Nesting Clowns

[Iggy]

My clowns finally made another nest! The last one was Feb. 1 and at times I thought I'd lose the female. Very few eggs survived the night but I'm very pleased just to see another nest!

[ccampo]

That is kool !!! so many eggs

[sunshinereefer]

Awesome..hope you get a good amount of fry again..

[smpolyp]

Great job! Keep up the good work!

[BlazinReef]

Dude move the speaker away from the tank and turn the bow chucks wow wow off. Let them rest. You are turning into a clown mill...lol

Just playing man. Awesome job!

[Iggy]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. The pair reduced the nest to about 30 eggs sometime during the first night, which is OK but too small to have any real chance of success. Typical since they chose to make their nest on a new surface.

I am just super happy with the two photos above. The first one shows Maude with her ovipositor fully extended. I haven't seen a better image online or in any of my books. The second shows Maude the instant before an egg leaves her ovipositor to be attached to the claypot. Lucky timing!

I'm not actively encouraging the pair to breed. I've turned down the tank temp and increased the salinity. I've decreased feeding from a "conditioning diet" to a "maintenance diet". In fact, as recently as March 26 Maude was laying on the bottom of the tank barely moving and refusing to eat. I seriously thought she was dying and considered euthanizing her. The fact that's she's still around is amazing, I can't believe she's laying again. Fish are amazing.

[Mwebb]

definately really cool to have maiting clowns. Mine are spawning evrye couple of weeks but I have not tryed to remove them from the tnak yet and raise some.

[SaltWater]

wow that is awesome Congratz

[fishtal]

Congrats! Nice pix and vid. Did they hatch?

[Iggy]

Hi Tal! Thanks very much Unfortunately, they ate the nest 2 days in and haven't made another yet. I say yet because Maude is hydrating eggs again. Honestly, I'm just happy that Maude is active again and I'm not planning on raising another nest until I finish homing the last nest.

[TropicalReefCorals]

We have eggs again. My little clowns are SO HAPPY! They are also pigs. Seems like they are laying more than once every 2 weeks now. Love is in the air - or is it in the water? They are now working as a pair - none of this mama clown bossing papa clown around all the time. She must be happy with his "performance".