Clown Fish is most colorful marine fish

Clown Fish

 

Clown Fish

Bright orange with three striking white bars. Clown anemone fish are some of the best-known reef inhabitants. They reach about 4.3 inches in length and are named for the multicolored sea anemone where they form their homes. Relationship with anemone clownfish perform an elaborate dance with an anemone before settling down and gently touch their tentacles with various body parts until they get used to their host. A layer of mucus on the skin of the anemone fish makes it immune to the deadly sting of the fish-eating anemone. In return for the safety of predators and food scraps, the Clownfish drives out invaders, nourishes its host and removes parasites. Population coverage there are at least 30 known clownfish species, most of which live in the shallow waters of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Western Pacific. They do not occur in the Caribbean, in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic.Change sex All clownfish are born male. They have the ability to change their gender, but will only do so to become the dominant female in a group. The change is irreversible.

Clownfish aquarium

Setting up a clown fish aquarium is virtually the same as preparing a tank for any marine life. The only difference will be in the tank's size. A pair of clowns can thrive in a 30-gallon tank if they are the only marine life other than your clean-up crew. With this size tank, you won't need to spend hundreds or even thousands on equipment to keep the conditions optimal.

What You Will Need

Tank - Minimum 30 Gallons(29)

Water - Reverse osmosis water is best and can be purchased at most supermarkets.

Sand - 1 lbs. per gallon

Live Rock - 1.5 - 2 lbs. per gallon

Filter - Optional

Protein Skimmer

Pump - 1 -2 100 gallon per hour for circulation

Heater - 75 Watts per gallon (roughly)

Lighting - 1-2 fluorescent bulbs should be do

Marine Salt

Thermometer

Refractometer - This test the amount of salt within your water (gravity)

Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH Test Kits

First, you'll want to clean everything that will go into the clown fish aquarium by soaking them in a saltwater bath, then rinse them with another fresh saltwater mix. Next, find the location in which your tank will be placed. Remember to stay away from windows, as sunlight, will cause algae growth. You shouldn't be using any types of aerosols or other chemicals around your tank because it could contaminate your water. Keep this in mind when choosing a location for your tank.

After you have all of your equipment cleaned and your tank is resting in a permanent location, you will want to add the live rock. Adding the rock before the sand will ensure that any digging that may occur near the base of your rock will not cause a potentially fatal collapse. Once you have your rock situated, it is time to add sand. It is recommended to have about 1 lbs. of sand per gallon. However, use enough to get the sand bed 3-4 inches deep at a minimum.

Now we need to mix our saltwater. Using a brand new container to prevent contamination, begin adding your water. Slowly add salt per the manufacturer's specifications while checking the gravity frequently with your refractometer. You will also want to add your pump into the container and let it aerate overnight to remove excess CO2. You can add your heater to get the water up to temperature during this process.

Using a sanitized plate or bowl at the bottom of your tank to avoid destroying your sand bed, slowly add the seawater mix to your tank, aiming for said plate/bowl. Fill your tank to within about 6-8 inches from the top to avoid overflow when adding the rest of your components. Once you have it filled, we will begin adding the rest of your equipment.

First, add your heater. Be sure not to plug this in before it is completely submerged or it will burn up, then set it to about 79 F. Next, add your filter, skimmer and pump, then turn them all on. Your aquarium may be cloudy for several hours until everything settles. At that time you will want to take a test of the water to see where your levels are at.

Now your clown fish aquarium is all set up and running, but it isn't quite ready for fish yet. You will need to allow your tank to cycle for at least a month before your water chemistry is stable enough to support them. We won't go into details on how to cycle your aquarium quickly and efficiently, because this topic is deserving of its own article. For now, I suggest keeping an eye on your chemical levels and reading upon the cycling process. Before you know it you will have a beautiful, stable habitat for your clowns and any other beautiful marine species you keep.

Clown fish aquarium setup

Clownfish are easy to feed, fairly resistant to disease, and can tolerate less than ideal water conditions.

Ocellaris False perculas as they are referred to are generally easy to keep relative to many other saltwater fish. The minimum recommended tank size is a 15-20 gallon aquarium. Now I realize that some may be able to keep them in a smaller tank, but a 2-10 gallon-sized saltwater tank is much more difficult to maintain. In a tank this small, an accidental overfeeding can pollute and possibly kill its inhabitants. The smallest amount of evaporation will distort the salinity, and if the light is kept on too long, the temperature of the water may rise to unsafe levels. A 15-20-gallon tank is more stable, and it's the absolute minimum I would recommend for a pair of clownfish and some other peaceful fish and/or invertebrates. Although they are not swift, long-distance swimmers, they need ample space to swim and move around. If purchasing your first tank, a wider tank will suit the clownfish's' needs better than a tall, narrow tank. They also need the proper filtration which would include, at the very least a hang on to power filter and a supplemental power head for circulation.

All saltwater fish come from the ocean, and in the ocean there are currents. Most saltwater fish we keep in our aquariums come from the shallow reefs where the currents are relatively strong. In the aquarium, the current need not be as strong as in the ocean, but a hang on to power filter (such as an Aquaclear) works well. There is a good amount of space in these filters for both mechanical and biological filtration. The supplemental powerhead provides the water movement needed to keep the dissolved oxygen level at an acceptable level, and it provides the clownfish the current it needs. For a 20 gallon tank an Aquaclear 30 hang on a filter, and a high volume low pressure (hvlp) powerhead such as a Taam Seio P320 Nano Prop Super Flow Pump is an adequate combination.

As for lighting, saltwater fish do not have special lighting requirements. The less intense light they have, such as a fluorescent light, the less algae will grow on the glass and decorations. Specialty lighting can be used, but it is unnecessary. Power compacts and metal halides give off a lot of heat, and if they are used will heat the water in the tank unnecessarily. In a tank like this, if keeping only fish, the acceptable temperature range is 74-80 degrees F. If the temperature goes above 80 degrees for a day or two they will not die. Although prolonged exposure above 80 degrees F can have negative effects on the clownfish as well as the other fish in the tank. Over 86 degrees for any length of time is really not good for your fish. Be safe, keep the tank at 78 degrees F. If you live in an area where it gets really hot in the summer, do not wait, purchase a chiller for your tank before the summer. You will save yourself and those closest to you undue stress and anxiety. Conversely, if the area in which you live gets cold in the winter, purchase a heater for your tank. For a 20-gallon tank, I recommend going with a submersible 75-100 watt heater with an automatic thermostat set at 78 degrees.

Clownfish facts

Clownfish are already one of the most popular captive marine fish due to their vibrant colors and hardiness. These fish are also well-known for displaying odd yet entertaining behavior. Such behaviors include abnormal sleeping positions, an equally abnormal swimming style, and the capability to change their sex. It is these types of actions, along with their coloring, that led to these species earning the moniker of "clowns".

All clownfish are born as males. As they grow older, a hierarchy is naturally established with the most dominant fish at the top and the rest falling in line accordingly. The fish that sits atop this chain of command will go through a sexual transformation and become a female. The female will then pair with the male that is "second in command", or the next most dominant of the group. The rest of the juveniles will remain, males, until one of the mated pair dies off. If it is the female that dies, its male partner will become female, and the cycle continues with the next male in line becoming mated with the newly transformed female. It is common to see juveniles "bullying one another while they are going through these changes and establishing the hierarchy.

Aside from the trademark colors and striping, clownfish also display a distinguished swimming style. Clowns swim by rotating their pectoral fins(the ones on the side), as opposed to the flapping/stroking motion used by the majority of other fish. Using the pectoral fins is what gives them their characteristic hovering motion. As they rotate their fins they also shake their tail, giving them a waddling look as they swim across the tank. Personally, I can watch them for hours, completely entertained by their swimming motions.

As you may have noticed by now, these fish seem to pride themselves on being abnormal. They stay true to this bizarre mentality in the way they choose to sleep. Countless owners have awoken to find their favorite little fish floating upside down at the top of the tank, laying flat on the bottom, on top of each other, and just about any other position you can think of. This can cause panic with new owners who aren't used to the "clownish behavior" of these fish, as they usually think their fish have died. About 5-10 minutes after turning on the lights you will find that your fish will be up and swimming around as normal and that it was nothing more than a false alarm.

There are just a few of the numerous facts about clownfish behavior that makes the species one of the more interesting to have within your home aquarium. These actions made this fish popular in the early days of captive marine tanks and have preserved their popularity all the way to the present-day. It is important to expect the unexpected with these fish, and not freak out every time you see something out of the ordinary. Only after this, will you find yourself thoroughly enjoying the always entertaining aspects of clownfish behavior.

Care of clownfish

Clownfish are a very popular saltwater fish. They are very peaceful and colorful additions to the aquarium. Clownfish are normally found in the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific Ocean. Clownfish have been growing in popularity over the years to become one of the most kept saltwater fish. Before you start to head out and pick up your very own clownfish, there are a couple of things you should consider. In this article, I will offer a bit of advice about owning clownfish.

Clownfish do need a fair amount of care as opposed to other fish. You will need to provide a stable saltwater aquarium for them to live in. We need to look up the specific instructions for the type of clownfish you want to our house and then adjust accordingly with your aquarium size. After you pick out the aquarium, you are going to need to find the appropriate lighting and filtration systems to place in the aquarium. You have to have a good filtration system to provide the best possible environment for the clownfish.

Once you get the hang of the basics, you should add a sea anemone that is compatible with the species of clownfish that you pick. Clownfish have a symbiotic relationship with Sea Anemones and it is recommended that you place the two together for the best possible results. Also, you can see how the clownfish interacts with the anemone. Anemones can be very hard to keep alive in the aquarium, and it is definitely not recommended for beginning aquarium owners. Sea Anemones generally do not live more than 2 years even with the experienced aquarium owner.

You should provide a mate for your clownfish. Clownfish do much better in pairs, and they can also produce their offspring in the aquarium. Clownfish have an amazing ability to switch sexes, but all clownfish are first born as males. You can pair a male and a female together and then breed them to keep or sell their offspring.

It is quite a sight to see parent clownfish swimming around with their litter in the aquarium. The fry will take some time to grow up, and if you are serious about breeding your clownfish, there are some very interesting and in-depth guides on the internet that I would recommend looking at.

I hope you found this article helpful in your pursuit of owning clownfish. Anemones are definitely not required to enjoy the ownership of your clownfish. Just set up your aquarium with plenty of rocks with nooks and crannies for your fish to swim through. Owning a clownfish will take a little of practice to get the hang of, but don't be discouraged.

Clown fish breeding

Clown Fish

Do you know that clownfish mating is very fascinating because these fishes, during the mating season, will be having their males to be females and the juveniles will become males?

Clownfish have 3 major school categories, the largest which is the female and the second largest is the male school and the third will be juveniles and gender-neutral. When mating and if some adults are not present, clownfish males will become female and a juvenile will turn into a male to cope up with the process.

To breed clownfish, consider the following:

Set-up the breeding place. Have a piece of ceramic in your tank so that the fishes will have a spawning spot. Have a heater and a timer for the day and night cycle. For trivia, the "stalk" at the base of a clownfish egg is made up of adhesive filaments that held the egg onto the rock that served as the spawning site. So you will have to put extra air stones for this reason.

During the hatching day, keep the tank sufficiently oxygenated so that the males will have enough oxygen when they are guarding the nest and fans the eggs. First laid eggs are in a bright orange color, when the color fades, the eyes will appear when it turns silver, it is now time to hatch. When the larvae hatches, do not worry about infiltration because they are not harmful to the offspring.

You will have to stay up throughout the night to catch the larvae or move the eggs to the larvae tank, I this is not possible, be sure that you leave the parents with a spotlight in the corner of the tank so that they can catch the larvae.

Keep the eggs aerated gently with an air stone or else fungus will set in

For the larvae tank, have a container filled with a 5-10 gallon on oxygenated water, set up a heater and an air stone. Additionally, you have to monitor the ammonia content of the water, adding liquid ammonia and chloramine remover will be beneficial.

Have a steady light, on for the next few days will also be necessary, this will help the larvae to learn their hunting skills. The first ten days of the larvae's life are very crucial and stressful because of the occurrence of metamorphosis. Be ready for this event because these are the days where many larvae die. The fingerlings will then develop their stripes after this stage, and you can now go back to your regular clownfish care.

Clownfish pairs are bred for up to 12 hours in the daylight, followed by 12 hours in subdued artificial light. These lighting conditions simulate the artificial exposure of coastal reef communities, such as reefs off the coast of a small town. Lighting conditions are still conservative for marine infrastructures, such as oil platforms, pillars or cruise liners, which are becoming more prevalent. 

The scientists unexpectedly did not discover a single egg hatched under the conditions of artificial light.In comparison, the group of clownfish exposed to normal light cycles had a hatching rate of 86%.Both groups had laid a similar amount of eggs. Unhatched clownfish may affect other reefs that are not near artificial light, as the reef fish population also depends on larvae from other reefs. 

A single area of ​​light pollution could affect the surrounding reefs, which are still relatively dark at night. Another problem is that coral reef larvae are attracted to the light. You could choose reefs that are exposed to artificial light. Their future increase is inhibited. Effects of artificial light could spread to other reefs while luring young fish into an environment where their cubs are unlikely to hatch. 

Effects on clownfish living in coastal reefs can spread to the surrounding reefs. Their future increase is inhibited. The researchers warn that "light pollution would create an ecological trap for the recruitment of reef fish, and this could have significant and far-reaching consequences in areas of high levels of nocturnal artificial light pollution".Since most living beings rely on cycles of light and darkness to regulate behavior and physiology; artificial light is likely to interfere with species other than clownfish in the marine environment. 

Regulations on the type of light and the orientation (not directed outwards but downwards) can help reduce the effects of light pollution on clownfish and other marine animals. Similar rules have been successfully implemented on the Florida coast to facilitate egg-laying of seaturtles, and a similar solution may be needed for the clown and other coral reef fish. In fact, the researchers found in this study that the effects on the reproduction of clownfish diminished as soon as they put the clownfish back into normal light-dark cycles.

Clownfish eggs

 

Clown Fish

Light pollution occurs when artificial light interferes with ecological systems or processes, usually at night.

Natural light at night, produced by the moon, stars, and other celestial bodies are minimal. A full the moon creates only 0.05-0.1 lux, which pales in comparison to the artificial light produced by humans, which can range from around 10 lux from an LED or low-pressure sodium streetlight, up to 2,000 lux from something like stadium lighting.

Clownfish were exposed to artificial light to see what effect it would have on their reproduction. 

Because nearly all organisms on Earth have evolved with a stable day-night, light and dark cycle, many biological events are now highly attuned to the daily, lunar, and seasonal changes in light produced by the reliable movements of the Earth and Moon around the Sun.

But artificial light can mask these natural light rhythms and interfere with the behavior and physiology of individual creatures, and ecosystems as a whole.

The ocean is not exempt from these problems. Light pollution is spreading to marine habitats through urbanized coastlines and increasing marine infrastructure such as piers, harbors, cruise ships, and tropical island resorts where bungalows extend out into the lagoon, directly above coral reefs.

Why are clownfish at risk?

Clownfish, like many reef fish, are particularly vulnerable to light pollution because they don’t move around much in their adult stage. Clownfish can travel long distances in the first 2 weeks after hatching, but at the end of this period the young fish will settle in a suitable sea anemone that becomes their forever home.

Once clownfish find a suitable anemone, they stay put forever. 

This means that if a fish chooses an anemone on a shallow reef in an area that is heavily lit at night, they will experience chronic exposure to light pollution throughout their life; They won’t just move away.

Clownfish also lay their eggs attached to a rock or other hard surfaces, so in areas exposed to light pollution the eggs will experience continuous artificial light (as opposed too many fish that lay and fertilize eggs in open water, so they are immediately carried away by ocean currents).

What we found

Clown Fish

To test how artificial light affects clownfish reproduction, we can examine the common clownfish for the experiment.

Five breeding pairs of fish experienced a normal 12-hour daylight, 12-hour dark cycle, while another five pairs of fish had their “night” period replaced with 12 hours of light at 26.5 lux, mimicking light pollution from an average coastal town.

For 60 days, we monitored how often the fish spawned, how many eggs were fertilized, and how many eggs hatched. While we saw no difference in spawning frequency or fertilization rates between the two groups of fish, the impact of the artificial light treatment on hatch rate was staggering. None of the eggs hatched, compared with an average of 86% in the control group.

Clownfish attach their eggs to rocks or other hard surfaces, leaving them at the mercy of their immediate environmental conditions.

Why does Nemo the clownfish have three white stripes? 

At the end of the experiment, we removed the artificial light and monitored the fish for another 60 days to see how they would recover. As soon as the light at night was removed, eggs resumed hatching at normal rates.

Clownfish, like many reefs fish, have evolved to hatch after dusk to avoid the threat of being eaten. Newly hatched baby clownfish, like most coral reef fish, are small (about 5mm long) and transparent. Hatching in darkness likely means they are less visible to predators as they emerge from their eggs.

Our findings show that the presence of artificial light, even at relatively low levels, can disrupt this crucial process, by masking the environmental cue – darkness – that triggers hatching. As many reef fish share similar reproductive behaviors to clownfish, it is likely that artificial light will similarly interfere with the ability of other fish species to produce viable offspring.

Healthy, fertilized clownfish eggs did not hatch in the presence of artificial light.

Light pollution is one of the most pervasive forms of environmental change. About 23% of the land surface (excluding the poles) and 22% of coastal regions are exposed to light pollution.

And the problem is only growing. The reach of light pollution across all land and sea is expanding at an estimated rate of 2.2% per year, and this will only increase with the rising global human population.

Although research on the ecological impacts of light pollution are arguably only in its infancy, the evidence for negative consequences for a range of insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals, including humans, are stacking up.

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