Wanting to breed clownfish...

nano_ryan · Jan 2, 2021

Hello everybody, I am very intrigued with the idea of breeding my 2 black ocellaris clownfish. They are captive bred, and I've only had them for around 4 months. They were the lucky 2 out of a whole school, and have never been separated since then. They are mated, but the female of the 2 is extremely protective of her anemone. Like, the male can not be near it or she will chase him, but no fighting or anything. They will occasionally swim together and the male will always do his shaking thing that clownfish do. Is this a sign of sexual maturity? The female rarely does it back. Each are around 1.5 inches.
Do you think they are ready to be put in a breeding tank? or should I wait longer? What do you experts say?

Sailfin11 · Jan 2, 2021

I am not an expert, but I'd say you'll likely need to wait around a while before you see spawning. Most clownfish at the LFS are only a few months old and clowns only start breeding at the earliest 1.5-2 years old. My Clarkii's for example started spawning 15 months after I got them so probably around 18 months old. Once they start laying eggs they will continue to do so every 10 or so days and then you can move them to a breeding tank.

Wolf89 · Jan 11, 2021

nano_ryan said:
Hello everybody, I am very intrigued with the idea of breeding my 2 black ocellaris clownfish. They are captive bred, and I've only had them for around 4 months. They were the lucky 2 out of a whole school, and have never been separated since then. They are mated, but the female of the 2 is extremely protective of her anemone. Like, the male can not be near it or she will chase him, but no fighting or anything. They will occasionally swim together and the male will always do his shaking thing that clownfish do. Is this a sign of sexual maturity? The female rarely does it back. Each are around 1.5 inches.
Do you think they are ready to be put in a breeding tank? or should I wait longer? What do you experts say?

You have a minimum of 1.5-2 years of growing before the fish will lay eggs.

kylef · Jan 11, 2021

Shaking thing is just a sign of submissiveness

Andrescol87 · Feb 19, 2021

nano_ryan said:
Hello everybody, I am very intrigued with the idea of breeding my 2 black ocellaris clownfish. They are captive bred, and I've only had them for around 4 months. They were the lucky 2 out of a whole school, and have never been separated since then. They are mated, but the female of the 2 is extremely protective of her anemone. Like, the male can not be near it or she will chase him, but no fighting or anything. They will occasionally swim together and the male will always do his shaking thing that clownfish do. Is this a sign of sexual maturity? The female rarely does it back. Each are around 1.5 inches.
Do you think they are ready to be put in a breeding tank? or should I wait longer? What do you experts say?

You'll need to wait until love blossoms, the only advice I can give you (I've been breeding the several years) is to give them plenty of food and excellent water quality, once they are full and happy, they will take care of business and lastly... Have patience.

nano_ryan · Feb 20, 2021

Andrescol87 said:
You'll need to wait until love blossoms, the only advice I can give you (I've been breeding the several years) is to give them plenty of food and excellent water quality, once they are full and happy, they will take care of business and lastly... Have patience.

Actually great timing. I never got into breeding after this forum, and am now on wanting to do it. My pair of black ocolaris clowns are now way bigger then since this forum was made, and about 1.5- 2 years old. They do love each other but not sure if they are ready to make eggs yet. They do have a lot of tank mates. Will they affect if they breed or not? Will they do it naturally or do I have to help?

Andrescol87 · Feb 21, 2021

nano_ryan said:
Actually great timing. I never got into breeding after this forum, and am now on wanting to do it. My pair of black ocolaris clowns are now way bigger then since this forum was made, and about 1.5- 2 years old. They do love each other but not sure if they are ready to make eggs yet. They do have a lot of tank mates. Will they affect if they breed or not? Will they do it naturally or do I have to help?

Having tank mates will delay breeding since it's a constant source of stress, If you are really determined to breed your clowns it is better to put them in a dedicated tank.

Once female is ready she will give you eggs for sure, besides, being alone in a tank will guarantee food only for them, once she is fabricating eggs she will be really hungry and will eat a lot, male will need good nutrition too, since breeding is hard for him too and he will need it to produce good quality Milt. Hope it helps.

nano_ryan · Feb 21, 2021

Andrescol87 said:
Having tank mates will delay breeding since it's a constant source of stress, If you are really determined to breed your clowns it is better to put them in a dedicated tank.

Once female is ready she will give you eggs for sure, besides, being alone in a tank will guarantee food only for them, once she is fabricating eggs she will be really hungry and will eat a lot, male will need good nutrition too, since breeding is hard for him too and he will need it to produce good quality Milt. Hope it helps.

Thank you so much. Just one more question, would it be a good idea to put them in my sump? I have a whole empty chamber that they could breed in, away from tank mates. Thoughts?

Andrescol87 · Feb 26, 2021

nano_ryan said:
Thank you so much. Just one more question, would it be a good idea to put them in my sump? I have a whole empty chamber that they could breed in, away from tank mates. Thoughts?

It's a good idea. You can put a flower pot too, in order to they get it as their house.

dedragon · Feb 26, 2021

It matters how large the section is and the flow rate through the sump as well. Just stuff to keep in mind before you put them down there

nano_ryan · Feb 27, 2021

dedragon said:
It matters how large the section is and the flow rate through the sump as well. Just stuff to keep in mind before you put them down there

There is a solid 5 gallons. Its a 10 gallon sump, and half is just empty. Because it was going to be a refugium.

nano_ryan · Feb 27, 2021

dedragon said:
It matters how large the section is and the flow rate through the sump as well. Just stuff to keep in mind before you put them down there

It has around 800 gph going through that chamber

dedragon · Feb 27, 2021

size sounds great, flow should be just fine but would monitor how they swim and anemone if you put it down there too. I would wait awhile for the pair to become more established because if the female is as aggressive as you say, put them together in such a small space and she could kill the male. They are probably around 9-12 months old as they were in a tank with many other clownfish (probably spawn mates) when you bought them and you have only had them 5-6 months now