How to get clownfish to breed?

N

nemokeeper

In Memoriam
I was just curious to know what you guys do to get your clownfish pair to breed. I've had clarkiis, ocellaris, perculas, and maroons..... I never had any of them lay eggs after so many years. So what do you guys do to try to get them to breed? Play Barry White? :headwally:
 
Feed, feed, feed. And once you feed them, feed them some more. Feed them to saturation a couple times a day. They should also be stress free. Any other clowns in the tank, or aggressive fish will cause them to stress out. If you're really looking to breed them, you could move them to a tank by themselves. Just keep their water quality high.
 
I've got 10 pairs and the only pair that's currently laying eggs is my perculas. I originally had five percs in the tank. One was enticed to do a carpet dive, the other was ostracized, two paired up and got huge, and one was accepted, but stayed juvenile. It took about a month for them to claim their roles.Then it took five months before they started laying eggs.
 
What kind of feeding regimen do you do to achieve this result? Like how much and how often?

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I can tell you for certain one reason why my clowns ARE NOT breeding. I have a breeding pair of blue damsels in the tank (I see eggs all the time, and I'm not going to the effort to separate and raise damsels...but the mating behavior is way cool...I just let the circle of life take care of it.....) My clowns are not unhappy... they are paired, and its apparent they "love" each other, but the outside influences are probably the main reason they don't feel comfortable enough to breed. Having said all that, what I'm attempting to say is that total comfort means no competition. Total comfort would leave them will little else to do BUT breed. :-)
 
nemokeeper said:
I was just curious to know what you guys do to get your clownfish pair to breed. I've had clarkiis, ocellaris, perculas, and maroons..... I never had any of them lay eggs after so many years. So what do you guys do to try to get them to breed? Play Barry White? :headwally:
Click to expand...
there's a sticky on this subject at the top of the Reef Central Clownfish and Anemone Forum ;)

Low stress environment and well fed mated pair are basics for getting them to lay eggs.

I've had ocellaris lay eggs one year after hatching out.
 
I paired my Maroons myself from juveniles. I've had a GBTA in the tank since shortly after introducing the first juvenile Maroon. After the stress of pairing, it took about a year & a half for them to do the deed. They've been pretty regular ever since with anywhere from 2 to 4 days between hatch & spawn. They took a month off recently & just spawned again yesterday. I believe it's because I really messed up a clone of the the original BTA trying to get it out for a fellow reefer. Basically tore it up trying to get it out. The shred that remained lodged in a deep crevice has since healed up and is doing well.

You've listed quite a number of clownfish there, I'm assuming they're either in a very large tank or in separate tanks? A chap north of where I live is quite a successful breeder and he has very many pairs all in separate, 10 or 20 gallon tanks. One pair per tank, no exceptions.

If you can get your hands on a copy of Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes, there's plenty of very good info on pairing & breeding in there.
 
Gary Majchrzak said:
there's a sticky on this subject at the top of the Reef Central Clownfish and Anemone Forum ;)

Low stress environment and well fed mated pair are basics for getting them to lay eggs.

I've had ocellaris lay eggs one year after hatching out.
Click to expand...

Seriously 1 yr... :uzi::headwally::headwalls:
 
I've had them in their own tanks.... does moon lights have anything to do with it? What sucks is that a friend of mine had his female maroon die and they werent breeding before... he goes out the next day, gets another female and a week later they spawn... I really want to try to breed them.... :(

i guess i just have no luck?
 
What else is in their tank? How large is the tank? What is your feeding schedule? What do you feed them?

My breeding system consists of 4 pairs of clowns (2 breeding now). I feed New Life Spectrum pellets twice a day, and a frozen blend of seafood once.
 
I have 3 ocellaris in a 60 cube with some gobies.... i thought i would try a trio instead of a pair. Would it be necessary for the clownfish to have a anemone to help breed them? Do they need to mature to a certain size? I feed a mixture of brine, cyclops, mysis, with amino acids once a day. Would black worms help?
 
Anemone might help but is not mandatory. The breeder I referred to north of where I live breeds them in fairly simple surroundings. If I recall correctly, all he has in the breeding tanks is a terra cotta flower pot for them to shelter in. Of course they need to mature and sort out who is the female/male. In the case of my Maroons it took well over a year to spawn after they finished battling it out. For most clown species the female will be larger than the male, very obvious with Maroons. Don't have any personal experience with ocellaris. How are the 3 you have behaving toward each other? Is one becoming obviously dominant? If not, it may help to remove one of the 3 to speed up the pairing process. In any case, one of the three is destined to become an outcast, perhaps even get killed.
 
3 clownfish = stress

3 clownfish = stress

the trio is one of the obstacles to forming a breeding pair here.

GET RID OF THE THIRD WHEEL.

Moonlights, mood music and anemones aren't necessary for Clowns to lay eggs. Neither are black worms.

HUFA enriched mysids (frozen) and Spectrum pellets are excellent foods to condition Clowns for spawning. Feed liberally.
 
Gary Majchrzak said:
the trio is one of the obstacles to forming a breeding pair here.

GET RID OF THE THIRD WHEEL.

Moonlights, mood music and anemones aren't necessary for Clowns to lay eggs. Neither are black worms.

HUFA enriched mysids (frozen) and Spectrum pellets are excellent foods to condition Clowns for spawning. Feed liberally.
Click to expand...

excellent advice. Get rid of the 3rd wheel.

I prefer the New Life Spectrum sinking pellets. I think they are 1mm in size. Feed them until they won't eat a couple times a day, and they'll breed eventually.

Having an anemone won't help. In fact, it is better to omit them. You want to feed a lot. That isn't always good for the water conditions. All 4 pairs of my clowns are hooked up to the same system. They reside in 10 gallon tanks with clay flower pots or ceramic tiles for shelter. That is it, just the flower pot or a tile.
 
Mine bred at 15 months bout 3 months after moving the 2 to a 20 gallon tank with nothing more then a hob, heater, circulation pump, sand, and a clay flowerpot every 2 weeks lay like clock work. I feed them nothing but frozen mysis shrimp. I'm currently raising my first batch just got the rotifer tank going few days before this hatced batched on day 4 here in bout 2 hours roughly 80 babies. Biggest 2 factors to get them to breed seem to be a private tank an time. Book I use is The Complete Illustrated Breeders Guide by Matthew L. Wittenrich currently having success with 3 species from that book.
 
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