FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

A pair of artificially paired parent fish of Amphiprion ocellaris var. were observed from March 17, 2012, to March 24, 2013, for the spawning, hatching and larval development. Experimental larvae rearing and morphometric study were simultaneously conducted. During the study, the clownfish ovulated 23 times, and about 500 ~ 1200 eggs were produced each time. These adhesion demersal eggs were orange and ellipsoidal and were about 2.70 ± 0.12 mm long and 0. 96 ± 0.03 mm in diameter. The yolks were about 1.75 ± 0.06 mm long and contained several oil droplets of about 0.13 ± 0.06 mm in diameter. The larvae were reared at a water temperature of approximately 27.2 ± 0.5℃ for a required incubation time of 177 hours. The newly hatched larvae were about 4.31 ± 0.13 mm in total length and were also phototactic, although the phototaxis lessened as they grew. The larvae were fed with rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) from day 1 post-hatching to 10 DPH. On 5 DPH copepod was added to the feeds and the amount added was increased gradually until it totally replaced rotifers on the 10th DPH. The 25 DPH larvae were about 13.02 ± 1.78 mm in total length and could begin to be fed with pellet feed.