are now inseparable and never stray far from the anemome which split and doubled in size in a week (going to have to remove one of them).

Question is, when will they start spawning? Do different clownfish behave differently in regards to this? I hear of some that seem to spawn quickly after pairing and others take 3-4 years.....

 

[SEAFLOWERS]

There is no set time frame, when they are ready it will happen.

Patience my friend

 

[dantodd]

My clarkii started spawning about 5 months after I got them.

They were un paired large juvies when I got them.

 

[NexDog]

Damn!

 

[phender]

There are a couple things that might help to get them going. It is possible that some of these conditions already exist in your tank.

1. Raise the temp to 80-82 degrees F. Sorry I don't know what that is in celcius off the top of my head.

2. Make sure they have a place to spawn in their territory. A flat rock or a tile is good.

3. Flood the tank with baby brine shrimp for a couple days. That may be difficult if they are in your 340g tank.

4. There may be a fish in the tank that they don't feel comfortable with and because of the limits of the tank, they can drive it far enough away for them to be relaxed enough to spawn.

 

[Rare Angels]

Don't forget to feed them like mad. Saturation feeding is another important item to the things phender recommended. Once they begin spawning you can cut back some on the feeding.

Dave

 

[dantodd]

Also, I feed my clowns 3 times a day, sometimes more. Flake in the morning, frozen food (homemade) early afternoon and flake again in the evening. They were paired up nicely for a short while and then I had a poweroutage a little while ago and then BANG a couple days later they were laying their first nest.

I have no idea if the power outage was related to the spawning activity or not but I'm sure that the tons of feeding was helpful.

BTW: my tank is kept at 78-82.

Also, we lost power for 4 hours again last night. I was really worried about the temp falling too much but all seems fine. The BTA looked almost melted this morning but he looks pretty good now that the lights are on.

 

[NexDog]

phender - I have number 1 covered. As for number two, that might be an issue. I'll see if I can rig something up there. Would some kind of terracotta tile do like are found at garden centers etc? Number 3 - I just bought a hatchery so will get on with that. As for 4, the female clarkii is probably the toughest fish in there. No-one messes with her but the coral beauty is of comparable size and gets up really close. They seem to flash each other a bit but neither is scared of the other.

Dave, dantodd - I do feed twice a day. If I add the live BBS once a day maybe that will help.

 

[dantodd]

I don't think you want to make BBS a "regular" part of their diet, I think Phil was suggesting that making the tank food saturated for a few days might kick in the spawning instinct rather than adding daily BBS to their diet.

Definately add the tile. I didn't do that and they won't accept the tile now that they've started breeding on the tank wall.

 

[phender]

Yes, the BBS is just for two days then stop. I have never done it, but it is supossed to simulate a plankton bloom, inducing the fish to spawn.
I was going to edit my first post in include extra feeding, but I knew somebody would do it for me.

You can use a piece of terra cota pot or you can use an upside down kitchen tile.

I put a tile in with my percs because it didn't look to me like the rock around their anemone had any good locations to lay eggs. Within a 2 weeks there were eggs on the tile.

 

[isseym328]

This thread makes me wonder about my pair of onyx. I've had them for almost a year now and both are getting pretty big. My question is do you have to have a anemone for them to spawn? If they are hosting in some other type of coral would they still spawn around the "nesting" area?

 

[dantodd]

Most clowns in captivity (probably over 95% in aquaculture farms) breed without anemone. You might try giving them a nice home if they haven't found one for themselves. PVC elbows and terra cota pots are popular choices.