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Lyscer 
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 Topic: Clown fish mating?
Posted: July 08 2006 at 11:37pm |
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What are some of the characteristics that clown fish show when mating? My clown fish have been hanging out in their host(my xenia) a lot today and the female will go next to the male and he will shake as if having a seizure. This went on for at least 4 hours today then the lights went out. Does this sound like I might get baby clowns? If not what does this behavior show? Thanks for any help.
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ltanner
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Posted: July 09 2006 at 10:16am |
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My experience has been that the "seizures" are the male showing that he's submissive to the female. If they're sharing the same host (especially when sleeping), that usually means that you have an official mated pair. From what I remember from Joyce Wilkerson's book Clownfishes, they'll probably start laying eggs within 1-3 months of that behavior.
Mine started sharing the same host a month or so ago, and still no eggs, but they're pretty much glued at the hip- where the female goes, the male follows. If you haven't read the Wilkerson book yet, I highly recommend it. You can even check it out at the library if you don't want to shell out the $$!
BTW, good luck and keep us posted of any eggs! Oh, and I started keeping a mini journal and writing down when the fish were doing what, so I'll recognize it next time- it's been helpful so far.
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Laura
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29 gal reef
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faviasteve
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Posted: July 09 2006 at 12:46pm |
Usually after the female has "accepted the male as her mate" she'll do the seizure behavior too, but not nearly as much. After they've been together a while the seizure behavior isn't shown as much but "being glued at the hip and sleeping together" probably show they're an established couple.
Even after they are a "mated pair" many factors influence whether they lay eggs or not. Damsels (which include chromis) or other fish that clownfish consider rivals and/or eggeaters may stop egglaying from starting. If the male is still small, he'll probably need some time to grow up before they start egglaying.
The sure sign they want to lay eggs is biting at a small section of rock near their anemone or substitute anemone. This rock cleaning behavior means eggs will arrive soon.
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Steve Burton
Logan, Utah
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Lyscer
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Posted: July 09 2006 at 1:20pm |
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Very interesting. My female is probably 2" long and my male is probably 1.5" long. I wouldn't say that they are connected at the hip. They do sleep in the same host but for probably half of the day the female will be at one side of the tank and the male at the other side. Great idea on the journaling for documenting what's going on. I think I will add the feature to my website for blogging or journaling to see whats going on. If you guys are interested I can send you a link to it and you can start your own blogs/journals there as well. Thanks again for the advice.
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faviasteve
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Posted: July 09 2006 at 2:20pm |
"They do sleep in the same host but for probably half of the day the female will be at one side of the tank and the male at the other side"
I'd say serious dating or engaged.
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Steve Burton
Logan, Utah
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taylorwaldron
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Posted: July 10 2006 at 10:48am |
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mine have been doing all that you have mentioned above. only they bite at the rocks not in one particular spot but kindof all over the place. I don't have an anemone for them to host so they usually sleep in the corner but they are always together. what would they do in this situation when they don't really have anything to host? should i get them an anemone? what kind would work best that isn't too expensive?!!
Edited by taylorwaldron - July 10 2006 at 10:49am
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Chuck Norris does not sleep, he waits.
Hyvä Suomi!
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Posted: July 10 2006 at 11:54am |
They don't have to have an anemone to lay eggs. They just have to have a place that they feel that the eggs will be safe. There's a tank at the Jordan River Animal Hospital that has a pair of Black Perculas that is laying eggs on a rock in the corner of the tank and there's nothing but rocks in the area.
Lyscer, your clown's sound like they are at the very beginning of the dating game. They have a long way to go before laying eggs. It sounds like the male has accepted the female, but you will need to see some 'dancing' from the female as well. Then the female will start to get agressive towards other tank fish. She will also start to boss the male around. 4-5 days before laying eggs, they will finally pick a single spot to clean off to lay eggs on. As soon as she lays her eggs, the male will swim over the top of them and fertilize them. So, to answer you original question, there is no mating involved - just a mating game.
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Posted: July 10 2006 at 11:59am |
 taylorwaldron wrote:
mine have been doing all that you have mentioned above. only they bite at the rocks not in one particular spot but kindof all over the place. I don't have an anemone for them to host so they usually sleep in the corner but they are always together. what would they do in this situation when they don't really have anything to host? should i get them an anemone? what kind would work best that isn't too expensive?!! |
If they are already picking at rocks, I wouldn't bother with getting them an anemone. Wait and see if they narrow their cleaning down to one area. How long have they been picking at rocks?
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taylorwaldron
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Posted: July 10 2006 at 4:25pm |
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they have been biting at the rocks for a week or two, she has also gotten realy aggresive toward me if i stick my hand in there. she has snaped at my fingers many times..how cool. i hope they do!!
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faviasteve
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Posted: July 10 2006 at 8:02pm |
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Sometimes the male cleans his spot and the female likes a different spot and she cleans her spot. As Amie said, it sometimes takes a while before they compromise.
Edited by faviasteve - July 10 2006 at 8:03pm
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Steve Burton
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Lyscer
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Posted: July 19 2006 at 11:25pm |
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So it looks like they finally got past being engaged and are now mating... I think... The female was doing the dance and then they both went over to their host and started picking at the rocks... I could not believe my eyes! I hope that I get some babies soon... Looks like I will need to get a book on how to raise the young.
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TriggerHappy
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Posted: July 19 2006 at 11:48pm |
Good luck! It can be a lot of work dealing with those clutches! I've not gotten the hang of it yet and I've had clutches every two weeks for about a year...have to admit I've let most of them go though. 
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Corey Price
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Posted: July 21 2006 at 8:23am |
Dale,
I have the Clownfishes book by Wilkerson if you'd like to take a look...
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Lyscer
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Posted: August 27 2006 at 1:32pm |
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Thought that I would give another update. I borrowed Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson from Corwando and noticed that my clownfish are displaying a lot of the breeding behaviors. They now will not stray far from their massive xenia host. The female is being very aggressive to other tank mates when they get near the xenia colony. Joyce recommends placing a tile in your tank near the clownfishes host so yesterday I introduced a 6x6 tile next to the xenia and today both clownfish are going crazy cleaning the tile so hopefully they will have a clutch of eggs and I can start the trial and error of raising them. I know that rotifers are the first food that they should eat but I'm thinking about raising brine shrimp, has anyone done it? How easy/hard is it? From what I have read online it doesn't seem like it will be to bad.
Corwando: I'm almost done with your book. Thanks again.
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Mike Savage
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Posted: August 27 2006 at 4:08pm |
Good luck!
Oh, yeah you'll need patience too and some more good luck.
Oh, and be persistent.
Mike
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