Will clownfish couple breed easily?

Lily Lemire · Jun 22, 2018

Hey everyone !
I am going to greet an ocellaris clownfish couple on sunday and am wondering if it is easy to breed them ? Because honestly I have about a dozen of freshwater fish tanks due to unexpected breeding (fancy goldfish, corydoras, guppies, mollies , shrimps etc) and really dont have time for ocellaris clownfish babies.... so I was kinda reluctant of housing a couple but my mom bought them for me (bday gift

) so...haha seems that i'll have a ocellaris couple after all. So this whole post is a sort of poll to know if its either more probable that they will breed or not in my 10 gal. Nano ..... so please feel free to tell your clownfish couple experience with or without them breeding

Thanks !
Lily

LobsterOfJustice · Jun 22, 2018

They may let eggs (spawn) but raising the larvae requires significant effort - it’s not like freshwater where you will have little miniature clownfish popping up all over the place.

Lily Lemire · Jun 22, 2018

Ok I see ... so I assume its quite difficult then...

Oldsalt01 · Jun 22, 2018

Whoa. Hold on there girl. We need specifics about your tank. Is it set up and if so, for how long? Also, how big, filtration type, light types, etc. Unlike FW systems, marine tanks take a while to establish before you can start putting fish in. Think of it as a "break-in" period.

hdsoftail1065 · Jun 22, 2018

Everything I have read looks somewhat difficult and time consuming. There are some videos on YouTube you can check out that are pretty cool. I know some folks that done it for awhile, they said the learning curve was huge and took several attempts before they were successful.

Vahanyos · Jun 22, 2018

I have no experience raising them, but mine lay eggs from time to time. My other fish make food out of them :/

If you plan on having other fish in the tank, consider the babies food.

cloak · Jun 22, 2018

Lily Lemire said:
Ok I see ... so I assume its quite difficult then...

Yes & no... Like mentioned above it can be quite time consuming, but if you get a kick out of water changes, cleaning the glass etc it can be fun. A challenge so to say. GL.

Lily Lemire · Jun 22, 2018

Oldsalt01 said:
Whoa. Hold on there girl. We need specifics about your tank. Is it set up and if so, for how long? Also, how big, filtration type, light types, etc. Unlike FW systems, marine tanks take a while to establish before you can start putting fish in. Think of it as a "break-in" period.

Ok so I have a rimless 10 gallon tank with :
- two small filters (Temporary they were used in my 3 gallons nano reef tank) A 5 gallons airtube Tetra filter with the carbon cartridge and the other is a 10 Aquaclear with no media yet in it .
- 12 lbs of live rocks
- About 7 lbs of live CaribSea white sand
- A simple clip-on 9 watt led light which I plan on changing for a 250$ lamp at my local reef store

- A breeder box filled with chaeto (airtube and all)

Thats about it. This week end will add some corals... prob. Rhodactis, clavularia, sinularia , mushrooms.

Should I change the two filters for a single 30 Aquaclear with chemipure ?

Lily Lemire · Jun 22, 2018

Vahanyos said:
I have no experience raising them, but mine lay eggs from time to time. My other fish make food out of them :/

If you plan on having other fish in the tank, consider the babies food.

Whats it going to happen if there is no other fish in the tank ? Do the parents eats them ? My guess is no....

Vahanyos · Jun 22, 2018

maybe, maybe not. However, they require specific food, specific water conditions I believe... do some research I know you can find lots of information on how to raise them

And good luck, I hear it’s challenging. Let us know how it goes if you do end up raising some!

Vahanyos · Jun 22, 2018

Lily Lemire said:
Ok so I have a rimless 10 gallon tank with :
- two small filters (Temporary they were used in my 3 gallons nano reef tank) A 5 gallons airtube Tetra filter with the carbon cartridge and the other is a 10 Aquaclear with no media yet in it .
- 12 lbs of live rocks
- About 7 lbs of live CaribSea white sand
- A simple clip-on 9 watt led light which I plan on changing for a 250$ lamp at my local reef store
- A breeder box filled with chaeto (airtube and all)

Thats about it. This week end will add some corals... prob. Rhodactis, clavularia, sinularia , mushrooms.

Should I change the two filters for a single 30 Aquaclear with chemipure ?

Aquaclears are awesome filters. Go as big as you can in my opinion... you’ll like the extra room in the filter down the road if needed

pdxmonkeyboy · Jun 22, 2018

they will probably breed, but the hard part is getting the hatchlings out of the tank... yes the parents will eat them and get them eating rotifers..

so, not impossible nor epicly difficult but a major PIA unless raising clownfish is your gig.

Maritimer · Jun 26, 2018

Like most marine fish, clownfish larvae (they're too small and poorly developed at hatching to be called "fry") have a planktonic stage. For the first couple of weeks and possibly longer, they don't associate with the bottom, but drift below the surface or in midwater, which puts them in a perfect position to become food for corals or other fish. During this time, they feed on microscopic, free-floating food; a lot of keepers use live rotifers.

It's a rather different style of reproduction than we'd see in most freshwater fish.

~Bruce

Lily Lemire · Jun 26, 2018

Vahanyos said:
Aquaclears are awesome filters. Go as big as you can in my opinion... you’ll like the extra room in the filter down the road if needed

I've got an Aquaclear 30 for my 10 gallons...does thats sound enough?

Vahanyos · Jun 26, 2018

Lily Lemire said:
I've got an Aquaclear 30 for my 10 gallons...does thats sound enough?

Nice! If you don’t mind a lot of things hanging off the back you can add another for some more flow. I have an 8 gallon with a 20 and a 30 - one is used for my chemical filtration like carbon and the other is loaded with live rock rubble. Eliminates the need for a power head inside -

Lily Lemire · Jun 26, 2018

Maritimer said:
Like most marine fish, clownfish larvae (they're too small and poorly developed at hatching to be called "fry") have a planktonic stage. For the first couple of weeks and possibly longer, they don't associate with the bottom, but drift below the surface or in midwater, which puts them in a perfect position to become food for corals or other fish. During this time, they feed on microscopic, free-floating food; a lot of keepers use live rotifers.

It's a rather different style of reproduction than we'd see in most freshwater fish.

~Bruce

It sounds quite complicated... hope they won't spawn so I wont have to decide to save those baby hatchlings ahah but if that happens it will be quite an important project

Lily Lemire · Jun 26, 2018

Vahanyos said:
Nice! If you don’t mind a lot of things hanging off the back you can add another for some more flow. I have an 8 gallon with a 20 and a 30 - one is used for my chemical filtration like carbon and the other is loaded with live rock rubble. Eliminates the need for a power head inside -

Yeah i dont mind having stuff hanging in the back of the tank...i prefer this to having a powerhead since its quite big inside any nano tank... I have 2 ten gal. reef nano tanks. And one of the two tanks has the 30 Aquaclear filter and the other has a 10 gal Aquatech + 3 gallon airtube filter + 1.5 gal. breeder box with chaeto algae. ....all of this is surely good in filtering but i still need to buy Chemi pure. Any personal experience with Chemipure? I heard its kinda magic. Haha

Lily Lemire · Jun 26, 2018

Vahanyos said:
I have no experience raising them, but mine lay eggs from time to time. My other fish make food out of them :/

If you plan on having other fish in the tank, consider the babies food.

Were the babies ( larvae like stage) big like guppy fry ? If you never saw guppy fry then how big were your fry compared to ...rice or smthg like that ?

mochaclownlover · Jun 26, 2018

Just because you put a pair of clowns in the tank doesn't mean that they are going to spawn immediately, my pair has been together for three and a half years and they just spawned for the first time last week. For size comparison, the male clown(the small one) is a little over an inch and a half.

Lily Lemire · Jun 26, 2018

mochaclownlover said:
Just because you put a pair of clowns in the tank doesn't mean that they are going to spawn immediately, my pair has been together for three and a half years and they just spawned for the first time last week. For size comparison, the male clown(the small one) is a little over an inch and a half.

Do you think that they seem to need an anemone to spawn?
I dont have any!