How to Raise Baby Clownfish

Raising clownfish fry can be a rewarding experience.

Clownfish are any of several small, colorful saltwater species found in many home aquariums. Made popular by the movie "Finding Nemo," clownfish thrive in smaller tanks and are fairly simple to raise. Mature clownfish mate and lay their eggs in coral shelters, with fry hatching in approximately one week. Even fairly inexperienced aquarium enthusiasts can raise clownfish fry.

Things You'll Need

• 25-gallon tank with hood
• Marine salt
• Hydrometer
• Man-made anemone
• Plastic bag
• 2-gallon bucket
• 2 air stones
• 2 aquarium tubing sections, 5 feet long each
• 2 air pumps
• Live rotifers
• Rotifer food
• Turkey baster
• Live baby brine shrimp

Instructions

1. Prepare the 25-gallon nursery tank before the fry hatch. Fill the tank with clean water, adding marine salt one cup at a time until the salinity measures 0.002 ppt (parts per trillion). Dip the hydrometer in the water and allow it to fill up and set it on a level surface to check the tank's gravity. Add one or two man-made anemones to the tank to give the fry some cover.

2. Push the end of one piece of tubing over the outlet on each air pump and attach one air stone to each remaining free end. Place one aerator in the nursery tank, reserving the remaining aerator for the rotifer habitat.

3. Set up the rotifer habitat by filling the 2-gallon bucket with water and enough salt to measure approximately .0018 ppt on the hydrometer. Set the aerator inside the bucket to oxygenate the water, and add the rotifers and rotifer food. Rotifers are microscopic animals that make up the majority of the clownfish fry's diet. Leave the rotifers alone for three days to proliferate before feeding them to the fry.

4. Move the eggs from the adult tank to the nursery. Clownfish lay their eggs on rocks, so you will need to move the entire rock. Place a plastic bag in the adult tank and fill it with water. Pick up the rock and gently place it in the bag, making sure the rock stays completely submerged to prevent the eggs from coming in contact with air. Transfer the bag to the nursery tank and carefully slide the rock out of the bag onto the bottom of the tank.

5. Place the hood on the aquarium and leave the eggs undisturbed to hatch. Turn the light on over the tank during the day, but turn it off at night because clownfish eggs will hatch only at night. Check on the eggs every day, noting the color of the eggs. Clownfish eggs begin bright orange, but will change to silver the night they are ready to hatch.

6. Siphon up live rotifers from the bucket with the turkey baster and inject them into the nursery tank once the fry have hatched. Feed the fry one full baster of rotifers daily for one week before transitioning them to live brine shrimp. Wean the clownfish fry onto brine shrimp by feeding them three-quarters of a baster of rotifers and one-quarter of a baster of brine shrimp the first day, half rotifers and half brine shrimp the second day, three-quarters brine shrimp and one-quarter rotifers the third day and a full baster of brine shrimp every day thereafter until the fry reach three weeks of age and begin eating adult fish food.

Tips & Warnings

• Rotifers and live baby brine shrimp can be purchased from most aquarium supply stores.

• Don't be surprised if some of your clownfish fry die before reaching maturity. They are very sensitive to changes in the water and even experienced clown fry breeders lose an average of 10 percent of their hatchlings.

References

• Breeding Clownfish
• Clownfish Care: Breeding and Raising Ocellaris Clownfish Fry