[slackerNJ]

I have an established pair of ocelaris clownfish in my 40 gal reef. I have been noticing breeding behavior for months but have yet to see eggs. Occasionally in the mornings I have seen some strings of what looked like tiny grains of rice on the tile that they dance near, but these do not look like the red eggs I have seen in pics, and they mysteriously disappear within a few hours.

Tanks mates include an algae blenny and a royal gramma. I also have about a dozen super tongan nassaurius snails in the tank. Does anyone think that the snails could be eating the eggs? The clownfish do defend the tile against the other fish, but not as strictly as I would have thought if they were spawning. Would the algae blenny eat eggs? What about bristle worms, I do have a few of them floating around.

Any advice or thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

[MKM]

About every other month, my clownfish lay eggs next to the host anemone. They seem to last about 7 days and then disappear. I can see them develop along, but I don't know what's eating them either. It doesn't seem to keep them from continously trying again.
They do look orange and the clowns are very protective of them. I don't know if there is anything you can do about getting them to hatch besides removing and isolating them.

[Dustin1300]

From what I've read and seen most eggs end up getting sucked up by any of your pumps in your aquarium too...This seems to be the number 1 killer!

[capitalb]

After seven days your eggs have hatched and then been eaten.You need to be there for the hatch, usually around the seventh or eighth day, one hour or so after lights out.

[capitalb]

If your eggs are very unhealthy (not viable) they will be eaten. It took me a while to get the parent fish healthy enough to lay viable eggs. I fed them a mix of mussels, squid, and shrimp. This is what breeding looks like. Sorry about the focus on the second video when I zoom in.
Video of February 22,2008 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Video of reef porn - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[capitalb]

About 2,000 oscellaris eggs 24 hours old. Count em up!

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/DSCN3091.jpg

[Dr. Clyde]

I have a pair of oscellaris that are very young & displayed some of the sexing habits when I first brought them home. They have since been put in a 135 that have another llarge seabae or clark clown. What are the chances of them laying eggs? How old are they when they start?

[capitalb]

My oscellaris were 12 to 13 years old when they first started to attach their eggs to the flower pot I placed in the tank,next to their host leather.They lay about 2000 eggs every 10 days.My true black perculas however are wild caught and probably 2 to 3 years old and lay eggs once a month.They're are a lot of different factors involved in breeding clowns.Water temp being one critical factor.Water quality,community inhabitants,lighting,feed ing,to name a few.After the eggs hatch,it gets a little trickier.So far I have succesfully reared many larvae to maturity.Any other questions,just ask!