Should I put an inclined piece of slate in my tank when I am trying to have my clown fish mate?

Question

I picked up 2 clown fish at the pet store and told the guy there that I wanted them for mating. I got one of the largest fish in the tank and the next largest hoping that one would be male and one would be female. The guy who sold them to me told me that I should put a piece of slate in the tank and incline it because they like to lay their eggs on a slanted surface. Is this true? How long before my clown start spawning?

Answer 1

A piece of slate is one of the preferred egg laying sites for clowns.  If the clowns have an anemone put the slate just below the anemone, if not put it what ever area they frequent most.  They will spawn when they are ready to.  Unless you bought an adult mated pair you are going to have to wait on them to grow up.  Most ocellaris clowns (common clownfish or false percula) sold in pet stores are very young and will need a couple of years to be ready to spawn.

Answer 2

If the fish store guy said they like that hes probably right, but you dont NEED to have it in there for them to mate.  If one is male and the other is female, they'll do the nasty, believe you me.  They should change the expression "doing it like rabbits" to "doing it like fish".  I have a tropical tank with eels and all and my fish lay eggs quite regularly.  Just be sure to keep an eye on the eggs because they will eat them (even the parents).  Best way to do this is set up a separate tank and remove the parents after the eggs have been laid.  GOOD LUCK