Ocellaris Breeding

GRREEF

Premium Member
After neglecting my tank for about two years (while building a new home) I finally got back to reviving my 55 reef. Not much in it at this point. Live rocks some shrooms and a weakened LPS. I also have two Ocellaris.

I have greatly stabilized my system over the last three weeks. I've added a 40 gallon sump and an auto top off system. I've also stabilized the temp so it fluctuates between 79.3 during the night and to 80.0 during the day.

Everything seems to be getting healthier:) . The clowns have been getting fatter.

Today, I noticed both clowns have their genital tubes showing. Having bred FW fish years ago, this was always the sign of an ensuing spawning event. Is this the same for Clowns?

If so.. what do I do now?

Do I need to put a flower pot in the tank or some other clean flat surface? There are none to speak of in the tank. I have some small 1x1" or 6x6" ceramic tiles around the house... but I have no idea what might leach of the tile. What about a 4x4" slate tile (a little more rough).

Or is the showing of the tubes of little significance?

This is the best photo I could get of the tube. I realize it is hard to see because of the dead coralline on the back tank wall. But trust me it is there.



76913tube-med.jpg
 
Beautiful clown! You should find them guarding eggs if they are spawning. I have seen them take to flower pots, dead clam shells, live clams, dead corals and live corals. I had no luck with the tiles myself. If you are going to save the larvae then having something that can be removed makes it really easy to collect the larvae. Making and using a collector is a real pain! You might want to read Joyce Wilerson's book. I got a lot of good info out of it. There are several others too.
 
nothing yet, and I don't observe any behavior indicative of breeding...so... I guess, I am sadly mistaken about the importance of the appearance of genital tubes. :(
 
wait a second. :rolleyes: The female just picked up a stone and moved it to the back of the aquarium. Now she is nestling in the rubble. I've never seen that behavior before. It happened about 5 minutes after my first MH turned off. The next one turns off in a few minutes.

I think this is good? Very cichlid like behavior?
 
Some really good information can be found in Joyce Wilkerson's book "Clownfish" which explains everything about the breeding and larval rearing techniques.

--Barbara
:fish1:
 
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