Egg fostering with clownfish

With my Job I have access to clownfish that I don't have space at home to keep. I even have a few pairs that I bought myself but keep at a public aquarium (skunk, maroon clownfish pairs). I also have some friends that let me know when their clownfish have spawned and allow me to take the eggs.

I used to pickup the eggs the night of the hatch, however it's often inconvenient for me and the person helping me. I decided this was not the best option when I got home with a bucket full of maroon clownfish larvae... darn guys hatched on the way home.

First try I brought 4200 maroon clownfish eggs that were 1 day old. Gave them to my black and white Ocellaris that have not spawned for many months now. Results were instant, with the male fanning the eggs. Female even participated in caring for this nest, probably because it was 100x larger than they have ever made themselves. By the end of the week, there were some bite sized "holes" in the nest, but hardly affected the quantity of eggs.



Second try I brought home some regular Ocellaris eggs and gave them to my true percula pair. This pair has spawned for me in the past but has done nothing for about 6 months now. Immediately the male started caring for the eggs and soon the female would help a little. After these eggs hatched, I had to reaquascape the tank to catch one of the fish I wanted out. Completely redid this tank.

I thought this was starting to get pretty easy...

Bill Capman let me know that the Onyx clownfish at the Augsburg College had spawned on the tile again (was 1 year since the last time I got eggs). This time I collected the eggs days before they were expected to hatch. Bill showed me a great video of clownfish's heart beating while still in the egg. the video showed the blood flowing in and out of the heart. Amazing.




Anyways, I brought the nest home and floated them. I tried giving the eggs to my true percula pair, since only days ago they were successful with some Ocellaris eggs on a tile. The clownfish ignored the eggs for a short while, but a few minutes later I caught them eating the eggs, aggressively. These clownfish had gone psycho..
Next I gave the eggs to my black Ocellaris. I think they are getting ready to spawn on their own now, so I was reluctant to give them eggs to care for. But they too also went crazy and started tail slapping the tile and trying to push it away. After taking the eggs out, this pair went on a rampage and redecorated their tank, then terrorized the orchid dottybacks sharing the tank..
I ended up giving the onyx percula eggs to a newly added pair of Ocellaris. They showed no interest at all, but I was out of options as my other Ocellaris pair would be spawning the next day. Fortunately this morning I checked and they have started to care for the eggs.




Apparently if you do major redecorating to their tanks, they'll reject the eggs. Even if they were great parents days before.
Also seems that clownfish that are getting ready to spawn may not be willing to accept eggs as their own.

These pictures are from the first nest that I got from Bill.
 



Wow great shots and really interesting post.

Cool stuff. Chad! I was talking with Witt about this the other night.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

That's really cool, Chad. I would never have thought to try fostering. Those are some great 'scope shots, too. It really does not look comfortable inside of there.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

How did that maroon hatch turn out?

Live and Learn

maroons hatched out great. however I greatly underestimated how much food 4000 clownfish will need. gave up on day 2 when I was low on rotifers...

anyone want to help me explore this method?
 
I'm having trouble with getting some of the pairs to care for other clownfish eggs. I just keep moving them around till I find a pair that doesn't start eating the eggs right away...
 
example, the black ocellaris that cared for the gold stripe maroon eggs (4200 eggs) spawned less than 10 days after the maroons hatched. they ate their own eggs within a few hours.... now they will not care for percula eggs. however they are cleaning the flower pot, maybe they are getting ready to lay another batch of "food"...
 
the pair of normal ocellaris that I had foster some percula eggs a month or so ago now wants to eat the eggs. the male was very aggressive while the female seemed to want to care for them...
 
percula pair that has cared for another percula's eggs in the past. the male was ready to be a dad and started fanning the eggs, female just wanted to eat them... in the past, they have done a really good job fostering other clownfish eggs.
 
right now I think I have a pair that's going to take care of them.. they are my last option, so my fingers are crossed. this pair has yet to spawn for me (spawned in clients tank) so we'll see what happens in the fallowing weeks.

Maybe the foster care option isn't such a good idea?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

it's a great idea if we can figure out what makes it work and what makes it not work. maybe giving pairs of clownfish eggs and their reactions will tell us something about their own spawning activity.

Sounds like perhaps trying it with non-spawning pairs would work but that it may lead spawning pairs to develop a habit of eating their own eggs. I know with these limited trials not proven but my hypothesis.

It is very interesting, for sure.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

If I was closer to yah I would love to help out, I have 2 previously spawning pairs( last spawned about 2 months ago)and 1 pair that hasn't spawned yet.
I think this is really interesting.

very interesting development. I have a pair of ocellaris that will spawn today. female is SWOLLEN with eggs. I wasn't going to give them the percula eggs because I assumed it wouldn't work. with all my other clownfish pairs wanting to eat the eggs or not even looking at them, I had no choice.
 
last night I snuck the eggs in after lights out and today the eggs are alive and doing well. more or less passive parenting, but her ovidepositor is down so they might have bigger plans tonight. I hope they lay their eggs right on top of the percula eggs, lol.

that would be cool. I can't wait for those results.

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8

Chad: (or anyone else)
Does it have to be a pair? Couldn't you just put the eggs in with a male and see if he will fan/mouth the eggs? Does it have to be an actual mated pair to foster the eggs?

Michelle  
 

the ocellaris laid eggs in their typical spot, but still would fan the percula eggs as well.
 
fast forward...
 
I gave that ocellaris nest to the pair of true percs that tried to eat the SI onyx perc eggs. they accepted them and did great. Differences that I noticed are that the ocellaris eggs were on a flower pot, which is what the percula are living in. the SI percula eggs were on a tile, which was a foreign object to them. aparently it helps to match what the clownfish are already using. then to make it more exciting, the pair of percs that I've been using as foster parents laid their best nest ever. seems that the ocellaris eggs got them back into the game.
 
so far every pair that I've used to foster clownfish eggs from another pair has started spawning. this might be a useful trick to coax difficult to spawn species.

very, very interesting Chad.

fantastic read.  Has it been tried with newly formed pairs who are yet to spawn?

planning on it when my ocellaris throw me another nest to play with. I'll do some flower pot swapping..
 

Lets wake up a old thread......Any news on all these trials??

Our goal with "The Clown Factory" is simple....Raise healthy, beautiful, captive clownfish and ...his is our small part to help keep the Worlds reefs as God intended them to be.....Beautiful

Good call I have not seen this thread since it is old. Very interesting stuff, I want to know how it works out. I wonder if this might help convince pairs that have not spawned to do so.

I've only had the chance to do this once since I last posted, and again it got my black and whites to start spawning after a 4 month or so of no eggs. I've only got one pair now that is not spawning, and will get them a nest when available. I also have more pairs at work waiting to come home, but I need to make room for them still.

 I haven't seen this thread until now, very interesting!  It's a brilliant idea to buy "cheap" Ocellaris pairs to raise "expensive" fancy clownfish eggs. 
 

 
This is also interesting.  I have a lone proven male hanging out, I bet he would love some eggs to care for.

Here's my contribution:
Once upon a time, there were 2 pair of black ocellaris clownfish on the same system.  One pair, A,  spawned predictably for about 6 months, every 11 days, and then quit.  Pair B spawns predictably every 11 days, and has done so for years.  Great pair.  Male B has a slight misbar, but all the other fish have perfect barring.  The progeny of Pair B are mostly misbars, and I don't know if it is something I'm doing wrong, or if it is caused by the genetics of Male B.
 
Some time ago, to attempt to get fully perfectly barred black ocellaris progeny,  I waited until Pair B had spawned, and then I switched Males A and B, so that Female B, great spawner,  was now with Male A, perfect barr.
 
Now the Female B/ Male A pair never missed a beat, and continue to produce fine nests with great regularity.  The other pair, Female A and Male B, seem to like each other, but have never spawned since the switch.  Female A and Male B have both spawned in the past, so they should be fertile, but they have never spawned with each other.
 
As an aside, I still get lots of black misbars, even from the perfectly barred pair, so I guess it's me.
 
Today I switched their pots.  Female B/Male A has the other pair's blank pot, and Female A/ Male B now has a pot with eggs from the spawning pair.   I'm hoping that the eggs will remind the Female A of how much fun it was to spawn, and get this pair to be productive on their own.  I'll let you know how it develops.  If it works, I want to try giving eggs to a mature pair that have never spawned.

Thanks for experimenting Kathy and sharing your findings!  If I could find some eggs somewhere I would try this out too.

I'm going to trying my hand at this soon. I lost my male Darwin today and I'm getting a new male tomorrow. There are still eggs on the tile so I'm hoping he gets the idea right off the bat. We'll see. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I tried egg fostering yesterday and had good success.
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn201/shannyfly/?action=view&current=eggfostering.mp4

Yay, the male is tending the eggs, and the female seems interested, too, but not eating them!

Hurray for Kathy's fish!

Matt is trying this out with his Lightning maroons: http://reefbuilders.com/2012/04/23/double-down-clownfish-spawn/

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I still refuse to believe that fish exists....it's too cool looking LOL.

I saw it in person 2 weeks ago so I can confirm it's real.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Matt needs to invite me up there so I can see it LOL

Has he tried changing the lighting and temperature to try and induce spawning?
Or can you point me to his posts on it if he's documented it?
Thanks

You can find all the details here: http://www.lightning-maroon-clownfish.com/

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I have 2 Darwin pairs that I am going to try this with. I've had both of these pairs for a long time and nothing I do makes them spawn. Bad part is I would be putting a designer pairs nest in there with them.

That female looks like she is ready. Did it trigger them to start breeding

I finally have some egg fostering experience!  On 06/18/12 my Darwin pair spawned.  They put most of their spawn on the vertical tile, but put 30 eggs on the angled part of the tile lean-to.  On 06/19 I pulled the angled tile from the Darwins and put it in with my fancy Ocellaris pair that have spawned before (last fall), but not for me (I got them 03/31/12).  The Occys took to the eggs right away, and seemed very excited when I put the eggs in there.  Those Darwin eggs hatched on 06/28.  Today 07/01, the Occys spawned their own nest.  Right on time for a re-spawning if those Darwin eggs were theirs.  Very cool trick! 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

My Darwins spawned yesterday, and again they put some eggs on a second tile, while most of their eggs were neatly gathered on their main tile.  I decided to try moving the sparse tile (24 eggs scattered on it) into my Clarkii tank.  The Clarkii have been tile cleaning and glass cleaning for about a month now, but not really seriously.  The male Clarkii found the Darwin eggs first, and was interested in them, but didn't eat them. The female found the eggs and very quickly ate them all in a frenzy. When the rest of the Darwin batch matures a bit more I will try moving the rest of the nest over. Maybe mature eggs will help.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

This sounds like a success story to me, with your ocellaris pair.  I am eager to try to get my formerly spawning pair to go for it.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)