Hey everyone! After doing tons of morph research, i found the perfect clownfish at my LFS for my future breeding project! This is also my first shot at a saltwater aquarium and its a nano, but I’ve done plenty of research and plan to document everything here to help newer reefers. I used to breed betta fish and those are some difficult fish so I think I’m prepared for these babies.
THE FISH
I bought them on April 29th, 2020.
My female was $69 and is an Extreme Black Snowflake with Bullethole, then my male was $80 and is an Absolute Zero Frostbite I love them so much already. The female was in a tank with a couple fish that weren’t clowns and the male was with another absolute zero frostbite female, but she was picking on him a lot. I was prepared for them to have a scuffle when introduced to the 10gallon aquarium, so I added the male into the tank first. The female was pretty spazzy during the drip acclimation, but the male was really calm. Once both added, the female only gave a him a few tiny pecks and then they bonded within a few minutes! They cuddle every night and its so adorable. A match made in heaven!
SETUP
I’ve decided that I wanted to try something different out after doing extensive research. I wanted to see if I could use things I already had to run this tank first to see which pieces of equipment are actually necessary to dish out a fortune on. I’m running a bare bottom 10gallon tank with a hang on the back auto starting filter and a sponge filter on the other side. I have a coralife digital thermometer, Aqueon 50watt heater, then for decor I have two leaf hammocks from when I had bettas along with one white rock, a bridge, and a faux feline skull decoration. The temperature stays at 78 and the clownfish love sleeping behind the thermometer temp reader.
CYCLING (since 4/12/20)
I used about a 50/50 mix of dechlorinated tap water and zero water from my home filter. From my research, tap water is mostly discouraged only because of potential nitrates and higher likelihood of algae growth, but in all of my freshwater live planted tanks, Ive never had algae, only diatoms, so I think my tap water is safe to test out. I used Instant Ocean Marine Fast Dissolving Sea Salt, 3lbs and it was $9.99. I discovered that despite it saying it was exactly for 10 gallons, it was a little too much, so my salinity went up to 1.030 I believe? So after hours of messing with a refractometer and getting loads of water on my floor, I finally settled on it being around 1.024. It might be slightly below 35ppm, but I’m not too worried because this means I have a slight buffer with salinity in case evaporation proves to be a problem. I used Dr. Tim’s One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria (4/29) before adding the fish just in case the bacteria colonies weren’t high enough yet.
FEEDING
My LFS told me that they are captive bred and came to them already being fed Reef Nutrition TDO Chroma Boost (small) and first day the female was eating them super quickly. The male would grab a piece and spit it out unless it was a tiny enough piece for his liking. I feed them twice a day. I turn off the bubble filter for feeding but leave the hang on the back on because the female seems to like when the food moves a bit. Today I took a clear plastic cup and cut a hole in the bottom to add the food in hopes that they will learn to eat from it and the male has better chances since he doesn’t swim as fast as the female. Will update on how the feeding cup station works out.
ADDITIONAL INFO
I will be testing the water parameters again after 1 week of running the tank to see how they fluctuate and if weekly 10% water changes are actually necessary. Some people have told me 20-40% once a month worked for them, and that’s been fine for my freshwater tanks, so I will document the similarities and differences. First test strip before adding fish read 0-20 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 7.5 pH, 180KH, and 180GH but I don’t think GH matters here. My LFS water tested 20-40 nitrates, 0-0.5 nitrites, 8.0 pH, 240KH, and 180GH. I will do another test on Wednesday, the 6th.
Feel free to ask any questions and show me pics of your clownfish! Here are some of my babies
THE FISH
I bought them on April 29th, 2020.
My female was $69 and is an Extreme Black Snowflake with Bullethole, then my male was $80 and is an Absolute Zero Frostbite I love them so much already. The female was in a tank with a couple fish that weren’t clowns and the male was with another absolute zero frostbite female, but she was picking on him a lot. I was prepared for them to have a scuffle when introduced to the 10gallon aquarium, so I added the male into the tank first. The female was pretty spazzy during the drip acclimation, but the male was really calm. Once both added, the female only gave a him a few tiny pecks and then they bonded within a few minutes! They cuddle every night and its so adorable. A match made in heaven!
SETUP
I’ve decided that I wanted to try something different out after doing extensive research. I wanted to see if I could use things I already had to run this tank first to see which pieces of equipment are actually necessary to dish out a fortune on. I’m running a bare bottom 10gallon tank with a hang on the back auto starting filter and a sponge filter on the other side. I have a coralife digital thermometer, Aqueon 50watt heater, then for decor I have two leaf hammocks from when I had bettas along with one white rock, a bridge, and a faux feline skull decoration. The temperature stays at 78 and the clownfish love sleeping behind the thermometer temp reader.
CYCLING (since 4/12/20)
I used about a 50/50 mix of dechlorinated tap water and zero water from my home filter. From my research, tap water is mostly discouraged only because of potential nitrates and higher likelihood of algae growth, but in all of my freshwater live planted tanks, Ive never had algae, only diatoms, so I think my tap water is safe to test out. I used Instant Ocean Marine Fast Dissolving Sea Salt, 3lbs and it was $9.99. I discovered that despite it saying it was exactly for 10 gallons, it was a little too much, so my salinity went up to 1.030 I believe? So after hours of messing with a refractometer and getting loads of water on my floor, I finally settled on it being around 1.024. It might be slightly below 35ppm, but I’m not too worried because this means I have a slight buffer with salinity in case evaporation proves to be a problem. I used Dr. Tim’s One and Only Nitrifying Bacteria (4/29) before adding the fish just in case the bacteria colonies weren’t high enough yet.
FEEDING
My LFS told me that they are captive bred and came to them already being fed Reef Nutrition TDO Chroma Boost (small) and first day the female was eating them super quickly. The male would grab a piece and spit it out unless it was a tiny enough piece for his liking. I feed them twice a day. I turn off the bubble filter for feeding but leave the hang on the back on because the female seems to like when the food moves a bit. Today I took a clear plastic cup and cut a hole in the bottom to add the food in hopes that they will learn to eat from it and the male has better chances since he doesn’t swim as fast as the female. Will update on how the feeding cup station works out.
ADDITIONAL INFO
I will be testing the water parameters again after 1 week of running the tank to see how they fluctuate and if weekly 10% water changes are actually necessary. Some people have told me 20-40% once a month worked for them, and that’s been fine for my freshwater tanks, so I will document the similarities and differences. First test strip before adding fish read 0-20 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 7.5 pH, 180KH, and 180GH but I don’t think GH matters here. My LFS water tested 20-40 nitrates, 0-0.5 nitrites, 8.0 pH, 240KH, and 180GH. I will do another test on Wednesday, the 6th.
Feel free to ask any questions and show me pics of your clownfish! Here are some of my babies