damsels wont stop spawning

[blueyota]

hello every one i was just wondering what I should do or if iI should do anything ?... I have two blue yellowtail damsels that wont stop spawning this is only the third batch but each batch is lager then the last...and now im starting to see tiny little fish in all the holes in the rock i have a 140g tank with two clowns and the damsels with around 100lbs of live rock ...I dont want a tank full of damsels ...what should i do ......thanks

[Keri]

Oh, wow, that's pretty cool! Are you sure they are tiny fish and not amphipods in the rocks tho? I would love to see pics!! If they are indeed breeding you should trade the fry in to the LFS, every captive-bred fish saves many wildcaught ones!!

[hockey nut]

I Like Keri's idea best. But you could always buy another fish to eat those babies. I'm not trying to be cruel just throughing out an idea.

:)

[awa1979]

If they are breeding probably the only way to stop it, is to remove one of them.

But if you could raise them and take to local stores it would be a good thing.

[blueyota]

ok then i guess i will try to raise a bunch of baby fish....and i am sure they tinny fish in the rock they just appeared in the last few days after the last spawn ...thanks for the input i will add pics over the weekend ...oh is it hard to raise baby fish ? what all do i need too do.....thanks again

[justinl]

two things i see wrong with this picture: a) you don't mention eggs. all damselfish (clowns are damsels too) are egg layers. b) damselfish larvae are planktonic. that is, they spend some time in the water column before settling down and staying near the rockwork... at this time they are very easy to kill and would more than likely just be fish food. they would not hatch out of eggs and go live in the rocks right away.

are you sure these aren't invertebrates like amphipods? or copepods? mysis even?

[blueyota]

wow!! they are really busy ....the third batch of fry hatched last night and i just caught the female laying more eggs (thought she looked a little fat) hahaha ......will these little guys survive or should i get a fish that will eat them...what fish will eat the fry....they hatch every seven or eight days...so i got another week to figure this out.... thanks for reading !!!

[blueyota]

there are loads of eggs and last night under the moon lights all you could see was little glowing fish (from blue led moon lights ) every where

[fdiddy]

Although it is true that captive bred fish save wild caught ones, but most LFS "probably" won't take damsels because the price that you would sell them to the LFS would be too high compared to the sale price. Cost of keeping them would be larger than the profit gained. If you could raise 1 or 2 at a time, then sure, but an entire batch? I would suggest trying to raise only a few, if you raise too many odds are you won't be able to get rid of them.

[mike31154]

I dunno, from everything I've read in order to raise marine fish larvae you need to get them out of the display into a separate tank to:

1. avoid predation by other livestock
2. feed them live rotifers, for which you need phytoplankton
3. probably missing a number of other points, but

It's quite a work intensive project and as mentioned at the price of the average damselfish, you'll certainly not recoup any of your costs. Could be a fun project though, good luck.

[spoot]

You can also try feeding them micro pellets designed for fish fry. Not sure if they can catch up to the food if the flow is too high in the tank, although there has to be slower flow areas and that's where they will amass.

[justinl]

fish larvae don't like prepared foods (whiich are often too big). i would be very surprised if it ate them. rotifers are usually seen as mandatory in clown breeding. good luck either way.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

two things i see wrong with this picture: a) you don't mention eggs. all damselfish (clowns are damsels too) are egg layers. b) damselfish larvae are planktonic. that is, they spend some time in the water column before settling down and staying near the rockwork... at this time they are very easy to kill and would more than likely just be fish food. they would not hatch out of eggs and go live in the rocks right away.

are you sure these aren't invertebrates like amphipods? or copepods? mysis even?

Maybe its different in tanks?

I had breeding damsels in my last tank and the larvae acted very much the same as what this poster is saying. Straight to the rockwork. Actually I never even saw them in the open water. They used to get eaten by all my predators right away, so none actually lived but the parents were still quite busy every few months :D

Oh and they were certainly little fish...not some kind of inverts. It wasn't too hard to tell.

[BlueAbyss]

If you did want to try rearing the fry, I would siphon them off and put them into their own tank.

On that note, I wouldn't worry about it if you don't want to try rearing them... few if any will make it to adult hood... most will become food for the other organisms in the tank (fish, filter feeders etc.)

[atcguy]

let em spawn, healthy tank obviously!!!!!! just more fish food for the others.!!!