Clownfish eggs will hatch about 7-10 days after they are laid, depending on the water temperature. Each day you should check the eggs.
When the eggs get a silver color, they will hatch that night. You will notice that each egg has a silver, reflective eye. This means that when the lights go out they will hatch. You must remove the clownfish fry from the tank and put them into the fry tank. To do this, turn off every filter and pump in the tank. There must be no current or flow in the tank. Once the lights have gone off, wait about 30 minutes and shine a bright flashlight into the water. A mag light works great. Do not shine the light directly at the eggs, this will delay the hatching process. The clownfish will be attracted to the light and swim towards it. Start a siphon with airline tubing and begin siphoning the clownfish fry into a bucket. This is usually easier with a helper.
One person will hold the light, and another should hold the siphon hose. When most of the fry are caught you can easily pour the fry into the breeding tank.
There also is a variation on this technique. The night of when the eggs are supposed to hatch you can remove the live rock that the eggs were laid on and put it into the breeding tank. Take care not to expose the eggs to air. If possible fill a bag with aquarium water and place it into the tank. Put the rock with the eggs on it into the bag and lift out the rock and bag. Place the bag underwater in the breeding tank and remove the rock. This method is ok but doesn’t work if the clownfish laid their eggs on a large piece of live rock that is at the bottom of your tank.
If this is the case you can place a piece of tile or a broken terracotta pot in the location that your clownfish usually lay eggs. They will lay eggs on the tile or pot and it can easily be removed the night of the hatching.
Once the eggs are in the breeding tank, make sure they are well aearated. Place an air stone or airline tube close to the eggs so that they are moving slightly from the current. This will ensure the eggs are getting enough air to hatch properly. The eggs will hatch directly into the breeding tank and you won’t have to move them. I have not had great sucess with the removing the rock method. I think it is because the breeding tank and my main aquarium did not have the same water parameters. Always make sure that the two tanks have the same salinity and temperature before moving the eggs.
I would like to known more and how to breed them .
what type of setup that I will need …
Thank’s steven
I have just launched the breeding clownfish forum, it can be found at http://www.breedclownfish.com/forum/
ask any questions you have in the forum.
i have no other fish than ocellaris clowns in my aquarium and i would like to know if i could leave the fry in my main aquarium with a sponge on the filter water suction pipe? i would also want to know if i could feed them infusoria instead of rotifers since infusoria are established in aquariums because of filters? can i feed them infusoria for 5 days then do a combo of bbs and infusorians and stop with the infusoria after 7 days and just do a combo of bbs and powdered flakes then after there 1 half inches i can just feed them the same as i feed my adult clowns? thanks a lot
I am not very familiar with infusoria but I am not sure how well it would do in saltwater. The food must be moving, alive, and enriched with many nutrients like the rotifers (fed Rotifer Diet). Rotifers has been proven to work and really the best food to use. As far as the tank, they really need to be in a separate tank. I’m not sure how big your main tank is but if the tank is too big, the fry would not be able to find the rotifers. Please use the forum for any other questions.
infusoria are air born microorganisms that have lots of nutrients and like i said they form from filter cartridges or you can start a culture of them which i’ve done so. my tank is 14 gallons and my 2 clowns started to clean a rock off and it was mostly the male cleaning the rock. i also heard that clown fish will lay eggs a couple of days after cleaning a rock and my clowns have been mated for about 13-14 days now.
you never answered my question about the combos, and i was wondering at what time of the day do clowns lay eggs?
i was also wondering how long their egg sacks lasted?
my tank has been setup for a month and 3 days now and i was wondering if they could lay eggs that early because they are showing all of the signs of a pregnant clownfish.
(i no that clownfish don’t get pregnant I’M NOT STUPID OR ANY THING, they lay eggs but i couldn’t find another name for egg layers.
What do you put in the breeding tank? Do you put sand in the tank or live rock? How high does the air ston need to be?
In the fry tank, I usually put a couple of small pieces of live rock. I usually position the airstone towards the surface of the water so that the fry are less likely to get hit by the rising bubbles.
My heater went crazy on hatch night….show tank is 79, the fry tank ended up being 77 and then heating to 80 within an hour. Can the fry survive this? How can I tell if this was deadly?
Thx
I think the clownfish fry will probably be ok. Sounds like it is time for a new heater
. Keep us posted in breeding clownfish forum.
It is possible that your clownfish could lay eggs this soon. Keep an eye on them and you might get a surpirse.
According to what I have read the egg sack only lasts about 24 hours. You do not want this to be the baby clownfish’s only source of food. You must have rotifers available and already in the tank so they can begin to eat as soon as they get hungry. It is normal however, for the clownfish to not be interesting in the rotifers for the first 12 hours or so.
There is not really a definite time that clownfish lay eggs. It will be during the day though. If you happen to catch them in the act of laying eggs, note the time. The next time your clownfish lay eggs it will be almost exactly at the same time.
i bought 2 clowns about a year a go they are in a mixed reef tank and i havent had eggs yet. but when i bought them they were in a tank where eggs were still on the glass.. so they were a pair. they seem to get on well and ive had no problems. one is avrage size the other is verry large. i see on the net that the large clown is normally the female but today i thought i see eggs inside the small one. is this possible? could i have mistaken the sex of them? they have got quite agressive too and i did have problems with my water conditions but i think i’ve sorted it now.
I have 2 clown fish about the same size alone in a tank.
One is darker than the other. The lighter one has a tiny hole or something on the top of his head. They usually go in one place when I turn the lights out at night. I read somewhere that’s a symptom that they’re going to lay eggs. Is that true? If so, what are some more symptoms?
My tank is a 36 gallon corner bow-front. I only have one additional fish in the tank: a dragon goby. My mated clown fish have laid eggs on the same rock just beneath the anemone. I really would like to keep the fish in this tank and not remove them. Is that possible?
hi.
i also did clownfish breeding
and i did breeding for tomato clownfish
the problem is the eggs were laid on the aquarium wall that cant be remove to incubation tank. i did used your method that using the airtube to siphon the fry, but by using this method, the survival rate is very low. how to prevent the mortality and how to increase the survival rates. i really need to know if u have some information on that.
I have had very good results. Your survival rate might be low because of another factor such as the rotifers not being in high enough numbers. Try to keep the airline tube shorter so they aren’t taking a long ride in the tube. Best of luck.
Yes you should be able to keep your fish in this tank. Use the siphon method described on this site to remove the baby clownfish.
Going to the same place at night does not necessary mean that the clownfish are going to lay eggs. I would be more concerned about the clownfish with the hole in the top of his head. This sounds like a common fish disease. You might want to look into that.
Hi our clowns have layed twice this time we set up the fry tank and had rotifers ready.
Unfortuanetly the silver eyes appeared and we were set for hatch night but during the day with the tank lights on the eggs hatched why is this so any help appreciated
My clowns (one black one orange) laid eggs. almost immediately after they began to eat them so i removed what was left of them to the hatch tank. what do you think are the chances they’ll hatch? and why did they eat them?
Egg eating is common in the first couple of batches that are laid. Be patient, the clownfish will get the hang of it.
Well I have a two clowfish one is a seabay the other is the tomato they have been sleeping together every night could this mean they are going to lay eggs or just being friendly.
my clown fish laid eggs on a fake rock, can i just put the fake rock in a bucket with water and a air pump? by the way my clown eggs are green with silver eyes does that mean they will hatch?
My anemones are growing on the live rocks, when the lights go out the anemones get smaller are they afraid, asleep, or dying?
I use a piece of pvc tube in the aquarium, and take off the egg on the sixth day after the spawn time. I use a knife to release the egg and put it in the aquarium or bucket that i use for rearing the fry. the egg will hatch 1 – 2 days after.
HI, MY PERCULA CLOWNFISH HAVE LAID 6 BATCHES OF EGGS SINCE NOV. 2010. MY PROBLEM IS THEY DEVELOPE INTO LITTLE FISH BUT THEY DO NOT HATCH AND BECOME FREE SWIMMING. DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OR KNOW WHAT MIGHT BE WRONG?
We just got our tank with clown fish and a few others, we have 2 clowns they keep making circles in the sand what does this mean are they just playing???
Moved my breeder pair into a new 150 two months ago and they just delivered me their first eggs today…5pm. one hour before their lights go out.
I’ve had 2 oss clowns for roughly 2 years and I noticed about a week ago that they had laid eggs on the side of some liverock (first time). The eggs were small and blueish, the day after the eggs have turned orange, After doing some research I knew this was normal and I have been keeping an eye on them. it’s now day 8 and thier eyes are very silverish, Im assuming htey are going to hatch tonight so I am going to try the method suggested on the top of this page. I did’nt have enough time to order rotifers but I have a fresh batch of baby brine shrimp ready in the 10 Gal fry tank I have, Im hoping this will do until I can get some rotifers. How often should I change the fry tank water?,,any other help would be great too!..Thx