Almon

Someone asked me what species of marine fish are currently being captive bred. Here is a list of what Oceans, Reefs, Aquariums (ORA) breeds: Clownfish True Percula False Percula Clarkii Two Banded Tomato Coral Sea Fire Australian Gold Striped Maroon Orange Skunk Pink Skunk Saddleback Dottybacks Orchid Indigo Striped Sunrise Neon Springer's Gobies and Blennies Canary Neon Black line fang Yellow-line Hybrid Cleaner Yellow Kuda Brazillian Cardinalfish Banggai Blue-streak Pajama Seahorses Zebra-snout Short-snout Tiger-tail Dwarf Yellow Assesor

They laid eggs again. Unfortunately, the Anemone moved the tiles and they laid in the same spot they have been using, on the back glass wall. Next week, I will add another tile.

Russ, When the Maroon clowns begin laying eggs, let us know. You will want to persuade them to lay on a tile or small rock that can be easily removed.

What products (algae pastes) do you use?

The current batch of eggs hatched last night. The female Clarkii will lay again tomorrow evening. She was laying on the back wall, on the glass. I have put in two tiles completely covering the area that they were using. I'll let you know on Sunday how it goes. Doug/Phil: guppychao has a breeding pair that lay eggs on a large rock that's part of the reef and can't be easily taken out of the tank. Do you have suggestions for William to persuade the clowns to lay eggs on something else? I would try putting a piece of a tile or broken flower pot next to that rock.

Maybe we should offer to help them perform maintenance, as volunteers.

I missed that...sweet. Here are two pictures from one (1) year ago. It's grown since then ...

Added to the list. Chris, do you have a breeding pair of fish and will you be raising your own fry? Added to the list. Thanks. If successful, we will need several grow out breeders.

Doug, I have a giant Hydnophora with rock that I would donate if they would accept it. It's extremely flourescent green, undoubtedly a crowd pleaser, but I don't believe it's on the list of regional corals around Guam. If they want it, let me know.

I agree: Develop the successful breeding chain (the working model). I can help with the bookkeeping. I can also provide a private collaborative workspace on the web to store the documents, guidelines, instructions, calendars, and such...I'll give everyone that participates a username/password. Who wants to participate? We need interested people to begin developing the first two (2) links of the chain, the egg supplier and the hatchery. When we are successful, Justin will be ready with the third link, to take our juneniles and grow them out for distrubution. Who wants to provide eggs to others? Who wants to hatch eggs (your own and what others have provided)? Who has a big tub (greenhouse optional) and would like to growout the juveniles? Egg Suppliers Doug Almon Hatchers Doug Almon Growout and Distribution Justin

There really needs to be an unbrella group or organization to help with things like: networking between the other breeders providing training and education provide standardized guidelines financial support for startup costs building relationships in the industry and local/federal govt. bookeeping services marketing services It would be wonderful if WAMAS was interested in participating in this effort. It would probably be helpful for both WAMAS and the local breeders. But whether it's WAMAS or an incorporated Co-op, this is a great idea and deserves to move forward.

Nice. Maybe this topic is not broad enough? Yes. I would be happy to give you a tile of eggs. I'll try to persuade them to use one. It is tough to do everything yourself. That's why I have not done try to raise any clownfish. But what if I had a local community of interested people working together towards the same goal? That would be less tough? Yes? Part 1) William (guppychao): Would you be interested in joining a bunch of local breeders as an egg supplier? Part 2) Doug (dbartco): It appears that you are already interested in receiving eggs from egg suppliers to raise them through metamorphasis to juveniles? Part 3: ??? (Someone with a large tub (and a greenhouse ) may be interested in collecting the juveniles from Doug, raising them to adequate size, and then getting them into distribution? Does that complete the chain? A collective of cooperating breeders all working towards the same goal. Each individual having a separate value to add, risk to take, and cost to absorb. Each would be deserving of a percentage of the resulting revenue. Each individual can do the part(s) that works best for them.

Do you have a lot of juvenile clowns? What have you done with them when they grow up?

This is cool. I think they dropped one?

You could rearrange the aquascape.

I'd like to start growing phytoplankton. Can I get a half a bottle from you to start?

Is it difficult? Do you have a lot of juveniles? What do you do with them after they have grown? Any pictures?

I have a breeding pair of Clarkii clowns. The female lays a massive amount of eggs every 10 days. But I have not attempted to raise them, although I would like to try. I believe the amount of time and effort needed would be significant, and I wouldn't know what to do with all of them when after they grew. I think that trying to do something like this alone might be overwhelming. It would be easier if I had other local breeders to work with...all of us helping each other as a community of local breeders.

Who is interested in breeding fish? Who is currently breeding fish successfully? What species are you breeding? Who has a breeding pair? What species? Who thinks this is a waste of time?

So Doug, what will you do with them? Will the local fish stores purchase them from you? Will you try to keep a few hundred clownfish? Will you sell them online? Who else is successfully raising and selling marine fish?

Looking at the bottom of the Brain coral, a ridge has grown down on half of the coral. It can be seen on the bottom and the right sides. Because this ridge was extending out, we (Scott711) decided to use the Dremmel. It took a few minutes but easily cut these two ridges off. They ridges were then cut, glued to plugs, and placed in the frag tank. Thanks Scott.

I agree. Realistic expectations are important. I'd be happy to make my money back.....and be happier if I could make a few extra $.... But I won't quit my day job. In addition to (maybe) a few extra dollars, there is certainly the conservationist and environmentalist aspect. Help save the reefs. But more importantly, as DaveS said, it could help persuade the big guys to breed other species. As an individual hobbyist, it would be very difficult. But a cooperative of local breeders would have much better success and could address such issues as what ctenophore mentioned like having a consistent supply to distribution, or a consistent food supply when one crashes or fails. It would be difficult for one (1) hobbyist, but less difficult for five (5), and fairly easy for twenty (20). And what about a coop of fifty (50) breeders? Would thave have impact and influence on the industry? I'll help organize too....I'd also like to be a breeder. It's a lot of work, but the primary barrier was: What do I do with them after they grow?

Very nice. There are many club members that are having good success at breeding marine fish. We should develop relationships so we, club members, can collectively and cooperatively, get our fish into the national distribution channels. I'd like to raise the Clarkii fry, but I need a little help getting them to distribution.