Breeding Marine Fish

[Almon]

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?

[Jon Lazar]

I have a pair of oscellaris that were breeding when I bought them, but haven't resumed breeding yet.

[kholla12]

I am breeding banggai cardinals

[DaveS]

Great thread Almon! Hopefully it will grow into some of the stuff we talked about in the other thread.

[reefmontalvo]

Well I currently have all the equipment setup to run a hubsandry system. Got the Phyto bubbling and ready to have the culture spilt. The next thing is the get to get the Rotifers to start there process and I even have a hathery and stationary tank for the brine shrimp.

 

My goal is to breed Neon Gobies, then move over the Bangi's one I feel all is well.

 

And yes this is a nice thread.

[Almon]

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.

[paul b]

I am breeding bluestripped pipe fish, bangai cardinals, 2 pairs of watchman gobies and fireclowns.

My hermit crabs are also laying eggs but I don't raise any of them anymore.

Edited August 22, 2009 by paul b

[reefmontalvo]

I am breeding bluestripped pipe fish, bangai cardinals, 2 pairs of watchman gobies and fireclowns.

My hermit crabs are also laying eggs but I don't raise any of them anymore.

 

Jumpn' Jesus on a pogo stick !! That must take a huge amount of time?

 

I just got my entire set up online. I'm allowing the sponge filters to do there job for a week or so. Then introduce the neon gobies. My main goal be fore I started was to get the phytoplankton culture growing a keep it that way with out a crash. From all the reading and actually applying the science to all this I found it's all about keeping track of the differnet cycles and writing down all the progress. So far I have a healthy culture running and when the fish start laying eggs I will begin the rotifers and harverst them for both the reef tank and the fry. And with the extra Phyto I will also feed it to the display tank.

[Mountaineer]

I was breeding Ocellaris clowns and I have a pair of Bangaii's with no luck yet.

 

I just moved my set up here from southern VA near the coast, so it will take a bit to get them back to comfortable enough to reproduce.

[Almon]

I am breeding banggai cardinals

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

 

 

I am breeding bluestripped pipe fish, bangai cardinals, 2 pairs of watchman gobies and fireclowns.

My hermit crabs are also laying eggs but I don't raise any of them anymore.

Any pictures?

[kholla12]

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

 

 

 

Any pictures?

 

It takes time and its not easy.

I just got my first batch a few weeks ago. My male is holding another batch now. I only have 2 lelf rom the first batch. I was just learning but now I have a better idea of what to do. I was planning on selling/ tradeing them off after they grow up.

Edited August 23, 2009 by kholla12

[paul b]

Reefmontalvo, they are spawning but I do not raise the fry anymore. That is too timeconsuming. I used to raise them, but not any mose. Now I am just happy that they are spawning. Spawning fish are healthy fish and they do it with no help from me except providing the proper foods.

Here is my watchman gobi tending her eggs.

And here is a pair of seahorses that I collected. The female is transfering her eggs into his pouch in my reef.

 

 

Here is the pair of watchmans just before spawning

 

Edited August 23, 2009 by paul b

[reefmontalvo]

That is cool. I guess its those small signs we all miss that tells us if we do truely have a healthy tank.

 

So how long did you let your phyto bubble or cure? I'm going on 9 days so far. It's a nice healthy green not dark but I can't see thru the bottle. Is that a good time to start splitting cultures? Or should I allow the culture two full weeks before I start splitting?

[Almon]

And here is a pair of seahorses that I collected. The female is transfering her eggs into his pouch in my reef.

This is cool. I think they dropped one?

[Almon]

I was breeding Ocellaris clowns and I have a pair of Bangaii's with no luck yet.

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

[guppychao]

Almon, great idea, however with the amount of time it takes and the dedication, its tough.

 

i have a breeding pair of percula's. i could dontate the eggs but dont have the time to dedicate to raising the fry.

[dbartco]

I will be glad to try and raise a few batches from others if they don't want to try. Almon? Guppychao? I'd like something other than O's. Clark's or perc's would be nice to try.

 

I also have rots I'd be willing to donate. Bring to meeting? I keep mine going with algae pastes, not live phyto.

[reefmontalvo]

Doug,

 

So your not growing your own phyto? Do you use frozen phyto to keep the rotifers active and alive?

[dbartco]

Doug,

 

So your not growing your own phyto? Do you use frozen phyto to keep the rotifers active and alive?

 

Correct. You can use frozen pastes that last for 6 months or so, or you can use refrigerated phyto like "phyto-feast" that last for a month or so refrigerated. It is more expensive, but I didn't think that I could teach the wife (nor would she be interested in learning) color shades of phytoplankton in case I was going out of town.

 

http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c6/Nan...nwater-c34.html

[L8 2 RISE]

This is kind of off topic since you all are thinking of or breeding fish, but I will be breeding cuttlefish pretty soon. If all goes according to plan, I'll have my first eggs any time now and have my first home bred batch around Christmas.

[Almon]

This is kind of off topic since you all are thinking of or breeding fish, but I will be breeding cuttlefish pretty soon. If all goes according to plan, I'll have my first eggs any time now and have my first home bred batch around Christmas.

Nice. Maybe this topic is not broad enough?

 

I will be glad to try and raise a few batches from others if they don't want to try. Almon? Guppychao? I'd like something other than O's. Clark's or perc's would be nice to try.

Yes. I would be happy to give you a tile of eggs. I'll try to persuade them to use one.

 

Almon, great idea, however with the amount of time it takes and the dedication, its tough.

 

i have a breeding pair of percula's. i could dontate the eggs but dont have the time to dedicate to raising the fry.

 

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.

[DaveS]

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.

 

I think this would be great! Obviously different parts of the process entail different amounts of work/costs but I think this idea could really work if executed properly.

[dbartco]

Tile, rock, whatever, I want to try something new. Getting that Clarkii subspecies through meta is supposed to be more difficult. Looking forward to it. Get them on a tile!!

 

I have no problem with thte co-op idea. I think it would be great to do, and I think we have the resources in the area to take our babies and help distribute. You have to be real careful about expectations on this though. So we find a facility to house and distribute these fish. People have to know that home breeders are not getting the $15 for an ocellaris, like a fs thread on here. Distributers have costs to maintain, no matter how good the intentions the person has. I guess all I'm saying (which I seem to be continual pessimest about), is don't quit your day job.

 

At the very least we will have a steady supply of rots out there if this catches on. So many people have started projects like this, and when the inevitable rot crash happens, it goes by the wayside. I was very lucky to have Craig take care of mine for vacation. Hopefully the wife does as well while I'm begging for club donations at macna.

[ctenophore]

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.

 

I thought I already said I would do part 3? Maybe that was by PM. Anyway, I can take them once they can be fed on frozen or dried cyclopeeze, and raise them in my anemone/coral tub(s). I estimate that I should be able to raise about 1000-2000 fish per tub. But that is just a guess based on bioload, not having raised clownfish before. There may be other factors involved that I haven't thought of. Somebody in this group should get Wittenrich's new book on breeding.

 

I should be able to deal with the distribution issue as well. Maybe a portion of any potential proceeds could go back into WAMAS?

[ctenophore]

I have no problem with thte co-op idea. I think it would be great to do, and I think we have the resources in the area to take our babies and help distribute. You have to be real careful about expectations on this though. So we find a facility to house and distribute these fish. People have to know that home breeders are not getting the $15 for an ocellaris, like a fs thread on here. Distributers have costs to maintain, no matter how good the intentions the person has. I guess all I'm saying (which I seem to be continual pessimest about), is don't quit your day job.

 

In my view, if my fixed costs (mainly, food) are covered, I am more than happy to spend the time feeding and caring for the babies, as the symbiosis with my for-profit endeavor (anemones) makes the effort worthwhile. Even keeping them with coral is worthwhile, as their waste will help feed polyps.