Clownfish tending eggs -Pics

[Chuck Lawson]

Still no signs of any of my darts getting busy (unless two vanzos snuggling in the same brom axel counts), but my gold-striped maroon clowns seem to be at it again -- here's poppa clown tending a clutch of eggs:

[joneill809]

Wow beautiful fish Chuck! Have they successfully reared a clutch yet?

[Chuck Lawson]

Thanks!

They've had some hatch, but rearing ends with that in clownfish (and they (damsels) are probably among the marine fish with the most advanced parental care). To rear a clutch in captivity takes a lot more dedication on the part of the fishkeeper than I've got -- you've got to pull them before hatch, keep them in a lightproof container for awhile, and feed them live foods (starting with really microscopic sized stuff every few hours) for months on end. After that, it still takes 8 - 12 months to get them to a size where they could conceivably be sold....

(...and clownfish count as "easy" as far as captive breeding in marine fish; the reason the vast majority of the marine fish sold are wild caught, vs. pretty much the exact opposite in freshwater.)

[joneill809]

Heh. If anyone is up for that Chuck it's you (after reading that great LED hood build thread you wrote!). Quite different from L multifasciatus. 6 juvies, 36 shells, 6 months and you have a colony

[Philsuma]

Loves me some Clownfishes ! Those dark one's are especially cool, and large and you're right....pound for lb, those dam damselfishes are aggressive as heck. Just think if they were the size of sharks.

[Chuck Lawson]

Heh. If anyone is up for that Chuck it's you (after reading that great LED hood build thread you wrote!). Quite different from L multifasciatus. 6 juvies, 36 shells, 6 months and you have a colony

LEDs don't make me get up every two hours to feed them. I've done my time being up with children and small animals -- in my dotage I'm all for letting the parents do the work if it needs to be done at all -- thus my interest in thumbs and pums. OTOH, the older I get the more I'm liable to be up every two hours anyway -- maybe clownfish fry are somewhere in my future :-)

Besides, the LED thing is a lot easier than it looks -- there are about 50 joints to solder, but they're all easy, and outside of letting the thermal adhesive cure, it takes about two hours to build, even if you're old and slow like me. :mrgreen:

[Chuck Lawson]

Loves me some Clownfishes ! Those dark one's are especially cool, and large and you're right....pound for lb, those dam damselfishes are aggressive as heck. Just think if they were the size of sharks.

Yeah, momma maroon wasn't in that picture, but she's about three times the size of poppa, and meaner than dirt. I've long been convinced that if adult female maroon clowns weighed 30lbs and had opposable thumbs, they just might become the dominant form of life on earth...

[BcsTx]

I visited Chuck Saturday to pick up some pothos, mine has been clipped to the root and saw his reef aquariums in person, the fish and corals are gorgeous!
Full aquarium shots needed Chuck.

Congrats on the eggs!

[Chuck Lawson]

Thanks Beth! No full tank shots likely, I'm afraid -- too many people here have probably seen much better examples of reef tanks :-)

(I'm not interested enough in hard corals to be consistent in maintaining my CA/Alk; when it comes down to it I'm much more interested in the fish, so my reef tanks tend to have soft corals and anemones instead of hard corals... They won't win any tank of the month prizes, but I enjoy them...)

[RanaVenenosa]

Chuck
Spawning Clownish is the "ness" in Cool! Never had that happen and I kept lots of clowns over the years.

[Chuck Lawson]

Thanks Scott!

These guys were spawning pretty regularly in their previous tank, but this is the first time they've done it since I moved them into my office (18 months or so ago), or at least the first time where they've done it where I could see (they could have been spawning back in the rock structure somewhere). I've never had any of my other clowns spawn; I do have a pair of black occelaris and a pair of saddleback clowns maintaining an uneasy peace in the tank in my bedroom, but no spawning behavior so far...