Feeding baby clownfish
Clownfish 101 – Reef Nutrition
What is a rotifer?
It is a very small, organism used in aquaculture as a live food. Rotifers are invertebrates that are found in a variety of aquatic environments. Growing larval clownfish on rotifers is very common in aquaculture and highly recommended. While it is not the only thing to feed to clownfish larvae, it certainly is easier to propagate than many other live food options like copepods.
Do I need to culture rotifers?
We strongly recommend you culture rotifers if you wish to be successful. This animal is a great live feed organism for clownfish larvae. Rotifers can be grown in high-density cultures with the use of our feeds, techniques, and equipment. A good rotifer culture can be continuous, producing potentially millions of rotifers per day. When fed a proper diet, rotifers can be nutritionally valuable to clownfish larvae.
When you are ready to take on rotifer culture, here is a list of recommended products to get you up and running:
- 1 million live rotifers for starting the culture
- Rotifer food and enrichment
- Filter for waste export
- Sieve for separating the rotifers from the culture water when harvesting
How do I culture rotifers?
With our live rotifers, food, equipment, and recommendations, you can culture rotifers continuously. Here are some simple steps for culturing:
- We recommend that you feed a newly established rotifer culture for 3 days before harvesting
- Feed your rotifer culture at least 2 times a day with our RGcomplete.
- For small-scale production, we recommend starting off with 6 mls of RGcomplete total, so 3 mls in the AM and 3 mls in the PM. You can build the feed amount over time if you need more rotifers.
- For breeders with a high demand for rotifers, we recommend using a small dosing pump to feed out the algae multiple times a day. You can feed up to 30 mls of RGcomplete every day with this method. You do not need to keep the algae refrigerated if you refill the food reservoir every day from the bottle you keep in the fridge. Purging the feed lines with DI water is good to do every day to keep them clean. It is best to keep the dosing pump and feed reservoir close to the culture so that you can keep the feed lines short and minimize residence time of the food in the lines.
- 5 gallon bucket is useful for rotifer culture.
- Temperature range should be 75 – 80F.
- No light required.
- Ample aeration is recommended. You can use an open ended, rigid airline for this. No need to use a diffuser or air stone.
- Daily observations are important. You can either use a microscope with up to 10X magnification to view your rotifers or simply dip a clear glass container in the culture and illuminate them with a flashlight from underneath the container. They have a very lazy swimming pattern.
- We recommend at least a 25% harvest every day. This will help keep the water clean since it is a water change like you do on your tanks and it keeps the rotifer culture young and vigorous.
You can find additional information about culturing rotifers on the ROTIFER CULTURING SUPPORT page on the Reed Mariculture website.
What do I do with the extra rotifers if I do not have larval fish to feed?
You can feed the rotifers to your reef tank. Your fish and corals will gladly consume them. It is also possible to get them to populate a refugium if you are feeding phytoplankton daily. Our Phyto-Feast is great for keeping them happy. Many stores and hobbyists culture rotifers to feed to corals even if they are not breeding fish.
Can I store rotifers as back-ups?
Yes. We recommend you put some of your harvest (100,000) in 1 liter of saltwater in an open container in the fridge. Replace the stored rotifers once a week with freshly harvested ones. Make sure to add a few mls of RGcomplete or other algae to the container on the first day. No need to feed them again or stir the contents. We also recommend that you run at least 2 cultures in case one is crashing.
Can I put the rotifers with their culture water in the larval rearing tank?
No. We recommend that you separate the rotifers from the culture water with our Zooplankton Harvest Sieve.
This device will capture all the rotifers.
How do I know if my culture is crashing?
Daily observation of your rotifers is vital. We strongly recommend the use of a microscope for counting and observation. If you do not have a scope, you can easily view the rotifers in a clear, glass container. Take a sample every day and use a flashlight to observe. Look for normal swimming behavior and density. If you see fewer rotifers in the sample, you may need to check water quality and take a day or two off from harvesting the rotifers. You can still perform a harvest but put the rotifers back. This will ensure that you have done a water change on the culture while retaining the rotifers. It is best to run at least 2 cultures in case one crashes. Having a reliable source of rotifers may be important if you are raising clownfish larvae.
How do I harvest my rotifers?
We recommend that you feed a newly established rotifer culture for 3 days before harvesting. When harvesting from your culture, always make sure that you leave the air on so that the rotifers remain evenly dispersed.
When the air is off, the rotifers tend to accumulate at the surface which will result in an over harvest. Over harvesting can cause the rotifer density to decline beyond the point of recovery. Using a cup or other harvesting container, remove a measured portion of the culture. Make sure you do not remove more than 20% on any given day. Pour the harvested rotifers through a sieve and discard the culture water. You can use our Zooplankton Harvest Sieve for this step. Rinse the rotifers out of the sieve into a container with clean, new saltwater. It is a good idea to observe the harvest with a flashlight to see if the rotifers are swimming and health. They tend swim in a slow, lazy manner. From here, you can discard the rotifers, feed them to your larvae or feed them to your corals, if you have them. Enriched rotifers are a great food source for corals and small-mouth fish.
Is it challenging to breed clownfish?
Yes, it can be quite challenging. We offer equipment, foods, live rotifers and weaning diets to make it easier.
In our experience, mastery of rotifer culture is vital to your success. With consistent effort and attention to detail, you can be successful.
How do I get my clownfish to spawn?
Typically, 2 small, young clownfish will form an adult pair that will spawn for many years. They are male when they are young. When they begin to pair up, one of them will change sex and become a female. Tank water must be stable and clean. Feeding them with nutrient dense food throughout the day is ideal. We recommend our TDO Chroma BOOST pelleted food, Arcti-Pods and Mysis-Feast for all your broodstock nutrition.
How often should I feed my clownfish pair (broodstock)?
At least twice a day. We recommend feeding TDO Chroma BOOST (Small or Medium) at least twice a day.
You can use an auto-feeder to make it easier. We also recommend incorporating other food types into their diet. Simply feed small amounts and rotate food options. These foods that we make are a great addition to the diet:
- Arcti-Pods: concentrated copepods
- Mysis-Feast: concentrated mysis shrimp high in omega 3 fatty acids
- R.
O.E.: concentrated fish eggs rich in fats, proteins, and vitamins
How often do clownfish spawn and should I keep a log?
They typically spawn every 7-10 days. Once the pair begin spawning, start a log to track how often they lay they eggs and when the embryos hatch. Keeping track of when the eggs are laid and when they hatch allows you to remove the embryos 24 hours in advance of hatch to transfer to the larval rearing tank. We recommend that you allow a new pair to spawn 3 times before taking on larval rearing. They very often do not have well-developed eggs and fertilization can be low for the first two to three spawns.
How do I know when the eggs are about to hatch?
The eggs, which are orange or red in coloration, transition to an embryo. Embryos become brown, and you can see the eyes, clearly. The eyes become very shiny and silvery when the embryos are mature and ready to hatch.
My clownfish laid eggs on my reef rock.
How do I collect them?We recommend the Vossen Larval trap for collecting larvae.
Will clownfish spawn on other surfaces?
Clownfish will spawn on a variety of surfaces. We recommend that you train them on to a floor tile or small, clay flowerpot. It is much easier to remove the embryos the day before they hatch this way. It can be tricky to train them to spawn on these types of items if the pair is in your reef tank.
What size tank is appropriate for a breeding pair?
If you are serious about breeding clownfish and want to house multiple pairs, we recommend keeping the pairs in separate tanks, this way you can manage their spawning habits and remove the embryos without disturbing the rocks and animals in a reef tank or community tank. Clownfish pairs do not need reef rock in an aquarium to spawn. They will also spawn just fine in a 10 gallon tank.
Does my clownfish pair need an anemone?
No. They do not even need structure beyond the floor tiles or pots you have in there for them to spawn on.
How do I hatch the embryos in a larval rearing tank?
The night before a hatch, remove the substrate where the embryos are attached. Transfer them to a larval rearing tank that has the same temperature and salinity as the broodstock tank. It is ok for them to be out of water for a minute or so. If there are things growing on the substrate like bacteria, algae or sponges, simply scrub them off being careful not to damage the embryos. Use aeration to keep the embryos clean and free of fungus before they hatch. You can use a bubble wand or air stone for this. Make sure the aeration is gentle and covers the entire nest.
Do I need a heater in the larval rearing tank?
Yes, unless you have a warm, climate-controlled room. They do best from 78° – 80°F
When do I add rotifers?
Add them after the fish hatch.
When do I add greenwater?
Add greenwater after the fish hatch.
What is “greenwater”?
Greenwater is a technique that involves adding algae (alive or dead) to a larval rearing tank for a few reasons as seen below.
If you don’t want to grow live algae, we recommend our Rotigreen Omega.
Colonizes the digestive flora of the fish gut — marine fish are born with only a partially-developed intestinal tract, and it can take up to four weeks for the gut to fully develop. Our Instant Algae brand of microalgae and the associated “good” bacteria enter the gut and help jump-start digestion.
Enrichment of the rotifers — many hatcheries keep a background level of live rotifers in the tanks so the fish can continue feeding. Our greenwater microalgae feeds the rotifers and maintains enrichment levels.
Reduces or eliminates “nose bumping” syndrome — in larval tanks the water is typically so clean and clear that the fish lose depth perception and run into each other and the sides of the tank, bruising themselves and creating bacteria problems. Our Greenwater clouds the water and helps fish avoid collisions.
How do I store and use the greenwater food, RotiGreen Omega?
If the algae arrives frozen, put it in a refrigerator in a container for 24 hours to thaw.
If it is thawed upon arrival, complete the following steps:
- Pour the algae into ice cube trays.
- Place the cubes into a freezer bag to prevent “burn”.
- Thaw a cube in a sealed container in the refrigerator 24 hours in advance of using it.
- Use the thawed portion within 3 weeks.
- Note: The size of the cubes depends on how much you go through. No matter the size of the cube/portion, it needs to be used within 3 weeks to avoid spoilage.
How much greenwater do I use?
Use enough to cloud the water, but not very dark green. You basically want enough tint to keep the larvae swimming around the tank and not pinning themselves to the glass.
Feeding rotifers to your larvae
Clownfish larvae begin feeding on the day of hatch, so it is important to have live rotifers in the tank with them.
We recommend 10 rotifers per ml as an initial stocking density. It is beneficial to feed your larvae a few times a day, but make sure not to overfeed the tank. If your rotifers get out of control in the tank, they can cause ammonia to spike and dissolved oxygen to drop. This can result in the death of your larvae. If rotifers get out of control, you can simply siphon water out of the tank to dilute them. Make sure to avoid siphoning out the larvae.
How do I keep the larval rearing tank clean?
It is advisable to do daily water changes to avoid high ammonia. You can use a rigid airline connected to a flexible airline to siphon waste off the bottom of the tank. Turn off the aeration during this step so you can see where you are siphoning so that you avoid sucking up the larvae.
What is weaning?
In fish culture the term weaning is used to describe the transition in the feeding of larvae, or juveniles, from live food to dry, or refrigerated diets.
How do I wean my fish off rotifers?
Weaning your fish off live rotifers makes growing your fish much easier.
Once they are on to a dry food and other prepared food items, they grow quite rapidly and are easier to manage. Below is an example of a weaning schedule for the A. ocellaris or A. percula clownfish species. It is meant to be a visual guide to show how there is overlap when weaning. The key is to not switch from one food type to another, suddenly. This feeding chart does not necessarily apply to all species of clownfish. Our Hobbyist Breeder Pack is perfect for weaning your fish off live rotifers.
Do I need to hatch and feed baby brine shrimp when weaning?
If you are using TDO Chroma BOOST, there is no need to hatch brine shrimp every day. You can go from live rotifer to TDO which is much simpler.
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What Do Baby Clownfish Eat & What To Feed? (Diet & Foods)
Baby clownfish are small in size, and they need to be fed nutritious foods that will help them to grow properly.
Many fishkeepers have asked the question about what do baby clownfish eat?
Baby clownfish can eat various types of food, including pellets, flakes, brine shrimp, rotifers, etc. Read further to know why these are considered to be suitable foods for baby clownfish.
Baby Clownfish Eating Behavior
The clownfish breeding process is an adventure, and several discoveries are made during this process. Eating behavior for baby clownfish is one of the various aspects that should be focused on from Day 1 of the breeding process.What Do Baby Clownfish Eat?
Baby clownfish have different eating behavior depending upon whether they are in the wild or captivity. In captivity, they are mainly fed with rotifers, phytoplankton, and copepods.
You can buy all three from the store or online, and the first two can be cultured in a special process.
The baby clownfish shows viciousness when fed with food. In the wild, they will be alive on phytoplankton and other micro-organisms rather than rotifers.
Phytoplankton and micro-organism are present in the ocean naturally.
While food is served to baby clownfish, their focus is more on fighting with their peers than enjoying food. As a result, a good amount of food will sink and stick to the bottom.
What To Feed Baby Clownfish?
In captivity, they only need fresh and live food to survive. It means you can’t serve flakes, palettes, frozen, or human food to your baby clownfish.
In captivity, the baby clownfish can get its nutrition from different food items such as rotifers, phytoplankton, copepods, and brine shrimp. But they will not eat any dry food.
Rotifers
You need to be proficient in creating a food web to grow live rotifers, phytoplankton, and copepods.
Rotifers are a perfect size food to feed baby clownfish. But rotifers do not contain any good nutritional value. Rotifers can be produced, but they need a lot of maintenance.
It includes changing the water daily and, to make it nutritious, feed small fish rotifers with phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton is full of nutritional values but a little big to serve to baby clownfish. Alternatively, phytoplankton is used to create rotifer cultures, and then a more nutritious rotifer is served to baby clownfish.
Copepods
Copepods are a much healthier option for feeding baby clownfish but are expensive and hard to find. Moreover, producing copepods is a slower and challenging process compared to rotifer production.
Brine shrimp
Brine shrimp is not an ideal food, but it can be served to baby clownfish. It can also be cultured at home to feed as a live food to baby clownfish.
Pallets and Flakes
At a later stage, pallets and flakes can be introduced to baby clownfish which are full of nutrition for a grown-up clownfish.
Palettes or flakes should be served in a minimal amount at the start. You can feed 5 to 6 pieces of each and gradually increase the quantity as baby clownfishes grow.
How To Feed Baby Clownfish?
Newly hatched clownfish fry can survive without food for the first day.
Don’t hesitate to serve freshly cultured rotifers to your baby clownfish from day 2 onwards. They will show savageness when served with food in a high-density pond.
Feeding clownfish needs special care in terms of quantity and quality of food. Overfeeding your baby clownfish may lead to its death.
Knowledge of proper serving amounts is a must for the victorious development of clownfish. They need premium quality and fully nutritious food to survive.
How Often To Feed Baby Clownfish?
The baby clownfish are more eager towards food for their health as they get bigger. They need more nutrition as they are growing and more in number inside a pond.
Ideally, baby clownfish should be served 3 to 4 times daily for their healthy growth and energetic movement in the pond.
They can survive at least 2 days without new food served to them. But it can affect baby clownfish health and growth to an alarming extent.
How Much To Feed Baby Clownfish?
You can add live food to aquarium water with approximately 5 to 15 rotifers per millimeter of aquarium water.
At a later stage, brine shrimp are also introduced to baby clownfish. Always serve fresh brine shrimp to them to avoid any diseases or health risks.
Can Baby Clownfish Eat Brine Shrimp?
Baby clownfish need special care and nutritious food serving in the early stage of their life. In wildlife, they survive on all-natural food available. In the aquarium, they need special live food cultured at home, or you can order it from stores.
Brine shrimp is another live food that you can serve to baby clownfish. You can buy it from the store, or you can culture at home.
If you feed brine shrimp older than 12 hours, it will pollute your pond water and carry potential risks to baby clownfish wellbeing.
Ideally, brine shrimp should be served fresh because baby clownfish only grow well if served with fresh food. So, it’s better to culture the brine shrimp at home on a daily basis. You should also not refrigerate it for more than 12 hours.
Brine shrimp are less nutritious as compared to other live food items such as rotifers, phytoplankton, and copepods. If you do not feed brine shrimp to your baby clownfish, they can survive on rotifers and after phytoplankton.
Final Thoughts
Feed baby clownfish various types of foods as discussed above. For the healthy growth of baby clownfish, you should feed them more with live food.
Live food includes rotifers, phytoplankton, and copepods which you can buy from stores or online. Otherwise, these can be cultured at home through a series of steps.
90,000 amphiprio-clown, or orange amphiprion (Amphiprimion percula) Amphiprion-Clown, or Orange Ampipiprion, or Clown Percule, or Percula Clownfish, clown anemonefish) tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The fish are found singly, in pairs or in small groups. In aquariums, he takes live and frozen food. Peaceful fish.
All clownfish are born male. Spawning can take place in a community aquarium. Under poor conditions, they are susceptible to various diseases.
The clownfish was first described by Lacepede in 1802 as Lutjanus percula, later rewritten as Amphiprion percula. Does not make seasonal migrations.
Range : tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific (western) oceans, including Australia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Habitat : Protected coastal reefs in shallow water (1-15 m), close to sea anemones. Amphiprions-clowns are found singly, in pairs or in small groups.
Description : the color of the clown amphiprion is very similar to Amphiprion ocellaris. The number of rays in the hard dorsal fin is 9-10, in the soft fin 14-17.
Viewed from the front, the head of a fish has a bulge like a frog's (there is no such bulge in ocellaris). Females are larger than males.
Color : fish of all ages does not differ.
Thick black stripes run along the body of the fish, which are separated by orange (red) and white stripes. The edge of the fins is black. The iris of the eyes is bright orange, which visually reduces the size of the eyes (in ocellaris, the iris is grayish-orange, which, on the contrary, visually increases their size).
Size : up to 6-8 cm (maximum 11 cm).
Enemies : sharks, stingrays, wrasses, groupers, snappers, curlfins, scorpion fish, lionfish, rock perch, eels, girl fish and other large fish, invertebrates (brittle stars) prey on eggs.
Lifespan : 6-10 years in nature, up to 18 years in captivity.
Water : pH 8.1-8.4, density 1.020-1.025. Aeration, filtration, weekly 10% water change, activated carbon filtration.
Temperature : 25-27°C.
Anemone hosts : Heteractus magnifica, Stichtodactyla gigantea, Stichtodactyla crispa, although they may live without anemones.
Plants : Anemones are planted in the aquarium before clowns are introduced.
Decoration : it is desirable to add some corals and grottoes so that the clowns can hide there.
Feeding : live and frozen foods: small crustaceans (brine shrimp), pieces of fish and squid, shrimp; bottom algae (spirulina, red and blue-green), dry food for marine fish. Feed clowns several times a day in small portions.
Adolescents need at least 6% of their body weight per day.
Behavior : each pack has one breeding pair and several males (their role is still unknown, as they have no breeding opportunity due to their atrophied gonads).
The development of juveniles to adult fish depends on the hierarchy in the flock, the largest male suppresses the development of other males.
The size of the flock itself depends on the size of the anemone. If there are more fish than necessary, the smallest males are expelled.
If several flocks live in an aquarium, then periodic skirmishes are possible between them. To reduce aggression, there should be a few anemones in the aquarium (so that there is enough for everyone).
Clowns get to know the anemone gradually (they are connected by a symbiotic relationship): first, the fish slowly swims near the plant and, as if by chance, touches its tentacles with its pelvic fins, then its sides, and then its whole body. Acquaintance can take from several minutes to several hours. After such acclimatization, mucous secretions are produced on the body of the fish, which protect them from the anemone's tentacles, but if the fish is away from the anemone for a long time, then the protective mucus may disappear.
Personality : mostly clown amphiprion peaceful fish.
May be kept with : non-aggressive and peaceful fish (blennies, gobies, cardinals, chromis, butterfly fish).
Do not keep with : carnivorous fish (eels, groupers, lionfish, triggerfish).
Fish breeding : all clown amphiprions are born male (with active male and inactive female reproductive organs). Monogamy. In nature, reproduction is associated with the lunar cycle, since moonlight activates the active behavior of males. They lay their eggs (usually in the evening) under the anemone's tentacles (on the leeward side). If there are no anemones in the aquarium, then the place is chosen on a rock, coral or in a grotto. The chosen place is thoroughly cleaned for several days. In nature, fish often choose flat or slightly curved stones, in captivity - clay pots and saucers. Spawning takes up to two hours and begins in the morning.
The male constantly takes care of the eggs (fans them with his fins) and protects them from enemies, and also removes unfertilized eggs from the clutch. Sometimes the female can help the male in guarding the masonry.
Since clown amphiprions live in warm waters, they can breed throughout the year.
If the female dies, then the largest male becomes the female. Females breed up to 12 years.
Sex difference : female larger than male by about 1 cm.
Spawning aquarium : spawning can take place in a community tank.
Male to female ratio : 1:1.
Number of eggs : depends on the age and fatness of the female (400-1500, 3-4 mm in diameter).
Incubation : at 26°C - 8-9 days.
Offspring : in nature, clownfish larvae hatch at night after 7-10 days, they are immediately carried away from the anemones and they freely float in water currents and feed on plankton for about 8-12 days, and then they return back to the reefs in search of host anemone.
Feeding of juveniles : larvae start feeding as soon as they hatch. White stripes appear in the first week of life.
Seedlings from parents : it is advisable to keep the fry in a separate aquarium, as they can be eaten by other fish.
According to the experiments, when transplanting fry at the age of 15-20 days into another aquarium and feeding them with substitute feeds, they did not affect their survival and growth in any way, compared with fry that were raised on live food.
Related article Relationship between clownfish and anemones
Diseases : Clownfish are susceptible to various diseases (ectoparasites, trematodes, roundworms; protozoan, fungal and bacterial diseases). Most diseases are caused by poor water quality. Fish caught in the wild are often already affected by oodiniasis, cryptocarosis and brooklynella.
Comments : the clown amphiprion is a peaceful, beautiful and not too expensive fish for a marine aquarium.
In individuals at the lowest hierarchical level, increased mortality is observed than in individuals at higher levels.
Adolescents adapt better to captivity than adult clowns.
Attention! This species is quite noisy : fish click, grumble and make other sounds.
- The relationship between clownfish and anemones
Tags: fish, bony fish, perches, pomacentrids, marine fish, fish with the letter a, spawning fish, fish of the Indian Ocean, fish of the Pacific Ocean, animals with the letter a
Clown fish - the ideal marine aquarium inhabitant
Clown fish (Amphipion lat.) - one of the most common marine fish in the aquarium. The main role in its popularity was played by factors such as high vitality, perky temperament, beautiful bright colors, ease of reproduction at home. Also worth mentioning is the movie Finding Nemo, which sparked an increased interest in these little fish, as well as the fact that the clown lives in symbiosis with his anemone owners (which is why they are also called anemone fish.), which makes them an extremely interesting and grateful object for observations in an aquarium at home.
Clownfish live up to 12 years in the wild and up to 20 years in an aquarium, although there are rumors among aquarist gurus that this fish lives even longer.
Clownfish are popular among aquarists
- Long lifespan.
- The clownfish spends most of its time in the anemone, rarely swimming within a few centimeters of it. She is a weak swimmer, resulting in little living space requirements. As a result, the fish easily adapts to life in 50-liter "jars".
- Ease of feeding and eating different types of food: live, frozen, flakes, vegetables, the more varied the healthier the fish.
- Fish quite easily tolerate water parameters that differ from optimal ones.
- Amphiprions (another name for fish) spawn easily in an aquarium, a couple of clowns lay eggs, a dozen or so. Fish can lay 100 - 800 eggs during spawning.
- The mating process is relatively easy due to gender variation.
- Rybka is one of the 10 most beautiful animals on the planet.
Feeding clown fish.
What do Amphiprions eat? Clownfish are quite omnivorous. They can easily become accustomed to the different types of food available in the marine aquarium hobby: frozen food (brine shrimp, krill), cereals, plant foods, live foods are very fond of (solo larvae, shrimp larvae, etc.).
Photo by Mike ChangReproduction
Clownfish are among those fish that breed quite easily in an aquarium. Animals are quite willing to pick up a mate. A few days before spawning, the fish look for a convenient place near the anemones and thoroughly clean them. Soon the female lays eggs in the chosen place, which is soon fertilized by the male. A mature pair in good conditions can spawn every 12-14 days. One of the factors that stimulate fish to spawn is the quality of food, at which time it is worth diversifying. On average, the female lays about 350 eggs at a time. The fry hatch after about 7-8 days within two hours after dark. Within a few hours after hatching, the fry consumes the contents of the eggs, and then begins to feed on small live food.
In large aquariums, the overall chances of the fry surviving are quite low due to the circulation of the water, which results in the larvae being filtered out fairly quickly. The second danger is other animals living in the aquarium, they consume clown fish fry as live food.
Properly fed, living in good conditions Amphiprions reach a size of 4 cm at the age of 6-8 months. Live food is the key to success. The larvae must have food in abundance, they must bathe in it. This means the need for constant daily water changes for at least 14 days. After this period, the fry are much larger, more resilient and able to accept larger food, which is easier to collect and survival is even higher.
Gender changeable
The clown fish is gender variant. A fish living in nature in symbiosis with anemones forms pairs or larger flocks that live in one anemone or anemone colony. Within one shoal, the largest or most dominant individual becomes a female, the second largest fish becomes a sexually mature male.
All other subordinates remain in asexual form, and their further growth stops. It is estimated that the largest sexually immature fish weighs only 20% of that of an adult male.
In the event that the female dies, the mature male changes sex and becomes a female, and the next largest fish matures sexually and becomes a male. Interestingly, under breeding conditions, if multiple clowns of the same size and same age appear in an anemone at the same time, then the time needed to select the strongest dominant individual can be increased due to the constant competition between fish in the school. In nature, things are simpler, young clown fish at 99% of cases end up in an already populated anemone, and the youngest and smallest in the herd is last in line for the ability to change sex.
Clownfish to anemone ratio
| anemone | Clownfish species |
| Cryptodendrum adhaesivum | A. clarkii |
| Entacmaea quadricolor | A. akindynos, A. allardi, A. bicinctus, A. chrysopterus, A. clarkii, A. ephippium, A. frenatus, A. latezonatus, A. mccullochi, A. melanopus, A. omanensis, A. rubrocinctus, A tricinctus, P. biaculeatus |
| Hereactis aurora | A. akindynos, A. allardi, A. bicinctus, A. chrysogaster, A. chrysopterus, A. clarkii, A. tricinctus |
| Heteractis crispa | A. akindynos, A. bicinctus, A. chrysopterus, A. clarkii, A. ephippium, A. latezonatus, A. leucocranos, A. melanopus, A. omanensis, A. perideraion, A. polymnus, A. sandaracinos, A tricinctus |
| Heteractis magnifica | A. akallopisos, A. bicinctus, A. chagosensis, A. chrysopterus, A. clarkii, A. leucocranos, A. melanopus, A. nigripes, A. ocellaris, A. percula, A. perideraion |
| Heteractis malu | A. clarkii |
| Macrodactyla dovesis | A. .
|
