Breed Clownfish | Saltwater Fish

[Poochieparker]

Hi

This is my first ever posting, one of my two clowns has laid eggs, which one I don't know? The bigger of the two seems to be guarding the area (underneath my 10-12" mushroom Leather Coral), while the smaller one stays with the eggs nosing them about, which do you think has laid them? I don't know if they have laid eggs before.

I have a bi-orb that I am thinking of putting the fry into when they have hatched, what do you think, I would like to leave in my main tank but have tang and lemonpeel angel who are already nosying about

To set up my orb:-

Do I use the water from my main tank to set up the bi-orb?
What success rate have you found by removing the entire rock and coral to separate tank? When should I do this?, should I move both clowns along with it?
How much rotifiers do you think I will need to purchase for hatch night 100 ml 250ml 500ml or more? I have found a place online hat do next day delivery on orders placed after 4 pm.
Are they identifiable at fish when they hatch?
Finally, my nitrates are higher than normal, I purchased an unwell sun coral a couple of weeks ago and have been nursing it back to life, so more food and hands than normal have been going into the tank, will this affect the babies?

I will to add photos if anything happens?

Any answers or advice would be welcome, I don't know how long we have left

Thank You in advance
Poochie

[UNIXMan]

The bigger one is [almost] always the female and laid the eggs. Also, it is usually the male that cares for the eggs while the female stands guard. Probably because she is bigger and can fight off bigger fish that come to investigate.

A bio-orb is probably a good idea for when they hatch -- mine usually hatch in 7 days at 78F, but it takes anywhere from 6-10 days, sometimes as long as 12 days. Leave the eggs in the tank -- the parents will take very good care of them. Only take them out if your other fish cause too much trouble and the clowns can't handle the job on their own. If you take them out, you have a big responsibility to do the job of the parents and wash the eggs to take care of them. If you don't, they will die. Also, if you move the eggs, they must be under water at all times. It might be easier to wait until they hatch and siphon them out, depending on your aquascape. When they hatch, they look like little silver fish. They resemble small guppies - but they don't look anyhing like clowns for a few weeks.

Only use water from the main tank to fill the bio-orb. The day they will hatch, you will see their eyes will become VERY silver. That night, when the lights go out, turn off all the filters and powerheads so they don't get sucked up into the pumps. Check with a flashlight about an hour after the lights go out to see if they hatched yet. Siphon them out and put them in the little tank. It doesn't have to be full, and you don't need a filter either -- just a few airstones and a sponge filter, but no power filter.

You need a lot of rotifers. The fry can't see very well, so you should put in enough rotifers for them to find very easy. A lot of people say to put in so many they can be found about every one and a half body lengths. Only use live rotifiers -- if you use frozen or bottled preserved rotifers, you will foul the water very quickly and kill all your fry.

Don't worry about your water chemistry and high nitrates -- if it was that bad, the adults would not spawn. The important thing is, DO NOT change the chemistry of your tank until the eggs hatch, and DO NOT shock the little ones with big water changes. Only change about 5% every 3 or 4 days after they are swimming well, a few days after hatching, and only replace it with water from your main tank. Don't use fresh mixed water -- they are used to the main tank water. If you use "clean" fresh mix, you will shock them.

Meanwhile, work on your nitrate problem. How long is this tank up, and how high is "high"? Do you have a lot of algae, and what kind of animals are in there that eat it? And what kind of substrate do you have in there? Sand, crushed coral, etc., and how deep?

[alanna]

Did they hatch? Did you get everything set up? Let us know...
Also you can read miamiangler and davek0819 post we talked alot about our how we did good and bad. We learned alot. I hope it helps you. Good luck!