Cinnamon Clownfish (Amphiprion melanopus) Breeding Guide

How to breed the captive-bred cinnamon clownfish Amphiprion melanopus: forming a pair, demersal egg-laying near a host anemone, male tending, and raising the pelagic larvae.

Overview

Amphiprion melanopus is a demersal egg-layer that has been bred successfully in captivity. Like other anemonefish it forms a distinct breeding pair and is a protandrous hermaphrodite: the female is the largest fish, the breeding male is second, and the male will change into a female if the dominant female is lost. According to FishBase the species is oviparous with distinct pairing, the eggs are demersal and adhere to the substrate, and the male guards and aerates them.

Sexing

Individual sex cannot be read from colour. Within a pair the female is clearly larger than the breeding male; size is the reliable cue once a hierarchy has formed. Because the species is protandrous, a single fish is functionally male and will turn female when paired with a smaller individual, so a future pair is most easily established by raising two juveniles together and letting the larger one mature into the female.

Conditioning

Condition the pair on frequent feedings of varied marine fare and stable water. Wikipedia notes the species feeds on planktonic copepods and algae in the wild, so a mixed diet supports egg production. Keeping the pair with a host bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), its primary natural host, reduces stress and encourages settled, repeat spawning.

Breeding Setup

Provide a mature pair their own territory with a flat hard surface (rock or tile) close to the host anemone, since females deposit the eggs on a cleaned patch of rock near the anemone. Stable reef parameters are required; the record lists about 24-26 degrees Celsius, pH 8.1-8.4 and a depth range of roughly 1-18 m for the species in the wild. The pair will clean and defend the chosen nest site before spawning.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

After preparing the nest the female lays a clutch of conical eggs (clownfish lay up to about a thousand, each 3-4 mm long) which the male fertilises. The male then tends the clutch, cleaning and guarding it and fanning it with his pectoral fins. The eggs start bright orange and darken as the embryos and their eyes develop. Well-fed, settled pairs spawn repeatedly on a regular cycle.

Egg & Fry Care

Incubation lasts six to seven days and the larvae break out of the egg capsules at night. Newly hatched larvae enter a pelagic stage that lasts up to about 12 days before they settle, which is the critical window: larvae must be offered suitably small first foods (rotifers, then progressively larger live foods) in a dedicated rearing tank, because they are too small for adult food at hatch.

Common Challenges

The main difficulty is the larval phase: the tiny pelagic larvae need clean green-water rearing and correctly sized live first foods, and losses are heavy without them. The species is also semi-aggressive, so an incompatible pairing can lead to fighting. Pulling either the egg-bearing rock or the newly hatched larvae into a separate rearing tank avoids predation in the display.