Ornamental Fish Production and Management (1+1)

15.1.4 Captive breeding is successful only in few marine ornamental fishes

Breeding of clown fish and sea horses

1. Clown fish

The popular clown fish is brown colour body with two to three white bands. They have symbiotic relationship with anemones. In an aquarium, one pair of clowns will become dominant and this will harass others or even kill. Clown fish feeds both live and frozen foods.

Breeding

The naturally paired anemones are introduced in the aquarium or breeding tank along with anemones. Rocks are provided in order to facilitate the female to release eggs. The male clean the rock. Then the female releases 200-300 eggs and male guard the eggs. The eggs are yellowish in colour. In due course of time, they turn to dark colour. Hatching takes 7-10 days. The fry are separated and given rotifiers.

2. Sea horse

Sea horses are very poor swimmers. They have very small mouth. They anchor most of the time to the corals with their tail.

Breeding :

They have an interesting method of reproduction. The male carries the eggs in a brood pouch on his belly. During courtship the female came close to male and expels eggs from its oviduct to the brood pouch of male. Fertilization takes place when the eggs are in the pouch. Incubation period is 2 to 8 weeks. After that the fry are released from the pouch. Fine live foods are give to raise the fry.