Baby Oscellaris Clownfish

Jason: I think raising your tank temp to 82 or 83 will make a difference and the Selcon will fatten-up your fry for sure. I feed my rotifers, copepods, and brine shrimp Nanochloropsis Paste 30 minutes before I feed them to my fry. Once a day I add one drop of Selcon to my quart containers of rotifers. I think the Selcon coats the rotifers. Selcon contains Omega-3s and I think that's a kind of oil or something.

I realized that I need to gradually wean my fry from live food because when they go to their new homes they will most likely be fed non-live food. I'm glad to see they are nipping at the Golden Pearls now.

From your post I just learned what to call my "batches" of fry that hatch..."clutches" - that's the word - thank you! Now what did you mean by the terms "Beta" and "Alpha"?...haven't heard those terms associated with Clowns before...but as you know I'm just beginning to learn about rearing Clowns.

Good to talk w/you...
Be well,
Laurie

Originally Posted by reefergal

Jason: I think raising your tank temp to 82 or 83 will make a difference and the Selcon will fatten-up your fry for sure. I feed my rotifers, copepods, and brine shrimp Nanochloropsis Paste 30 minutes before I feed them to my fry. Once a day I add one drop of Selcon to my quart containers of rotifers. I think the Selcon coats the rotifers. Selcon contains Omega-3s and I think that's a kind of oil or something.

I realized that I need to gradually wean my fry from live food because when they go to their new homes they will most likely be fed non-live food. I'm glad to see they are nipping at the Golden Pearls now.

From your post I just learned what to call my "batches" of fry that hatch..."clutches" - that's the word - thank you! Now what did you mean by the terms "Beta" and "Alpha"?...haven't heard those terms associated with Clowns before...but as you know I'm just beginning to learn about rearing Clowns.

Good to talk w/you...
Be well,
Laurie

Oh, I could see how that would be confusing! I have three pairs of clowns. I purchased them when they were only 4-6 months old for the sole purpose of becoming broodstock. I am terrible with naming fish so I call them my Alpha, Beta and Gamma pair. It's given me a scientific way of documenting who is doing what!

That's a great story and a handy way to categorize your fish. I believe you told me before...but what type of Clowns do you have? Did you say you have Tomato Clowns?

I have Perculas. The are similiar to Occelaris but are slightly smaller, have thicker black bans around their stripes, fewer dorsal spines and different looking eyes.

My Perculas have the "Picasso" gene which just means the white bleeds like crazy all over the fish and forms very unique patterns. This makes a small percentage of the offspring more valueable than others.

Reefergal, have you tried feeding them the pods? Weve never done that and i havent read up on pods for clowns so i dont know the pro's and con's of feeding them pods.

Jason, you have designer Clownfish! It must be fun to see how their unique patterns develop. That's very cool. Mine all look like a Xerox of the parents. When I purchased mine original pair from Vivid Aquariums they sold them as "False Perculas". I have since learned that the word "false" simply means tank-raised. I like the term "Tank-Raised Perculas" better...but I guess it's their way of letting people know that the tank-raised may not host an anemone.

Originally Posted by reefergal

Jason, you have designer Clownfish! It must be fun to see how their unique patterns develop. That's very cool. Mine all look like a Xerox of the parents. When I purchased mine original pair from Vivid Aquariums they sold them as "False Perculas". I have since learned that the word "false" simply means tank-raised. I like the term "Tank-Raised Perculas" better...but I guess it's their way of letting people know that the tank-raised may not host an anemone.

Yup they are designer.

So here's the real story behind "False Perculas".

There are two types of clownfish that happen to look almost identical. Occelaris and Perculas. As I mentioned before, Perculas are a little shorter, have fewer dorsal spines, have thicker black bars and slightly different looking eyes. All of this is very, very difficult to ID sometimes, even to the experts. Sometimes the only way is to count the dorsal spines and even then, they have a range (9-11) instead of an exact number. For whatever reason, Perculas cost way more than Occelaris clowns. At some point they nicknamed Occelaris, "False Perculas". So the two species are sometimes known as Perculas and False Perculas... which is just another way of saying Perculas and Occelaris.

That's really good info - thanks Jason. So I was wrong about False Perculas being "tank-raised". I read that online somewhere. I appreciate this info - thank you.

Tank-raised means just that... raised in a tank.

Your babies will be Tank-Raised Occelaris.

The alternative is Wild Caught or WC. That's when someone literally goes into the ocean and captures a wild specimen. A majority of the fish in the industry are Wild Caught.

The advantages to tank-raised over wild caught are numerous. Our babies are already used to eating domesticated foods like flake. Our babies aren't exposed to shipping stress and disease that is common amongst wild caught. Our babies aren't likely to be carrying any hidden organisms or parasites.

On the other hand, tank-raised fish, especially designer fish, tend to get inbred a little. Sometimes their gene pool is a little less diverse and strong. There is overall much less diversity with tank-raised fish. Some wild caught specimens are truly one-of-a-kind. The babies also can get some minor deformities from bumping into objects during crucial periods of their development giving them a "bulldog" look compared to wild caught. They'd never encounter that in the ocean. Any weak fish are also removed from the gene pool in the ocean whereas lots of fish that wouldn't have stood a chance in the wild grow to be adults in captivity.

Back to work!

Excellent info - thanks Jason. I'm filing your notes for future reference.
I was actually wondering about the in-breeding issue with tank-raised Clowns.

Once Clowns pair-up I don't guess they ever switch mates - and they probably pair up as siblings from the same school. I'm looking forward to reading Joyce's book which I recently ordered.

I have been following this thread and have learned quite a bit. I just thought I would jump in here to point out that tank-raised and tank-bred are not the same thing either. I have been noticing that quite a few people confuse those also.

Good point! Can you clarify the difference between "tank-raised" and "tank-bred"? I always hear the term "tank-raised", but perhaps the accurate term is "tank-bred".

tank raised is still wild caught as babies then raised in tanks. tank bred are just that, the ones born in tanks/captivity and never see the wild.

Thanks ccollins for bringing this up and for clarifying. Here's some additional info I found online (carolinafishtalk.com):

Okay I see some confusion on the forums at times in ref to the difference between tank raised and tank bred. Even I fall victim to it at times. I have even seen stores charge more for a tank raised fish, dunno if they are hoping the customer will assume they mean tank bred or what.


Wild Caught(WC)- Fish, usually adults, that are caught in the wild and sent to distrubution centers to be sold to your LFS.

Tank Bred(TB)/Captive Bred (CB)- Fish that are from a breeding pair, either WC,TR, or TB. These fish live their entire lives in captivity. These fish are bred in captivity so they have NEVER been in the open ocean (Critterheaven)

Tank Raised(TR)- Fish, usually juveniles, are orignally WC and then kept in captivity until they are selling size or until cleared of all parasites, dieases, bacteral infections.



Tank Bred fish tend to run a little more. But in the long run you are getting a fish that has been raised on pellets, flake, or frozen foods. They do not have the disease, parasites, or bacteral infections of a Wild Caught fish. They tend to be hardier and better adapted to captivity. They are less likely to run(swim) and hide when someone enters the room. The downside to Tank Bred is that they are more expensive and we are limited to whats available in the trade.

Also on a side note Tank Raised and Wild Caught are sometimes hard to get to eat in captivity. So keep that in mind and make sure to ask your LFS to feed them before you purchase.

Watch out for pen raised as well. This just means they are in big pens in the ocean and can have many of the same issues as tank raised or even wild caught. (Critterheaven)

Also if your unsure if the fish in question is actually Tank Bred, ask the LFS where they get the fish from and do your own research to make sure.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of pen raised. That article is very informative and clarifies the differences very well.

This is a great thread, seeing all the clown people sharing info and experiences! You guys are killing me though! one of these days there's gonna be clown eggs somewhere in my house.... 7 clowns, one of them has got to get going soon i imagine. What temps are you guys keeping the parent tanks at?
I am a little concerned after reading through all this though................. Is Angelo getting the proper amount of attention???

Saltcreep: LOL!!! You are hilarious! As you can imagine Angelo is a little pissed-off about more siblings in the family I don't pamper him nearly as much as I used to. He's a big boy now and he's got to realize his Mom has other babies to take care of - but Angelo will always be my baby

As for your question about tank temp... When I turned my breeding tank up from 77 to 80 my 18 month old Clowns started spawning just a few weeks later. Also, I removed everybody else from the tank so that my Oscellaris pair could have some privacy. The other thing I did before they first spawned was to feed them really well 2x a day with frozen mysis shrimp rinsed, thawed, and then refrigerated overnight in a little cup enriched with Kent Marine Zoe, Selcon, and garlic drops. The extra energy that my pair got from that diet went straight into pumping out those eggs and they've laid 3 clutches so far!

Good luck Saltcreep and please keep us posted!

That was a lot of change to get them to spawn. Maybe I need to do some of the same things. My clowns (gold stripe maroon) aren't reproducing yet but I keep my parent tank at 78-79 degrees.

Our tanks fluctuate between 78 to 82, sometime higher and sometimes lower then the temps i posted. After we collect the fry we turn the temp up in their tank to around 82.

Our 180 (where the ocellaris are) has a bunch of fish in it and they have never seemed to be bothered buy the other fish. But then again the other fish arent bullies.

Chris, my Yellow Tang was a bully and that's why I took him out of the Clown tank. My Oscellaris pair spawned for their first time after I removed the Tang. I also took out two Emerald Crabs that were reaching up for the eggs. My Clown pair were fighting the crabs and were totally stressed-out. I think tank temp, a good diet, and less stress help the spawning process a lot.