Interesting clown fish behaviour
Gill Passman
Well….I think they are about to spawn – there is no evidence yet that the deed has been done but the behaviour has been fascinating to watch.
I did a water change on the Nano on Wednesday afternoon……by Thursday afternoon I noticed that the clownfish were not behaving in their usual fashion….Mr Nemo seemed to be attacking his reflection….Mrs Nemo occasionally attacked hers but in the main was nosing around in the tank and sometimes attempting to clean up a site – her first choice was a button polyp colony which she kept at until this afternoon. Mr Nemo continued to attack his reflection to such a degree I feared that he would injure himself bouncing off the glass.
This morning they seemed a bit calmer but as the day has progressed I can now see similar behaviour again….It appears that the button polyp colony is a no, no….they are now both protecting and concentrating on a piece of LR that has a flat mushroom colony – the area in question does not have any shrooms but is sheltered by a cave. They appear to be taking it in turns to fuss over the area……although they do leave it to go and check in with the other….at this point either the original returns or they swap shifts…..but in the main it is now Mr Nemo protecting the site and Mrs Nemo patrolling the borders. Both are now attacking reflections of themselves in the glass….
There is no sign of any eggs as yet…..my suspicion is that they are going to spawn…..the only predators in the tank other than the clownfish themselves are hermit crabs and I have seen Mrs Nemo dispatch one in the past (messy business)…..Maybe it is wishful thinking on my part that they will spawn…..but it certainly is appearing to me that this might be on the cards…..survival of the fry is another matter although conceivably it would not be difficult to move any into the 5g I currently use for mixing my saltwater…..I don’t know anything about the parenting skills of Clownfish….
I’m so excited and feel it is a great honour to get this glimpse into marine life even if it comes to nothing…..
Don’t you just love fish J
Gill
Mellie
reef tank :-)
Please keep us posted on any spawning. So jealous of you getting to
watch this.
Mellie
On Mar 23, 7:44 pm, "Gill Passman" <g...@taylorpassman.co.uk> wrote:
> Well..I think they are about to spawn - there is no evidence yet that the
> deed has been done but the behaviour has been fascinating to watch.
>
> I did a water change on the Nano on Wednesday afternoon..by Thursday
> afternoon I noticed that the clownfish were not behaving in their usual
> fashion..Mr Nemo seemed to be attacking his reflection..Mrs Nemo
> occasionally attacked hers but in the main was nosing around in the tank and
> sometimes attempting to clean up a site - her first choice was a button
> polyp colony which she kept at until this afternoon. Mr Nemo continued to
> attack his reflection to such a degree I feared that he would injure himself
> bouncing off the glass.
>
> This morning they seemed a bit calmer but as the day has progressed I can
> now see similar behaviour again..It appears that the button polyp colony is
> a no, no..they are now both protecting and concentrating on a piece of LR
> that has a flat mushroom colony - the area in question does not have any
> shrooms but is sheltered by a cave. They appear to be taking it in turns to
> fuss over the area..although they do leave it to go and check in with the
> other..at this point either the original returns or they swap shifts...but
> in the main it is now Mr Nemo protecting the site and Mrs Nemo patrolling
> the borders. Both are now attacking reflections of themselves in the glass..
>
> There is no sign of any eggs as yet...my suspicion is that they are going to
> spawn...the only predators in the tank other than the clownfish themselves
> are hermit crabs and I have seen Mrs Nemo dispatch one in the past (messy
> business)...Maybe it is wishful thinking on my part that they will
> spawn...but it certainly is appearing to me that this might be on the
> cards...survival of the fry is another matter although conceivably it would
> not be difficult to move any into the 5g I currently use for mixing my
> saltwater...I don't know anything about the parenting skills of Clownfish..
>
> I'm so excited and feel it is a great honour to get this glimpse into marine
> life even if it comes to nothing...
>
> Don't you just love fish :-)
>
> Gill
Gill Passman
On Mar 24, 1:22 am, "Mellie" <mellie...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Very exciting. How many eggs do they lay? You could stock your new
> reef tank :-)
>
> Please keep us posted on any spawning. So jealous of you getting to
> watch this.
>
> Mellie
>
Well it wasn't to be this time.....they couldn't find a nest spot -
which isn't suprising considering how much stuff is cluttering up the
substrate. I am hopeful that once I get the new tank there will be
more space to set up a rock/slate for them - I've been out and ordered
a book just about Clownfish which I've heard includes info on how to
successfully spawn them.....
Gill
Melissa Phillips
days I think, at night.
Gill Passman
On Mar 27, 5:54 pm, Melissa Phillips <melg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The parents will eat the babies when they hatch. They hatch after 8
> days I think, at night.
>
Yep, I just read that. I think my plan of action will be to move the
contents of the tank over to the new tank when it arrives (supposed to
be today). The plan would be to set up a location for spawning which
hopefully meets with their approval and then move the eggs into a bare
bottomed tank with an airline and see what happens.
I got hold of a book on Clownfish that covers breeding (Joyce D.
Wilkerson) and am looking forward to reading it and getting more ideas
on what will be necessary to successfully raise the fry - tried to
settle to read it last night but one of my dear sons pinched my place
on the sofa and managed to send the drink I had by me into space so
spent the evening mopping the floor and picking up broken glass
instead - oh, well, today is another day and at least the book didn't
get wet....
Gill
Jeff Walther
>From: "Gill Passman"
>I got hold of a book on Clownfish that covers breeding (Joyce D.
>Wilkerson) and am looking forward to reading it and getting more ideas
>on what will be necessary to successfully raise the fry -
I do not know how large clownfish fry are. However, for many marine
fish a big challenge in raising the fry is supplying tiny enough food
for them to eat after they've absorbed their yoke sack. At least,
twenty years ago, that was a challenge. Perhaps someone is now
packaging a marine fry fish food. :-)
Back when, the "best art" was to culture marine rotifers. I did this
at one point. What I found is that the free floating marine algae
does well in a heavily aerated/turbulent aquarium. However, the
rotifers need a much quieter environment. I could not get them to
prosper at all until I switched from heavily agitating the water to
just trickling enough bubbles to keep the water surface broken up.
I used four ten gallon aquariums in which to culture marine algae and
one ten gallon aquarium for rotifers. However, there was little
necessity to this arrangement. It had more to do with
experimentation. There were three varieties of algae which I wanted
to try, and I didn't know which would do best. So I used one 10
gallon tank per algae specie and then added all three species to the
fourth tank.
They were lit with a simple shop light of two 40 watt T12 fluorescent
bulbs--probably warm white or cool white. Four 10 gallon aquariums
next to each other are approximately 4 feet long so this fit well.
I fertilized with plain old Plant Tabs and perhaps added a bit of
Hawaiian Marine brand trace elements to each algae tank. They were
bare tanks with a glass top and a couple of vigourously emitting air
stones.
The algae species were Isochrysis galbana, Chlorella minutissima (and
the word "Stephanoptera (CBS)" follows it in my notes, not sure if
that's a variety name), and Nannochloris oculata. I obtained the
algae cultures from The University of Texas at Austin algae
collection. They have (or had) the NSF algae collection and I was
attending at the time so it was very convenient. The cultures were
transmitted in a small test tube with a bit of goo at the bottom and
a tiny bit of algae on the goo.
My notes also have the following indicators preceding each species
name respectively, LE987, 2341 and LB1998. Those may be indices
from the UT algae collection, but they may also be 23 years out of
date.
The water in all four algae tanks turned dark green pretty quickly.
The algaes had no trouble prospering under the above conditions.
While I had glass tops on the aquariums, it is possible that the
algae species migrated. So it is conceivable that I was actually
culturing just one of the species rather than all three, but I saw
little difference in how quickly each culture took off, for what
that's worth.
Once I had the algae going, I filled the rotifer tank with water from
the algae tanks and added the marine rotifers. I acquired the rotifer
culture from Carolina Biological Supply. Unfortunately, I did not
note the species name. It can be difficult to sort out from CBS's
description which rotifers are marine rotifers. I think I finally
phoned them and got the sales lady to talk to someone who could make
sure I got a marine species. Most rotifers live in freshwater.
Regularly, I would remove water from the rotifer tank and add water
from the algae tanks to the rotifer tanks. Then the algae tanks were
topped off with newly mixed salt water. I kept the algae tanks
physically above the rotifer tanks so that no rotifer bearing spray
would find its way into the algae cultures.
When removing the water from the rotifer tank I would either siphon
it out near the bottom away from the rotifers if I simply wanted to
add algae, or I would siphon it nearer the surface where I could see
concentrations of rotifers in a light beam if I wanted rotifer water
to add to a marine aquarium for feeding purposes.
I just did a little reading up on Wikipedia which makes me wonder if
CBS actually sent me rotifers. They are described as microscopic or
nearly so and they were tiny, but with a flashlight I could just make
out tiny moving dust motes in the water which I took to be rotifers.
Of course, back then my eyes were 19 years old and could see tiny
stuff like that. So I guess there's little reason to doubt that they
were rotifers. Wiki just makes it sound like they'd be impossible to
see and it was difficult.
And having visited CBS's website the extraneous note in my algae list
now makes sence. "(CBS)" means Carolina Biological Supply and
"Stephanoptera" is a variety of free floating single celled marine
algae that they sell. So I have a list of four algaes, but I used
the three from the UT collection. However, CBS sells a marine algae
culture which could be used to feed marine rotifers which simplifies
matters because one could get the algae and rotifers both from CBS.
Okay, that may be totally irrelevant to clown fish culture, but I've
passed on my experience with rotifer culturing.
Jeff Walther
NetMax
~~
Melissa Phillips
the eggs in the early evening on day 8. I didn't have much luck
raising the fry though. I have a hard time raising things at work
(bred them at work, not at home). Same happens with the bangaii
cardinals. They breed pretty frequently but the babies always die
around day 10. I am devising a constant drip feeding type thing so
they get constant food, a little at a time. The parents should start
their breeding cycle again soon.
Dan
On Mar 28, 5:44 pm, "NetMax" <computeral...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> That was interesting, and I don't even have any marine fish.
> ~~
>
Yeah, same here. I enjoy reading about all aspects of the hobby, even
though my actual experience is limited to FW. In the 90's I read some
about SW. Albert Thiel, who updated his books with new editions all
the time, used to post earlier editions online for free download.
Then I bought 2 books by Martin Moe; he signed them, too, but I lent
one out & never got it back. All that along with more reading online
& I never set up a SW tank, but as far back as the early 80's I always
thought it would be neat to try a 10g SW with a small clown, despite
what the authorities on the subject said. That's one of the countless
tanks I've always kept just in my mind. Most of the SW information is
forgotten or out of date, but that clownfish has stayed healthy all
these years. <g>
Dan
Gill Passman
On Mar 28, 9:05 pm, Jeff Walther <t...@io.com> wrote:
Thanks that was brilliant.....I'm printing it off for when I'm ready
to start trying to raise fry.
> Okay, that may be totally irrelevant to clown fish culture, but I've
> passed on my experience with rotifer culturing.
>
> Jeff Walther
>From reading my book it appears that rotifers are a good food for
newly hatched clownfish so I'll have to look into getting a culture
going......and a phytoplankton culture going to feed the
rotifers.....I can just see the looks I'm going to get ;-)
Thanks again
Gill
Gill Passman
On Mar 29, 4:18 am, Melissa Phillips <melg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I had good luck letting the parents care for the eggs and then removing
> the eggs in the early evening on day 8. I didn't have much luck
> raising the fry though.
Looking at the substrate just now, near the area where they normally
hang out, it looks as if they did spawn - bright orange stuff - but
they don't seem to be paying much attention to it now so I guess it is
a no goer this time.
> I have a hard time raising things at work
> (bred them at work, not at home). Same happens with the bangaii
> cardinals. They breed pretty frequently but the babies always die
> around day 10. I am devising a constant drip feeding type thing so
> they get constant food, a little at a time. The parents should start
> their breeding cycle again soon.
>
At least I know it's on the cards now so can start making plans for
raising fry in the future....
Thanks
Gill
Melissa Phillips
take care of the eggs. Practice runs I guess. My dad called me last
night and said his clowns looked like they were getting ready to spawn.
Spring is in the air err, water.