Worth it to raise Ocellaris Clowns?

Brian W · Apr 5, 2017

My fish were acting a little strange last night, The female appeared to be cleaning out an area below their BTA , making a cave like structure. The male followed her every time. I watched them do this a few times over a 30 minute period. I believe they may be 1.5 - 2 years old now so I'm sure they are old enough now. Ive never tried to breed them. Im not going to purposely breed them, if it happens then it happens. I used to raise cichlids and turned out to be too much work than I could handle so I reallyu do not want the clowns to have babies.

anyways, if they have babies is it worth it raising them? I cant image anyone paying more than $5 at the most if I sold to a store or anybody honestly. I know there is a demand for them since pretty much everyone in the hobby starts off with either ocellaris clowns or percula. I just feel like theres a million breeders already, so why mess with it. I would feel bad letting there fry be food but maybe that's just what I should do.

now other rarer designer clowns I would raise in a heartbeat but I do not have any.

Thanks
Jimmy Lee

Breadman03 · Apr 5, 2017

For profit, I really don't think so. If doing it for the experience, then I could see it.

Oscar47f · Apr 5, 2017

I feel like its up to you, if you charge 5$ and get high amounts of baby clown fish it could workout because clownfish spawn frequently... but it is a full time job from other hobbyists I've heard.

Brian W · Apr 5, 2017

Oscar47f said:
I feel like its up to you, if you charge 5$ and get high amounts of baby clown fish it could workout because clownfish spawn frequently... but it is a full time job from other hobbyists I've heard.

Yes I know...or hear once they start spawning they do it very frequently. I have a friend who has a pair that lays eggs roughly every week.

wkscott · Apr 5, 2017

If you thought that raising Cichlids was a hassle, then you won't want to be grandpa to a batch of clownfish. Raising the food to feed them is a pain. You have to really be careful with your water quality and the culling process to remove less than perfect fish can be heartbreaking. Not trying to discourage you but in the long run it will probaly cost you more than you'll end up getting when you sell them.

Brian W · Apr 5, 2017

wkscott said:
If you thought that raising Cichlids was a hassle, then you won't want to be grandpa to a batch of clownfish. Raising the food to feed them is a pain. You have to really be careful with your water quality and the culling process to remove less than perfect fish can be heartbreaking. Not trying to discourage you but in the long run it will probaly cost you more than you'll end up getting when you sell them.

I actually have 12 gallons of pods and 12 gallons of phyto culturing for the past 4 months. But that all gets dumped to my tanks every so often. Iam about wits end with all these tanks. I really need to just focus on 1 tank.
You are right. I don't need another tank to take care of.

Theo15 · Apr 5, 2017

I have two clownfish as well too and I was wondering the same thing ? I might try it out when they are ready.....

vertigo01 · Apr 5, 2017

As an FYI, I have a pair of perc's that have been laying non stop every other week for the past 2 year's.
I haven't had much time to dedicate to raising the fry but have thought about doing so, just for the experience of it.

mort · Apr 6, 2017

I raised them as a way to learn and because I thought it interesting. This then allowed me to use the knowledge to raise more species. If profit is your motivation then I think you'd be better of doing something else but as a way to expand your interest/experience it's great. In truth most breeders lose far more money than they make for a very long time, I do commend them for the effort.

Brian W · Apr 6, 2017

Theo15 said:
I have two clownfish as well too and I was wondering the same thing ? I might try it out when they are ready.....

those are nice! I would breed those in a heart beat!!

Theo15 · Apr 6, 2017

Jimmy Lee said:
those are nice! I would breed those in a heart beat!!

Thanks ,they haven't bonded yet idk why but they constantly fight

Blue Lip · Apr 11, 2017

they constantly fight to become dominate female.

Theo15 · Apr 11, 2017

Blue Lip said:
they constantly fight to become dominate female.

She has a good inch on the smaller one ,why would they still fight ?

Brian W · Apr 12, 2017

My pair still nips at each other every now and then. Its not the usual fighting they did when they were first introduced though. Most of the time I believe it is due to the male wanting to hang around the bta and the female wants it all to herself. I have 3 bts in the tank but the male just wants to hang around her. The female is about 3/4" bigger than the male.

Theo15 · Apr 12, 2017

Jimmy Lee said:
My pair still nips at each other every now and then. Its not the usual fighting they did when they were first introduced though. Most of the time I believe it is due to the male wanting to hang around the bta and the female wants it all to herself. I have 3 bts in the tank but the male just wants to hang around her. The female is about 3/4" bigger than the male.

Idk ,she has him pinned in the corner all the time

Brian W · Apr 12, 2017

Theo15 said:
Idk ,she has him pinned in the corner all the time

That does not sound good!

I had 2 lightning and 1 was real calm and not aggressive at all. The other one was super aggressive and always kept the calm lightning in the corners. One day I noticed the calm one on top of the return loc line, it was stuck and barely in water. Luckily I came home in time or else it may have died. Needless to say the aggressive fish was given away.

The calm one is doing great and has a 40 gal AIO frag tank all to his self. Im currently looking for his mate, but do not want him to go through being bullied again.

Good luck.

Crashley · Nov 4, 2017

My clowns did not get alone when first introduced, it took 4 months or so of running my much smaller black Nemo of for them to become mates. They've followed each other around but no eggs yet- they probably just need time!

WestOhooligan · Nov 8, 2017

I've been in and around breeding since 2010/11 and I think a lot of the "odd" behavior we see nowadays in clowns is due to the high level of inbreeding. Just like with the detrimental effects it has in other animals, I think we are starting to see it in the fish now as well. A lot of the defects are being blamed on nutrition/water quality, but I still think inbreeding is the culprit. They have natural instinct, but it's so repressed that they don't really know what to do with it, and it gets worse with each new generation of fish bred with their hatch mates.

Theo15, in your pics, the bottom clown shows exactly what I'm talking about. You'll see the underbite, or "pug face", with a pinched head. Most collectors just ooh and aah over the patterns and colors, but it's the first thing I look at. There's also a good chance they came from the same clutch. I had a pair of captive picassos that I got from MACNA in 2016, both looked pretty solid and I never wanted to breed them together knowing they were related, but I did want to see if they were mature enough. Sure enough the female would become gravid and try to entice the male, but he would just dash into the anemone as soon as she cleared out. This went on for months, she'd even have her ovipositor out and he was too dumb to get the hint. I ended up getting rid of him and replacing with a nice wild caught male from Bali. My hope is to have stronger genetics in by fry and less Cletus and Jethro going on.