Clownfish laid eggs! Got some questions..

[DracoKat]

My clowns laid their first clutch of eggs. I am so proud of them! *tear*

Anyway, I am in no position to breed them, probably won't for a long time if anything, I know it is costly and time consuming, and I'd have no idea what to do with the clowns once they're old enough (I had a hard time rehoming 100's of bettas when I bred them) but one day I'd like to get the experience.

but some questions..
Female clown is an occy (or percula, not sure. standard orange clown), about 4-4.5 years old.
Male is black phantom, about 1.5-2 years old.

If I should breed these two and raise the fry, what would the outcome of the babies be? Mostly black/white clowns?

The eggs are under a rock- nothing to do but let nature take its course each time they lay? they'll become fish food, right?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I don’t know about the breeding.

I do know it’s fish food.



#reefsquad anyone know about clown breeding ?

 

[jsker]

No experience

 

[Maritimer]

What the mix of babies would be depends on what sort of mutation the black clown is, and whether the female is carrying it in a hidden form.

One of the most common types of mutation would be "simple recessive". Each fish gets two genes at any given locus, one from each of its parents. Two genes for "black" would be required to produce a black fish in this example. The father is black, so he's got two copies of the mutated gene (homozygous for "black"). The mother is orange - appearing normal - but could have a single copy of the black gene, which just isn't showing (heterozygous for "black"). If they breed, and she's carrying the gene, approximately half of the offspring will be black, with the other half appearing orange, but heterozygous for "black". If she's not carrying a black gene, then all the babies would be orange, but carry the black gene so that if _they_ were bred to a black fish, half their babies would be black. If you bred two of the orange, but heterozygous babies to each other, approximately one-quarter of the resulting larvae would be black.

That's just one type of mutation, and I frankly have no clue what the genetics behind "designer" clown mutations are. There are dominant, sex-linked and more than a few other types of mutations out there in the natural world as well, each with its own rules for inheritance.

Isn't genetics _fun_?!

~Bruce

 

[Crabs McJones]

I don’t know about the breeding.

I do know it’s fish food.



#reefsquad anyone know about clown breeding ?

No experience

I've never raised clownfish fry. I have however done research on it and unless you're selling the baby clowns to make money off of it, it isn't worth it. You need three additional tanks set up. One for the clownfish fry. One for live rotifers as clownfish fry will only eat live rotifers. And another tank to move over the fry as they get bigger as they won't all grow at the same rate and may eat the smaller ones. So three additional tanks, raising and caring for live food, and maintenance on all three. Again unless you have a shop set up ready to buy them from you once they're grown and established, it's not worth it. Free food for your other fish

 

[DracoKat]

@Maritimer @crabs_mcjones

thank you both for the posts!

The DNA genes bit makes sense, learned so much!

I discovered a reef-club member breeds clowns. I may get some ideas from him (maybe he'll lend some stuff to me too, we'll see). Of course, I'd have to figure out what to do with the clowns before I even consider. I am sure I won't make money at all, it's a lot of work for sure, but the experience of it would be fun!