Clown Breeding Project

A little background first: I have been keeping saltwater tanks off and on for bout 7 years now. I picked up a bonded pair of Black and White Misbar Osc. (Tank-bred) in January for my 29gal bowfront. The previous owner told me the pair never had shown any signs of spawning in the 3 years of having them. The female (Gothica 5yrs) and the male (EmoNemo 3yrs) started to show breeding behaviors once I put them into my 90gal. Moving them to the 90gal was an attempt to make them a little less aggressive towards me, which was a complete failure. Anyhow I decided to try and raise the fry that my Misbars were about to have.

Having no idea what to do I did research on the internet. Found an awesome site: breedclownfish.com which gave me a good idea on how I could actually do this successfully. I had 2 10gal tanks ready to go for my first fry hatchings. First batch I caught about 20 fry with a siphon hose in which only 2 survived. Disheartened by this I had high hopes for the next batch. (Discovering that my salinity was 1.028 in the first batch.) Caught only 15 this time and about 7 survived to the 10 day mark. Little better but not what I was hoping for.

Disaster Strikes! I miss the third hatch night and come home to find the only surviving fry I had to have expired due to heater malfunction. Back to square one...

Beginning of October: Hatch night I catch about 30 and 20 survive the 10day mark. The following weeks about the same numbers in surviving fry. Now I feel like I got this process down.

I now have ~60 babies that are 1-2 months in age and 30 fry without bands appearing. (I probably got my terminology wrong considering they are probably all fry until juveniles) My process so far is simple.

Hatch Night:
10gallon tank with Airstone, Heater, and Light. After lights are out on main display I cut power to all filtration and flow. Then after 30 min. I take a flash light, set it on top of my hood shining straight down near the front of my display. Within moments other microverts will flock to the light spawning and such. After another 30min. clown cry will be darting all throughout the light's beam in the water column. At this time I siphon about 5gals into the 10gal without getting any fry. Then positioning the hose about water level in the 10gal I just siphon the school of fry into the 10gal in big swoops until to capacity with water in the 10gal. If there are more than 4 or 5 remaining in the display I will carefully drain from the 10 gal back into the sump. If there are only a few stragglers its not worth putting the already caught fry through more stress. (In my opinion)

10 day mark:
Probably the most crucial part of the fry's life. They survive on a yolk sack for the first couple days but I make sure to have plenty of live rotifers available. Some people have suggested I start the fry on pellet formula as soon as Day 5 to get them closer to eating prepared foods sooner. I unfortunately don't have that kind of money. Rotifers will suffice as a sole food source until they are about a month old or so. Once the fry have hit the 10 day mark I can basically count on them to all survive.

1 month mark:
At this point 30 fry in a 10gal is getting to be a bit much considering twice a week water changes. I transferred ~40 babies into a 20gal long with a bigger Airstone. Added a couple large pieces of PVC for "shelter". I still add live roitfers to the tank but in addition I start adding live baby brine.

3month mark:
My first batch hasn't reached this stage in size and feeding habits but the baby brine are about the same size as small fish formula pellets I feed my actual display. I have already crushed a small amount up and given it to the 20gal long batch in which majority of the larger ones have readily taken to.

I picked up a second Pair of Percula Clowns fish yellow-orange in color for my gf's tank about 2 weeks ago and now they have started breeding as well. Only 5 survivors out of 30ish which brings me to believe that the longer the clowns breed the stronger their broods become.

I will post pictures of each breeding pair along with current tanks with fry of each type once able!

I myself have just started breeding. I purchased a pair of AAA platinums from a sorce in pensilvania. First spawning was Monday.

Let me know if you need a live rotifer boost or anything else. I know what kind of stress it can be to wait on shipping!

I'm good for now. I just divided a 50g into 2- 18"X18" partitions. In the second half I will be ordering a pair of ultra black onyx from the same guy.

Nice I wish I had that kind of room. Right now I have 3 10gals and the 20 long full of babies and another hatch night probably wednesday.

Well due to another heater issue, back to 1 month old fry. Transferred a group of about 80 fry into a 29gal from a 20gal long. (Doing this on $200 a month budget for this project) After checking the water salinity and temp, I went to bed.

In the morning you could immediately tell something was very wrong. About 90% of the babies were on the bottom breathing extremely fast and the others "divebombing". Temp was at ~60degrees . Needless to say that temp would kill full grown adults. Immediately checked the wires to the heater and realized I had plugged in a strip light to an unused tank instead of the heater.

Day later all but 12 mixed ages are still swimming but seem to be close to death also. Learn from my mistakes and mark your plugs or wires. Additionally try not to get attached to these fry as you would your actual display.

I have a 30 g and a 20 g for trade if you need more tanks pm me if your interested.

That sucks, I feel your pain. Two weeks ago I ordered a pair of white knight clowns from live aquaria's divers den. Well they were lost is shipping and arrived a day late. Needless to say I have one. I have spend hours on the phone with live aquaria and the shipping company but it looks like I'm not going to get reimbursed. I am desperately trying to find a male now. It gets better trust me.