Kathy's Clowns, LLC

Captive Bred Clownfish and more...
Kathy's Clowns
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Clownfish Development
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Clownfish Development
Clownfish lay eggs on a solid surface and guard and fan them until they hatch.  Nest care is mostly the role of the male clownfish, although the female may take a turn now and then. The picture below is of orange eggs freshly laid on a curved rock surface.



Day 1:


Day 2:

The eggs hatch about 9 days after being laid, into tiny swimmers with great big eyes (proportionally), a tummy and a tail. They look like a dash with 2 poppy seeds! They can eat right away, but need live food that is small enough for their tiny mouths.  For us, rotifers fill the bill as long as they are stuffed full of nutritious phytoplankton.  Days later the tiny swimmers, called larvae, can take larger live food, such as newly hatched artemia, and finely powdered dry fish food.


A recent hatch of larvae:



Larvae after a good meal:
 


Below, in close up, one can see the silver bellies indicating a bountiful meal of rotifers:





Below are some black ocellaris at the point of metamorphosis: notice the rounded bellies indicating good feeding, and the faint presence of new white head bars. These bars will be more prominent within a day. These fish are 5-6 days old.




A couple of days later in development, the head bars of these orange ocellaris are well established, and the mid bar is begining to show:




At eleven days, head and mid bars are evident.  The color is a bit brown yet, as their feed at this size contains all nutrients for fast and healthy growth, but little of the key ingredient for vibrant clownfish color.

 




At 3 weeks they are acquiring color and completing their bars, and look like mini clownfish: