clown fish breeding

[urban79]

I have two mated clown fish. I notices the female is kind fat.. I tried looking it up. But really cant find nothen that really helps me.. But I wanted to know does the female hold eggs and then lays them. Or is it female lays the egg and male comes by and give them there stuff... :unsure .. And say I do find them lays eggs. What do I do.. Would I need to make sure the pump are turn off. and cover the hang on.

Its a little 10g nano tank.. Nothen really in there but pagota cup and some zoos.

please help thanks

[GaryP]

Chances are that you won't be able to raise the young unless you are set up for breeding. First, you will need live rotifers and later live baby brine to feed the fry, second - while the parents attempt to protect them, the eggs have a tendency to be preyed upon, third - the other fish find the fry to be a pretty tasty treat. Dedicated breeders will put the eggs in a seperate tank to hatch out where they will be protected from predation and where they can be fed after hatching. Unless you are set up for all of this when they eggs are laid you will have almost no chance of successfully raising the fry. Remember that in the wild, a mated pair of clowns will produce thousands of eggs in their life time with the goal of produce two survivors to take their place. In an enclosed space like an aquarium it makes it even harder because there is so little space for the fry to hide from predators.

If you are interested in getting into breeding, check with Instar. He's our local breeder of maroons, perculas, and oscellaris, among other things. If he can figure out how to get something to do the wild thing in captivity, he'll breed it.

[urban79]

well the only things I have in there is cleaner shrimp and the mated clowns..

[urban79]

where would you get rotifer and baby brine..

[GaryP]

There are some suppliers of kits to raise them. Florida Aqua Farms comes to mind off the top of my head. Just google them. On top of that, you have to raise the algae to feed them. You'll need a kit for that too. If any one of the cultures crashes, the whole process comes to a grinding halt. Its not as easy as it sounds. Again, check with Instar. See my edited post above.

[urban79]

thanks Ill look some of the stuff up.. thanks again

[GaryP]

You may also want to pick up a copy of this:

http://www.amazon.com/Clownfishes-Joyce-D-Wilkerson/dp/1890087041

or this:

http://www.amazon.com/Conditioning-Spawning-Rearing-Emphasis-Clownfish/dp/096629601X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/104-3018568-8078325?ie=UTF8

[ShaneV]

Heres a good article KarenB (one of our MARSH members) wrote:

http://www.marshreef.com/files/raising_clownfish.doc

[urban79]

Thats a good article.. Hopefully I will be able to do this.. thanks shane