i just got a pair of black and white ocellaris clowns and want to breed them.

[dorm_reefer21]

in all honesty i dont know how clean the water up there is but im not sayin you should do that im just saying its what i do. i dont feed the larvae, im not going to waste money feeding food. to find babies i would have no idea as to where to look in conneticut but look near structure, anything that a small fish can hide around, i also catch amphipods to feed them and seed my refugium, i just wait for lowtide and flip over rocks and pluck them from the algae and seaweed. you can just go to the LFS and there will be supplemental vitamins in there. feed the fish until they dont eat, i just cut chunks off of the frozen blocks and place it in the tank and the fish have learned to let it thaw before they eat it.

 

[fishkid6692]

ok i will start feeding the frozen cubes i make. and when it starts getting warmer i will go to the beach and catch stuff.

 

[fishkid6692]

i got a tile today from home depot but small bubbles have been coming out of it since i put it in there about a half hour ago. is that ok?

 

[dorm_reefer21]

yea, the ceramic is porous and that is just air coming from the tiny pockets on the surface. you dont have to put the tile in there now, it wont hurt anything, but at least your tank will not look as ugly until they actually do spawn, its not going to make them spawn any faster. have patience, please dont rush things or you are just going to end up wasting money and stressing out your fish

 

[fishkid6692]

ok but i got another question. in the breeders guide it says if i put them in a bare tank with just pvc pipe for hiding and a tile they will spawn faster. is that true? will it stress them out?

 

[dorm_reefer21]

that sounds like bullshit to me, i guess we should go replace all the anemones with pvc and ceramic tiles then. the clowns dont know what pvc and tiles are, but they instinctively know to lay their eggs near an anemone because it will help guard against predators. they lay on tiles because after they inspect it, it is a suitable surface and hid in pvc or whatever because there is nothing else for them to hide in. if your main focus is just to breed, go for it if you want, but if you would still like a nice tank to look at, keep the coral and rock and just add a tile when they start to spawn. im jsugt glad i never had to use a tile, i have this cool almost spherical rock covered in coraline that i always sit by the anemones and let the clowns lay on that and then just move the rock, this rock has seen a whole lot of clutches of eggs over the years. i have had it since my dad and i set up the 210g 4 1/2 years ago.