if my clowns have babies, cant i just leave the eggs in the tank??

[oxkisses12ox]

everyone sets up a larvae tank etc. for their baby clowns, but cant i just let them live in the tank with my clowns?? i have an angel in the tank and a cleaner shrimp... some snails... etc ... but why cant i just allow the clowns to take care of the babies?? like in the wild??

[Kathy55g]

Where did you learn that clownfish take care of their babies?

In the wild the larvae hatch out of the eggs and swim into the water column with the other plankton. There is food for them there, and they are also food for other animals, including hungry clownfish.

Mama and Papa will eat those babies faster than you can count them. Your water movement will annihilate them, your shrimp will have a nutritious snack.

Clownfish take care of their eggs like their lives depend on it. As soon as they hatch, it's dinner time.

[oxkisses12ox]

oh wow i didnt know that.... i have a 2 gallon QT can i just put the eggs in there when the mom drops the eggs? :)

[Kathy55g]

Hang on, Ed's calling my bluff. I've never seen Moma and Papa eat the babies, waiting on his email, I may have steered you wrong....

[Kmiec123]

Well, there's always....In nature the survival rate of a clown hatch is like 2%. We would like a better turn out if possible...Maybe 85-90% ;)

[Kathy55g]

Nope, Ed's just messing with me. :) Neither of us have actually seen them get eaten, but they all die, whether by powerhead or overflow, or digestion. They can't stand the current!

85-90% is possible if you are very good and there is no predator or current.

[Kathy55g]

When I've used a larval snagger, the best harvest count came when the batteries were low on the light I used to attract them. Since nest sizes don't change much, I've been thinking that the parents eat better when the light is stronger. Just a hypothesis on my part.

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9134705#post9134705 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
Nope, Ed's just messing with me. :) Neither of us have actually seen them get eaten, but they all die, whether by powerhead or overflow, or digestion.


I HAVE seen them get eaten, one day a couple of years ago I tried siphoning out the larvae in the evening using the flashlight method. I gave up on the flashlight when the parents were outcompeting me to the larvae, so with the regular lights on, a baster in one hand to catch them and a stick in the other to beat the parents away I caught maybe 50. Not to worry, what you circulation and night predators don't consume overnight the parents will make short work of in the morning.
Who said life was all fun and games for the clowns?

[Dman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9134495#post9134495 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kmiec123
Well, there's always....In nature the survival rate of a clown hatch is like 2%. We would like a better turn out if possible...Maybe 85-90% ;)

85-90% is highly unlikely, I think Hoff at IOH was only getting about 17% on average. I doubt I'm getting better than 10% on most species at this point. 50% of anything that made it past the first few hours would be spectacular on my end. Heck, I could retire from my full time job.

[Kathy55g]

percent of what? eggs available, hatched larvae, live larvae? In my world, you either have a lot of fish or you don't. Dman got a lot of fish. I have a lot of larvae this go round. We will see what the gods of cyanobacteria have in store for me this time.

[joyski58]

Sounds like oxkisses needs to do some reading. It's a whole lot tougher than just "moving the eggs" to another tank.