The Breeding ClownFish (Start Laying Eggs)

Setting up a breeder tank for clown fish is quite easy. All you need is a tank, good lighting, good filtration, and something in the tank for the fish to call home. For my breeder tank I use a 20 gal with just a basic hang on the back filter (I do a good amount of water changes) some live sand and a good size hunk of live rock. I also stick a small carpet anemone to go with the clowns. Some people use flower pots and this is fine, but I like to make everything I do with fish as natural as possible. I feel like the fish are more comfortable that way.

You are also going to need to set up a separate tank for the babies when they are born. This tank needs all the same basics as the breeder tank. I would leave out the anemone though as it is not needed. I have had babies get sucked up a filter though to I just put mesh over the filters tube so they can't be sucked up. The water for both these tanks need to be check and changed pretty regularly. I do a 10% twice a week with both these tanks.

Assuming that you already have a mated pair ready to go you can go ahead and put them in your breeder tank. It may take them some time to get comfortable with this new tank so don’t expect spawning to take place too soon. Once the pair has become comfortable and possibly taken to the anemone you should see some weird behavior from the fish. The male will be swimming all around the female and they will both be cleaning a spot usually near the base of the rock somewhere around the anemone. Once you see this you can expect her to lay the eggs soon. Once she does lay the eggs the male will fertilize them. Pretty much once this happens you now have successfully mated clownfish. The eggs can take anywhere from 6-18 days to hatch. When they are ready you will see their eyes turn a grey color. With me I don’t do anything special I just keep the regular day and night tank cycles with the lighting but once I see the eyes more clearly I will shut off the filter that night. Usually by the next morning you will have baby clowns swimming towards the top of the water and before you turn the lights on you need to collect them. I just use a flashlight and shine it in the middle of the tank causing the babies to swim for it. For some reason they swim towards light. Once they have all gathered in the center I scoop them out with a cup and put them in my other prepared tank. You will lose a few due to the stress of doing this but if you expect to keep all the babies alive you will be disappointed. Now that you have successfully hatched a batch of clown babes you can hopefully expect the mated pair of clowns to lay eggs every couple of weeks.

Pretty much the hard part of breeding clowns is just getting a pair to start. Once they start you can usually expect them to keep going. Also once you have babies, raising them is difficult if you don’t know what you are doing.