In Depth Clown Breeding Thread

[rdnelson]

I have seen numerous people post about breeding different types of clowns. In most of these threads you can pick up little tid bits of info but I thought it would be cool if we had a thread dedicated to it. While, I am not prepared to get into the business of breeding clowns (at least not at the moment) I would love to learn more about it and I bet lots of others would also.

So for you experts out there, here is your chance to show off what you know. :thumbs:

 

[frantz]

I sent this to a forum member as an account of my experience pairing my maroons. I didn't want to hijack the thread but it seems appropriot here. These clowns have not spawned, but it is the process I had to go though for their co-habitation. I'll be tagging along this thread!
I didn't want to take the thread farther off topic. Maroons, from my own limited experience, are hard to pair. The female WILL kill the new male if you let her. Here is what I did. I had a female by herself in a 28 cube for 7 months and she had grown to about 3.5 inches. I found a beautiful 1 inch goldstripe (gold is just now starting to show) and after temp/salinity acclimation I let him free in the tank. I had been observing the female watching the bag and she was none too happy. I figured once I let the little guy go he could hid in my rock work and shed go back to her nem. What actually happened was she hunted the poor little guy down and I wasn't able to retrieve him until he was barely swimming and I placed him in a floating breeder box and expected the worse. She would attack the box quite often. After he healed up and as the attacked slowed down and almost stopped I tried again but the same thing happened. It took almost 2 full months before I could release him, and he still took a good beating. He ended up settling in a cave below the cave she took and they are fairly swimly neighbors. He sometimes comes up and swims with her without her bothering him but he doesn't stay long. He waits for food to float down to him rather than swim up to get some. So... thats my maroon clown experience.. I hope it helps you if you would try to pair an established female. Cheers!</em>

 

[rdnelson]

Thanks Frantz. I think we both saw the same thread which is what made me decide to start this one. As for the thread intent by the OP (which would be me), this thread is open to any discussion about pairing clowns or raising the fry that result. I just want to learn a little something I didn't know before.

 

[jamescook]

I don't have time to rewrite it all out for you, but anyone is welcome to come by my place during the day and I can teach you all I know while we clean tanks

 

[rdnelson]

Shoot, I would clean tanks for a chance to pick your brain if you didn't live on the other side of the planet. LOL

jamescook;723156 wrote: I don't have time to rewrite it all out for you, but anyone is welcome to come by my place during the day and I can teach you all I know while we clean tanks

 

[jmt]

I think this is a great thread idea.


I have done a lot of reading on various websites and the one listed below has been pretty helpful ...


http://www.breedclownfish.com/step-2-preparations-for-clownfish-fry/">http://www.breedclownfish.com/step-2-preparations-for-clownfish-fry/</a>


I still have a lot of questions and since I am at the early stages of breeding clown fish I have been focused on getting a good supply of rotifers going. The setup seems simple enough; however, I am still concerned about some of the details of temperature and acclimating the rodifers to the fry tank.


Question 1, they say when you want to breed rotifers, you put them in a bucket and add water that matches the salinity of their container (along with adding a food source). Is this necessary that the salinity match or can I just slowly acclimate them to the same salinity as the fry tank (and the rest of my fish tanks)?


Question 2, I also don't see any specifics about the temperature of the rotifer tank. How sensitive are these things to temperature changes? Should I keep them at the same temperature as the fry tank to reduce shock? I just don't want to start adding them only to watch them die shortly after entering the fry tank.


Any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

 

[rdnelson]

Thanks for posting the article JMT. When I first decided to get into this hobby I read an article that mentioned the huge increase in popularity of clown fish after the movie Finding Nemo came out. As a result, they indicated concern that the wild populations were suffering. I am very happy to learn that so many hobbyist are now breeding clowns in captivity and hope that this will alleviate the need to capture in the wild.

 

[jamescook]

1) just like fish, you try not to shock rotifers with big changes. I've grown them at 1.013 up to full strength sw.
2) same with temp. they will acclimate to different temps over time, but for the best success rate you want to have the salinity and temp match the larvae tanks.

 

[jmt]

Thanks for the info James!!