Cali Kid Corals

Black Ocellaris Pre-Spawning Behaviors?

If I get the 28g NC-HQI It'll most likely be in April. Once it's cycled I'll move over an anemone and see how it does. If it does well for a few weeks, I'll slowly move over the others. After that I'll add the clowns so that they can be introduced to a tank with a bunch of homes. I've heard that sometimes anemones will eat the fry as they hatch. Is this true? And I'd REALLY love to keep 4 of the babies (once 4 months old) with the pair. :D
I'm not sure if they'll recognize each other, but since they are family will they most likely form a hierarchy like clown families in the wild or will the pair go on a killing spree? :~

GreshamH said:
Like you said earlier, nutrition with the adults is key.

That reminds me, as I said I'll be picking up food this weekend, what foods do you think I should get that will make the clowns have a better diet? I'm going to try muscles, squid, and some other meats. Are there any veggies that clowns like? I can't get mine to eat lettuce.
 
I just went to Aquarium Concepts and got some frozen food. They suggested Formula One so that's what I got. OMIGOSH I just looked over at the tank and the male is REALLY biting that rock. The female is joining in a bit but not much. The female is just sitting there in her anemone watching him from a few inches away. He's really aggressively cleaning that rock! Last night was a full moon I think, so tonight should be no moon or a full moon. My guess is that the male was put in the mood by the lunar cycles and the female isn't ready to lay eggs yet. I guess the male will just have to wait this one out... :(
 
On Monday night the male was cleaning off a new rock right by their new giant GBTA. Within a few minutes, the female joined in! This was after the lights were off. The light in my room was on which was why they were awake, but the female and the male aggressively cleaned that rock until 12:00PM! I watched them for about 3 hours and got some extremely exciting video footage of lots of Clownfish behaviors! The male was doing the clownfish waggle, and the weird thing is, it was the female vibrating. They acted EXACTLY like they were laying eggs! The female would go down against the rock and vibrate her stomach against it, and the male would follow right along and rub his belly on the rock. However, the weird thing is, they didn't lay eggs... They were just practicing I guess... :p
Anyways, I'm expecting them to lay eggs on one of the upcoming new moons. The good thing is, the new rock they've selected isn't a base rock, so if they lay eggs, right before they hatch, I can lower a container into the tank and move the rock into the container. Then I can move them in a water-filled container to a hatching tank! :bigsmile:
Anyways, you'll be VERY surprised at the video footage - it was like they were laying invisible eggs and fertilizing them! I finally turned my light off and went to bed at about 12:05PM, but right when I did that, they stopped their "practice"(?) and jumped into their new favorite host, snuggled deep into it where you could no longer see them, and they didn't come out until the next day...
If you're wondering why I'm telling you this NOW, it is because the male has just started cleaning off the rock again... so hopefully they'll do something productive instead of keeping me up to 12:00 PM just to go to sleep... I'll put the video on youtube tomorrow and I'll post the link in this thread. Does anybody know what they were doing? This was the 1st time the female actually helped so I think they're getting serious! :bigsmile:
 
I did some more research and I'm pretty sure that it was actually a bad attempt at spawning... If they spawn on Valentine's Day it would be so cute! :love:
I think they just need to get their "breeding tubes" down next time and they might actually succeed... although if they failed on Valentine's Day that would be such a bummer!... Until the next new moon, that is! I'm guessing they'll try again on the 13th or 14th... I don't pay attention to which is Valentine's Day but I think it is the 14th... The 13th is the new moon and the 14th still won't have a moon in the sky so either one should work for them! I'll try and get the video up ASAP but I'll have to do it tomorrow... It's quite remarkable! I need to give them names... What do you think good names are for them? I think something random would work, like Pineapple and Rocky, but if they lay eggs on Valentine's Day then their names will be easy to pick out! Any suggestions on names? :bigsmile:
 
Here is some interesting info I was giving yesterday when I told ppl about my clowns spawning


Spawning

Once the clownfish have settled into their new home, anywhere from one to twelve months, spawning will commence. The first indication of possible spawning is when the male clownfish swims up and down in front of the female. The male will dance in a head-up fashion and will thrust towards the female. This is known as the clownfish waggle. This behavior is a pretty lose indicator but generally means that spawningwill happen soon. The next indication is when the male, and often the female, will start to clean a portion of rock near the base of the anenome. This is a good indication that spawning will commence within a day or two. The last indicator of spawning behavior is the appearance of both the male and female clownfishs' genital tubes.

Spawning starts when the female swims over the cleared patch of rock and deposits a small line of eggs with her ovopositor. The males follows shortly after and fertilizes them. The process of laying eggs takes anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. The eggs look like little capsules about 2 to 3 mm long and 1 mm wide. If the adults have been fed well the eggs should be a bright orange color. During this time the clownfish, notably Amphiprion clarkii, may lay up to 600 eggs. More often than not however, the number of eggs start out small, around 200, and increases with each spawn and as the female increases in size. Once the fish have started spawning they're likely to repeat it at intervals of around 12 to 18 days.

The eggs usually take from 6 to 15 days to hatch depending on the temperature. One day before hatching the larvae develop a silvery color around their eyes. This is the time when you must make a decision: Either you leave the eggs in the tank to hatch, and you remove the larvae, or, one day prior to hatching you remove the live rock upon which the eggs were laid.

If the eggs are to be removed on the rock then it is important that the eggs be kept underwater at all times. The water in which the eggs are kept must have also been taken from the spawning tank as small differences in water quality may damage the eggs. Once the eggs are in the larval rearing tank then they must be provided with sufficient water current to properly oxygenate them. . The easiest way to do this is via an airstone that produces coarse bubbles. All then that is required is to remove the rock after hatching.

If the eggs are to be left in the main aquarium then some planning will have to be made. To make things easier, the lights can be turned off as the larvae hatch within 2 hours of darkness. Once the lights have switched off all circulation to and within the tank must be ceased. This will ensure that the larvae are not sucked up and damaged by pumps and water currents. After the pumps have been turned off and the tank is still it's time to wait! The eggs will hatch in waves, and as the larvae hatch they will swim to the surface. Once at least a quarter of the eggs have hatched it's time to use the torch (flashlight). The torch is shone in the water from above, and used to concentrate the larvae into a small group. Once this is done the larvae can either be siphoned into the larval rearing tank with airline tubing, or dipped out with small plastic cups/containers. This is done repetitively until all larvae are caught.

Larval Rearing Tank

Clownfish larvae can be reared in many different sorts of containers and tanks. Old 2 foot aquariums can be used, however, I have found that circular tanks give much better results.This is because square/rectangular tanks have corners, and with no strong currents to thoroughly mix the water, dead spots develop in the corners. This occurence in the end will cause the death of many clownfish larvae. With round tanks there is no such problem, as there are no corners, and it is very easy to get water to circulate in a circular fashion.

An ideal larval rearing tank is a round plastic or fiberglass tank with a water holding capacity of between 50 and 150 liters. These tanks can be set up as: 1) having a filter and recirculating water, or 2) stand alone, and just using airstones and water changes.

The ideal setup for clownfish larvae is to have a central standpipe in the round tank, and to place a mesh screen of between 100 and 300 microns around it. The different mesh sizes are used for the different sized live feeds such as rotifers and artemia. Water overflows into a sump where there is some sort of both biological and mechanical filtration. A low volume pumpthen pumps the water back into the tank at very slow rate, just enough to cause the water to circulate slowly and keep the larvae moving. An airstone may be required in the center of the tank along the side of the screen to ensure that it does not block up. This system closely matches the natural environment where they are found drifting in the surface waters.

The second option is to have a round tank with only surface aeration provided. This setup is much easier to prepare but water quality can become a problem unless regular water changes are performed to reduce ammonia levels. A further problem develops in that it is much harder to flush excess live foods out of the tank.

The larval rearing tank should receive the same lighting cycle as the main tank. It preferably should have its own light and timer. is that the larvae are visual predators and require light to hunt for their live food prey.
 
Imus did you write that our cut and pate? If the later can you post the link as well as so it's no plagiarism?
 
GreshamH said:
Imus did you write that our cut and pate? If the later can you post the link as well as so it's no plagiarism?

it was posted in my thread on NCRC about my clowns swpaning but I don't think it could be considered plagiarism as I said in my post "Here is some interesting info I was giving yesterday when I told ppl about my clowns spawning"

Honestly Gresh I hear you but 90% of what ppl post of forums comes from somewhere else and rarely is ever is a source or the correct source quoted, I think the point should be don't try to pass off others work as your own, which by the fact I said someone else gave it ti me, I was surely not doing......
 
If it's not yours, simply quote it. when you don't it can be taken as if you wrote it. FWIW your leading repentance really doesn't say you didn't write it. It just says the "info" was passed onto you.

90%, sorry I do not concur. I see people cite their source all the time. I take very little stock in posts that don't!
 
GreshamH said:
If it's not yours, simply quote it. when you don't it can be taken as if you wrote it. FWIW your leading repentance really doesn't say you didn't write it. It just says the "info" was passed onto you.

90%, sorry I do not concur. I see people cite their source all the time. I take very little stock in posts that don't!

+1. From reading it, it did seem like it was information passed on first hand, which it isn't.
 
Roc said:
Here is some interesting info I was giving yesterday when I told ppl about my clowns spawning


Spawning

Once the clownfish have settled into their new home, anywhere from one to twelve months, spawning will commence. The first indication of possible spawning is when the male clownfish swims up and down in front of the female. The male will dance in a head-up fashion and will thrust towards the female. This is known as the clownfish waggle. This behavior is a pretty lose indicator but generally means that spawningwill happen soon. The next indication is when the male, and often the female, will start to clean a portion of rock near the base of the anenome. This is a good indication that spawning will commence within a day or two. The last indicator of spawning behavior is the appearance of both the male and female clownfishs' genital tubes.

Spawning starts when the female swims over the cleared patch of rock and deposits a small line of eggs with her ovopositor. The males follows shortly after and fertilizes them. The process of laying eggs takes anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. The eggs look like little capsules about 2 to 3 mm long and 1 mm wide. If the adults have been fed well the eggs should be a bright orange color. During this time the clownfish, notably Amphiprion clarkii, may lay up to 600 eggs. More often than not however, the number of eggs start out small, around 200, and increases with each spawn and as the female increases in size. Once the fish have started spawning they're likely to repeat it at intervals of around 12 to 18 days.

The eggs usually take from 6 to 15 days to hatch depending on the temperature. One day before hatching the larvae develop a silvery color around their eyes. This is the time when you must make a decision: Either you leave the eggs in the tank to hatch, and you remove the larvae, or, one day prior to hatching you remove the live rock upon which the eggs were laid.

If the eggs are to be removed on the rock then it is important that the eggs be kept underwater at all times. The water in which the eggs are kept must have also been taken from the spawning tank as small differences in water quality may damage the eggs. Once the eggs are in the larval rearing tank then they must be provided with sufficient water current to properly oxygenate them. . The easiest way to do this is via an airstone that produces coarse bubbles. All then that is required is to remove the rock after hatching.

If the eggs are to be left in the main aquarium then some planning will have to be made. To make things easier, the lights can be turned off as the larvae hatch within 2 hours of darkness. Once the lights have switched off all circulation to and within the tank must be ceased. This will ensure that the larvae are not sucked up and damaged by pumps and water currents. After the pumps have been turned off and the tank is still it's time to wait! The eggs will hatch in waves, and as the larvae hatch they will swim to the surface. Once at least a quarter of the eggs have hatched it's time to use the torch (flashlight). The torch is shone in the water from above, and used to concentrate the larvae into a small group. Once this is done the larvae can either be siphoned into the larval rearing tank with airline tubing, or dipped out with small plastic cups/containers. This is done repetitively until all larvae are caught.

Larval Rearing Tank

Clownfish larvae can be reared in many different sorts of containers and tanks. Old 2 foot aquariums can be used, however, I have found that circular tanks give much better results.This is because square/rectangular tanks have corners, and with no strong currents to thoroughly mix the water, dead spots develop in the corners. This occurence in the end will cause the death of many clownfish larvae. With round tanks there is no such problem, as there are no corners, and it is very easy to get water to circulate in a circular fashion.

An ideal larval rearing tank is a round plastic or fiberglass tank with a water holding capacity of between 50 and 150 liters. These tanks can be set up as: 1) having a filter and recirculating water, or 2) stand alone, and just using airstones and water changes.

The ideal setup for clownfish larvae is to have a central standpipe in the round tank, and to place a mesh screen of between 100 and 300 microns around it. The different mesh sizes are used for the different sized live feeds such as rotifers and artemia. Water overflows into a sump where there is some sort of both biological and mechanical filtration. A low volume pumpthen pumps the water back into the tank at very slow rate, just enough to cause the water to circulate slowly and keep the larvae moving. An airstone may be required in the center of the tank along the side of the screen to ensure that it does not block up. This system closely matches the natural environment where they are found drifting in the surface waters.

The second option is to have a round tank with only surface aeration provided. This setup is much easier to prepare but water quality can become a problem unless regular water changes are performed to reduce ammonia levels. A further problem develops in that it is much harder to flush excess live foods out of the tank.

The larval rearing tank should receive the same lighting cycle as the main tank. It preferably should have its own light and timer. is that the larvae are visual predators and require light to hunt for their live food prey.

Thanks for the info! I already have read most of it elsewhere, but I didn't know I have to have a round rearing tank. BTW, what's a micron? :O
 
Round larval tanks are great, but not a necessity Matthew. You'll be fine using what 905 of breeders us, a 10g tank :)
 
Euphyllia said:
BTW, what's a micron? :O
Micron is a measurement unit of length just like inch or meter or mile is a unit of lenght. Micron is part of the metic system. 1 micron = 1/1,000 of a mm or 1/1,000,000 of a meter.

the above article said 100- 300 microns. For reference, a typical sheet of paper is 100 microns thick...so basically, small holes. You don't need these details though :-D

You can go to an LFS and as for 300micron filter socks etc and they will know what to get.
 
I'll use the 8g for a hatchery and the 10g once they are through the metamorphosis. My mom has agreed to pay for everything I need to raise the babies since I'll be able to pay her back with the money I get from selling the babies. Since they are B&W Ocellaris, I'm thinking $25 would be a good price for 3 months old ones... I'm going to take apart all the rock structure except the base rock this weekend and I'm going to catch that stupid wrasse. Even though the wrasses isn't bugging the clowns, I think it would be best to only have the clowns in the tank. Ever since they attempted to spawn on Monday night, they have been extremely aggressive of their territory and they'll dart back into their giant GBTA if you even walk up to the tank. The female's belly does seem to be bulging out a bit and I haven't fed them yet today, so that might be eggs... IDK. Also, when their babies are 3 months old will I be able to just put 3 in the tank with the parents? It would be cute to have a little family of clownfish which I have always wanted. Since they'll stay juveniles in the clan they shouldn't be bigger than 1" I'm guessing so it won't overstock the tank. Will the clownfish recognize the babies as their own and accept them into their family anemone right away, or will the female go on a killing spree? Anyone ever tried this or heard of it?
 
If you sell them to end users 425 might not be a bad price. If you plan on selling to stores you get a 1/3 of that most likely.

8g, 10g, same thing really (rectangular tanks).

They will still grow and won't stay 1" I hate to say.
 
GreshamH said:
They will still grow and won't stay 1" I hate to say.

Even if I put them in a clan with the parents which means they'll remain juvenile. I read that there is normally a big size difference between the breeding pair and the juveniles. How big would they get in a clan? Also, is there any LFS that sell live rotifiers? :)
 
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