Clownfish pair?

[Jake337]

I got 2 juvenile ocellaris clowns about 5 months ago. My question is how long does it take for these two clowns to pair and start spawning?

[Rosesrblu1]

They will be a pair when one is noticeably larger than the other, the larger being the female. We have had our pair for going on three years, and they have never spawned to my knowledge. They are just attached at the fins so to,speak. Good luck. I think ours took about 6-8 months.

[Jake337]

That's good to know. Yeah one is definitely bigger than the other. I see them side by side often but they do at times go their own way. The whole reason I got into the hobby is bc of clownfish and breeding them. I just feel like 1-3 years is very long. They're about 1 1/2 inches or around there so not too big yet.

[Readingexcalibur]

Originally Posted by Jake337

That's good to know. Yeah one is definitely bigger than the other. I see them side by side often but they do at times go their own way. The whole reason I got into the hobby is bc of clownfish and breeding them. I just feel like 1-3 years is very long. They're about 1 1/2 inches or around there so not too big yet.

Your on their time, not the other way around! Good luck tho!

[Jabibi]

The female will be much bigger than that before they start spawning. Do you have an anemone for them?? I have had my clowns for about 5 or 6 years and they lay eggs every 14 days. They never layed eggs until i got them an anemone. The times that i have taken out there anemone and put a different anemone they stopped laying eggs for a while. My female is more than twice the size of the male. I have bred them before and it is not an easy task. It takes alot of work.

[Jabibi]

As you can see from the pic the female is much bigger than the male. This is an older pic she is bigger now

[Jake337]

That's awesome! Yeah my female is much bigger than the male. I want to get them an anemone but my light isn't strong. I have a two bulb t5 HO. I got them a Haitian pink tip Condy to test if I would be able to keep a bubble tip. So far the Condy is healthy. I'll just wait and see.

[David S]

there's no guarantee they will pair,and I wouldn't get a nem just for them to lay a clutch in there,they may not go near the nem ever!Have they started twitching at each other yet,if so then they are on the route to pair up.My pair lay their clutch in a terracotta pot every 2 weeks,i then remove and replace the pot and raise the fry in a different tank setup just for fry.

[Jake337]

Yeah twitching started months ago. Do you know how fast they grow or their growth rate?

[crister13]

Depends how much you feed.

[Reefer 22]

Originally Posted by Jabibi

The female will be much bigger than that before they start spawning. Do you have an anemone for them?? I have had my clowns for about 5 or 6 years and they lay eggs every 14 days. They never layed eggs until i got them an anemone. The times that i have taken out there anemone and put a different anemone they stopped laying eggs for a while. My female is more than twice the size of the male. I have bred them before and it is not an easy task. It takes alot of work.

1+ I agree with him 100% I just started breeding a pair a of midnight clown fish and vary difficult the kids would not eat that much and were vary picky and I hatched my own brim shrimp and they were still picky and right now only a few are still alive. But I joined the hobby because of an interesting hobby but slowly learned that it is vary difficult. I then decided that there was a lot of money that could be made in this hobby but realized it is a vary difficult thing to do if you are breeding and trying to make money. If you really want to make money than open up a shop and buy fish from cheaper distributors and sell them at the shop but the key thing with that is that your fish must look good and heathy or they will never even noticed and get the cool rare fish cuz people like that more than fish you see every day.

[Jake337]

Nice! Yeah i've always wanted to raise clown fry and gain experience from it. I feed them 3 times a day. Dried brime shrimp and pellets.

[Reefer 22]

A guy I know owns a shop and you don't have to be an expert because I am the guy always will go see for help cuz I kinda know more about this stuff then him but the point is you don't need to be a expert to open a shop but to breed you need to better than an expert I learned that the hard way but losing money.

[Reefer 22]

Originally Posted by Jake337

Nice! Yeah i've always wanted to raise clown fry and gain experience from it. I feed them 3 times a day. Dried brime shrimp and pellets.

Would not recommend it to anyone less than expert.

[Reefer 22]

Go for it if you think you are ready.

[Reefer 22]

But I defiantly won't breed any more after this if I lose money and I think I will.

[Jake337]

Originally Posted by Reefer 22

Would not recommend it to anyone less than expert.

Well I mean you got to start somewhere. You can't become an expert if you never experience or try.

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Originally Posted by Jake337

Well I mean you got to start somewhere. You can't become an expert if you never experience or try.

I agree jake, but i would advise against breeding clowns. I assume you are a beginner right? Thats great and i believe you COULD breed clowns if you wanted too, but from your profile pic you also look to be a teenager like myself, and let me tell you breeding clowns is not easy. You need to have at least 3 tanks maybe more. 1 for the parents, 1 for the fry, 1 bigger one for when the fry get bigger, and 1 more if the male and female start to harass eachother so you can seperate them. It kida sucks the fun out of fish keeping....and its expensive. Will take a longgggg time to make your money back.

Just keep workin on your tank and if you still want to try and breed clowns, go for it!

[Jake337]

Yeah true nu nu. It'll probably be a couple of years before I start cuz my clowns are just starting to become a pair. I think what makes me want to breed is that this years going to be it, I'm going to be more busy next year once I apply for college and stuff and I'd like to be able to raise clowns of my own before I hit college. I probably won't have another opportunity to do so until like I'm an adult.

[Nu-Nu the eel]

True, but i think you should just learn as much as you can now and keep a healthy, awesome reef tank. Then raise clowns when you are older, more experienced, and richer. Lol