Clown Breeding Naturally?

[Dr4g0nf1y]

My wife noticed that our clownfish have laid eggs for the first time. Obviously I'm not prepared, and we've decided to just allow the first batch to go naturally. However after reading all the recommended information about breeding clownfish, I'm curious as to how it all happens in the wild.

I am no expert by any means but here's my thoughts:

The information talks about keeping a totally dark fry tank, this obviously doesn't happen in the ocean, so why do this? It also talks about basically clouding the water with rotifers and phyto to make it easier for the fry to find food. Again, I think that in the wild, those without this hunting instinct die off as part of natural selection, so aren't you just making the stock less hardy by doing this?

What would happen if we just allowed the fry to fend for themselves in our tanks? Obviously the ocean has no overflow siphons, or protein skimmers, or powerheads but wouldn't it make sense that the fry would hide in the live rock and feed on any microfauna they find there?

[Kmiec123]

Best book is Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson...

Check this page...

http://www.fellsman.se/akvarium/raising_clownfish.pdf (http://)

That should be plenty of info to see if your up to the challenge. :) Hope this helps...Carl

[Paul B]

Clownfish just about always spawn under the tentacles of an anemone. The sea is loaded with tiny life. If you ever dive and look closely (as I always do) near the bottom under rock overhangs you will see thousands of tiny fry and if you could see better you will see all the things they are eating. It is also true that the vast majority of baby fish get eaten before they live a few days. Your tank will not support clownfish fry for more than a couple of days with no additional feeding of rotifers.
Paul

[Kmiec123]

I guess it's possible if you can maintain about a 15 per ml supply of Rotifers in your tank. That would be hard to do though.

[catdoc]

Link doesn't work

[catdoc]

It worked once I did a copy/paste and deleted a space at the end of the URL, fy. Thanks for the article though.

[Dr4g0nf1y]

Kmiec123 -> 15 per ml? Isn't that a low number?

[phender]

Clownfish fry don't stay at the bottom of the ocean. As soon as they hatch, they swim up into the plankton layer where there are lots of things for them to eat and to be eaten by. They stay there for 10 - 20 days until they go through metamorphasis.
You can also look at it this way. Clowns lay about 300 - over 1 thousand eggs about every two weeks. This can go on for about 10 years for one pair. Thats about 200,000 babies over their lifetime. Do you know how many of those reach breeding age on average? TWO.
That is why we do all the little things we do to give them a little better chance of survival.

[Flighty]

The light from the sides of our tanks doesn't happen in the ocean either. In the wild they only have light from above and the light frome the sides makes it so they can't see to hunt.