Breeding clowns?

mommy2bad

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I have a mated pair of clowns (True Percula's) and have had them for a while. They are also hosting an anemone and was wondering if there is anyway of making them lay eggs or breed or anything. Anbody know?
 
Good water, feed a lot, helps a little if you have moonlights, but it's pretty much entirely up to them. You wouldn't want someone trying to force you to breed would you?
 
@ldreefer wrote:
You wouldn't want someone trying to force you to breed would you? said:
haha... Even if you get them to lay eggs i hear its hard to actually raise them and keep them alive especially when they go thru the metamorphosis phase? You have to culture your own food feed regular and also keep water clean.
 
Go search up a thread by KCAquatics, he is a guy here on the forums that is raising Picasso clowns. He is pretty succesful and he's not a professional or anything, so it definitely can be done.
 
There are a number of tricks you can do to try to induce your clowns into laying eggs. ldreefer hit on the big ones. High nitrates can cause a pair to not lay eggs. "Feeding a lot" usually means three to four times a day if possible. A varied diet that includes a little more fatty meats (like squid) and crustaceans (in the shell) is good for egg health.

One of the more interesting methods that has recently come out, but is a little more difficult for the typical amateur breeder, is "fostering" eggs with them. If you can find someone else that has egg laying clowns, take the eggs (on a tile or rock) and place them with your clowns. They may possibly eat them all, but there have been several anecdotal cases where the clowns start taking care of the eggs. Once that nest is gone, they may start laying on their own.

A really good book that covers a lot of information on breeding is The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide to Marine Aquarium Fishes by Matt Wittenrich. It's one of my favorites, and it's hard to go wrong following Witt's advice.
 
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