Are you curious do clownfish eat their own eggs? Do you notice a reduction in the number of fish in your tank and wonder if the clownfish are eating their eggs?
This article will tell you all you need to know about clownfishes and their eggs.
The clownfish’s natural behavior is to eat eggs that are considered nonviable due to their current status; either unfertilized eggs, damaged eggs, sickly eggs, or one with fungus growing on them. By doing this, it helps protect the other eggs from being killed by bacteria and fungus as these damaged eggs attract harmful bacteria.
Clownfishes are noted to eat their eggs from their first few spawnings and might evolve to protect them as they spawn more.
Why Do Clownfish Eat Their Own Eggs?
Clownfish parents eat their eggs to increase the chances of survival of healthy fry. They eat clownfish eggs that are unhealthy and have become damaged. The presence of unhealthy eggs in the clutch increases the chances of damage to all their eggs in the clutch. Thus, making the eggs around less viable to survive.
Therefore, by eating these sick and infected eggs, the adult clownfish is increasing the chances of survival of healthy fry to adulthood. However, despite this seemingly good intention of the fish, there are times when the adult fish might go full-on feast mode and eat its entire clutch.
Factors That Makes A Clownfish Eat Its Eggs
Male clownfish eat their eggs if it is a first-time spawn or based on the below factors:
New Adult Parents
You must be prepared to lose some of your clownfish eggs during the first few spawning. It is quite unfortunate, but your adult clownfish has a high tendency of going nuts and ends up eating its own eggs.
You shouldn’t worry, however, as they are likely to spawn again in a few weeks, and they are likely to protect their eggs better as they grow older, and you should start getting eggs that survive the hatching.
Fungal Infected Eggs
Male clownfish eat up their own eggs with fungal infection to protect the healthy eggs from getting infected.
Poor Health Of Parent Clownfish
Another cause of clownfish eating up its babies is when it is of low energy. When clownfish parents go hungry and run out of calories, they will be tempted to eat their eggs.
Bad Tank Conditions
Bad tank conditions for your clownfish could also lead to them eating their own babies based on the below two factors:
Stress
When your female or male clownfish doesn’t feel safe in its tank, it might proceed to eat its egg to regain its strength and then try breeding again when it feels better. Stressful living conditions in the tank may arise from overcrowding of the fish tank. To promote peaceful spawning, you must ensure to keep adequate conditions.
Starvation
When it feels underfed, with insufficient resources going around, both male and female clownfish might eat its eggs until more food is available.
There are other reasons why a clownfish might up and eat its eggs, such as unfertilized eggs. However, it isn’t easy to ascertain what trips them, and we can only observe them in the aquarium and deduce since they can’t exactly speak.
How To Protect Your Baby Clownfish
It is often impossible to guarantee the total safety of your clownfish from its parents in the aquarium. However, keeping them well-fed and limiting stress helps. Providing advantageous adaptation helps as well.
Eliminate Stress
Ensure to keep adequate lighting in your tank to help limit stress in the tank and ensure they aren’t overcrowded.
Keep Them Well-Fed
Underfed clownfish tend to consider their eggs food, both viable and unviable ones. Thus to protect your baby clownfish and ensure they reach adult age, you should ensure your clownfish are adequately fed in the aquarium.
Separate The Clownfish From Other Fish
Another way to protect the clownfish babies from being eaten is to ensure that the clownfish is separated from other fish in the tank. Thus, you can maintain a tank for the clownfish while you keep other fishes in another tank.
Remove The Eggs From Their Parents
Eggs in the nest will practically hatch 10 to 12 days after being laid; thus, it is in the best interest of the young clownfish that they are removed from their parents before they hatch.
Once the eggs hatch, the adult male clownfish will consider it a fair game and likely eat its own babies up before embarking on breeding cycles.
Keep The Eggs Oxygenated
You might also keep your eggs oxygenated in their nest by maintaining an air stone in the tank until they hatch. However, if you have HOB in your tank, you may want to turn it off to avoid sucking up the little babies.
Where Do Clown Fish Produce Their Eggs?
Clownfish generally stay close to the water column with anemones and will likely lay their eggs in a nest on a flat surface close to the anemones. They like laying eggs in various hiding spots in that particular place.
How Should You Feed Your Fry?
In the first week and a half after the clownfish is hatched, you may feed it with rotifers and then feed them with crushed flake foods. Your fry is likely to survive better if you start feeding them rotifers than if you start off providing them dry food.
Conclusion
Clownfish are likely to feed on their eggs for many reasons. Sometimes they feed on the eggs because they are unhealthy or growing fungus. They might also eat eggs that are dead. Another reason these fishes might eat their eggs is that it is their first spawn. Starvation or stress is another reason for clownfish to be eaten by its own parents.
Generally, you would not want your clownfish to eat its healthy eggs, as you would like to breed healthy baby fishes. It is best to remove the parent from the eggs before hatching, and this can be done when the eggs turn a shade of pasty white. You can put the parent clownfish in a separate tank to protect them from going full bestial on their babies.
Related Reading:
source https://aquariumlabs.com/do-clownfish-eat-their-own-eggs/
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