Baby Clowns? Eggs?

My clowns are always doing the Clown dance. I keep hoping for little ones but nothing.

I noticed the clowns keep swimming by one area and shake rapidly. One... then the other... It looks like there are little things attached to my live rock which were never there before. After a while the clowns bite at it and eat what is on the rock. Is this their eggs? Do they eat their eggs?

Is there any chemicals or vitamins I can give to help them get in the mood?

Here are a few pics. Digital cameras take horrible pictures in an aquarium.

Baby Eggs?


Thanks,
Zak

 

looks like it,

i read in a few books that in order to breed cowns, besides perfect parameters and good food, you have to take into account the lunar cycle.

basically you have to set the light in your tank according to the moon light in the period when they spawn. I can't remember the hours, but maybe you can google it.

i don't have to books anymore.

best of luck.

 

Yes those are clown eggs,mine lay a new batch every 2 weeks.You would have to remove the rock they are on.And also be prepared with phyto to feed the rotifers,to feed the fry.Some will place a clay tile by the anemone,and hope the clown lay there eggs on them.Mine all hatch at once in the nite,and the lps get fed.There's never 1 left the next day.

 

Neat. Thanks for the input. So the clowns will eat their eggs. Nice of them. Really ticks me off. I will never get babies unless I move my rock. I am not setup or a 2nd tank. I am close but not good enough. I guess I could move the rock to my sump for a while. I have plenty of space in an open area. No real filtering going on section. I wish they produced like my Cardinal fish. ... Even though they have not had any offspring in a long time. About every 30 days one stops feeding for about 3 or so days. But no babies. I think the other fish is not helping the mating.

Zak

 

What should I do?

Ok the eggs disappeared after a week or so. They keep replacing the eggs ones the previous batch is gone. I got a lot more!

What should I do? I setup another tank below. Not bad lighting. 20w per < 2.5 gallons. Should I keep the anemomne with the rock? I doubt I can separate it from the rock? After they lay the eggs on the rock, when can I transfer the rock to a separate tank? How long before the eggs hatch? What could I do to help them survive? I have baby brine shrimp for feeding. Anything else?

P.S. I know there are books on this. I am looking to bypass this :-[ Quick pointers and any experience with this?

Thanks,
Zak

 

Dancing the night away!

Ok, I'm replying to this post because my percs are doing the dance too...but they've been doing it since they were introduced into the tank about 3-4 months ago...they only do it at night though, as soon as the lights go off, they go to their corner, and start, its really quite fascinating, you can really see the "love" they have for one another lol! But I've never seen any eggs...anyways...they don't go near the 2 condy's I have, they never did, so I added 2 clarkii's (one at a time), and they've claimed them both...but the clarkii's always bicker (so it seems)...sooo...few questions: do the clarkii's change sex too? I know who is the dominant one, but will they ever do the "dance"? And, do they (percs/clarkiis) always lay eggs near anenomes? Should I get/do something else for the percs to improve their love life, and give me some babies?

 

The "twitching" the clowns do can be a sign of aggression over territorial disputes or family squabbles also. It's pretty common if something upsets them, or if they are having a fight where the guy wants to be the girl or whatever clowns argue about. My clowns twitch whenever the sand gets kicked up in some way or another through cleaning or the pistol shrimp getting spooked, and sometimes they just twitch.

 

You could go to REEf aquarium forum (the old Clam's direct forum)ask Chris & Barb they have raised many clowns. They can tell you all about feeding and rearing them. Tom

 

If you want to breed and hatch these eggs, you will need to set up a breeder tank. Even putting them in a fuge will lead to elimination, since they will be either sucked into the return, or the skimmer. There are a couple GREAT threads on breeding clowns on this forum btw.
You will want to set up a small breeder tank with a sponge filter, azoo makes a good one. They are driven by an air pump. There is nothing in the tank that will compromise safety, no power heads! Use a fine airstone for water agitation and oxygenation for the tank. From what I understand, once the eggs are laid, you will want to remove them after 6-7 days and put them in the breeder tank. As papreef stated, you will need to have live rotifers on hand and readily available to feed the new fry. I'm going to try my hand at breeding maroons soon. If I decide to give this a shot, I'll photo document the progress.

 

The best thing you could do to prepare yourself for breeding clownfish is to get this book it has everything you will ever need to know about it. I would read this first before going through trial and error threads of other people's experiences where some people haven't read this book it might save some of your eggs in the long run and save you from some of the hassle. Hope all goes well for ya!

"Clownfishes" by Joyce D. Wilkerson