clownfish breeding

[mohammadali]

hello all i bought a pair of clownfish i cant remember if it is percula or something
i wanna start breeding

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Hate to say it, but its not your choice.

They will breed when they decide to

[mohammadali]

they already laid eggs :) but i need someone to help me

[FWC]

With what ??

[mohammadali]

about the feeding
water condition
and more things im still pretty new with saltwater its been only a year im in saltwater hobbies

[mohammadali]

they laid eggs underneath of the LR by a Anemone
now what should i do ?/

[Northernseacorals]

they laid eggs underneath of the LR by a Anemone
now what should i do ?/

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Breeding+Clownfish

[mohammadali]

thanks for the info guys and wish me luck
if anyone has experience around lougheed area can come over help me thanks

[Werbo]

Not to be negative but I will be. The reality is that raising clownfish fry is a huge investment. I'm not talking 100's of dollars but $10000+.

To my knowledge no experienced local hobbists have had success.

[arash53]

Congrats,

I don't have any experience raising clown fish fry, but one of the Canreef/BCA members did it on small thank, unfortunately I could not find that thread :(

[FWC]

Not to be negative but I will be. The reality is that raising clownfish fry is a huge investment. I'm not talking 100's of dollars but $10000+.

To my knowledge no experienced local hobbists have had success.

No offense ,but I don't think it will cost you 10,000 or more dollars to raise clownfish either.

If it cost that muich ,nobody would be breeding them outside of public aquariums and the like.

Theres a number of people who breed them up here in edmonton ,so I really really don't think its costs that much to raise them.

Heck ,look at all the people who breed them all over the world. I don't think it costs 10,000+ ;)

[BlueWorldAquatic]

definately not.

All it takes is a small grow tank, food, heater, and air

Can be done for under $50

I have personally raised clownfish for years, so has another personal friend of mine.

[rynoe]

I recently bread mine and have 15 babies that are 4 months old now. It's alot of initial setup but not that difficult. Get setup with a good supply of rotifers and phyto before even attempting to save the eggs. You need to have a sustainable supply of food for them.

[ponokareefer]

Not to be negative but I will be. The reality is that raising clownfish fry is a huge investment. I'm not talking 100's of dollars but $10000+.

To my knowledge no experienced local hobbists have had success.

:shocked!:

[mohammadali]

thanks all for the info and idea
I have a 20g tank its empty im setting up
A air pump
i have baby brain shrimp i have been hatching it for green spot fish

what kinda lighting do i need ?
and do i need to add filter ?

[mohammadali]

http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s464/alexafg/P1040161.jpg

[mike31154]

Although somewhat dated these days, the book Clownfishes by Joyce D. Wilkerson is a good source of information. For some reason folks are asking outrageous prices on Amazon, but I found a link where it's available for much less.

http://www.aquariumsupplycompany.com/catalog/item/3865765/3558742.htm

Baby brine shrimp, believe it or not, are going to be too large for the larvae for the first week. You definitely need roitifers for initial feeding. This means keeping phyto to feed the rotifers. Keeping phyto culture going & raising rotifers is not rocket science, but it's not that uncommon for your phyto culture to crash & then your rotifers starve. May take a few attempts until you get that process right. Upon hatching, the critters are considered larvae. They go through metamorphosis after about a week or so & it's only then that you can see that they are mini clownfish. Quite a few are lost in the first few days/week & many more don't survive the metamorphosis.

Lighting doesn't need to be anything special, just enough so the larvae/fry can see the rotifers. Water movement should be kept to a minimum since the larvae are tiny. I don't think a filter is used either, since larvae will get caught in that. It means daily water changes in some cases, & a lot of siphoning detritus & crud from the tank, again, probably daily. Rotifers & phyto need to be kept going as well, you guessed it, a daily chore. So probably not that much cost wise once you're set up, but a lot of time for the first few weeks/months until they are weaned on to dry food.

Good luck. Sicklid in Kamloops has a set up for breeding that puts anything else I've seen to shame. He's not on here much, but if you pm him, he can give you some pointers.

[ponokareefer]

You are going to need to find quality phyto and rotifer cultures to start with. Hopefully you can find some locally as it can get expensive ordering them in online.

[gregzz4]

monocus (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/member.php?u=6880) can supply the phyto and rotifers

[windcoast reefs]

Not to be negative but I will be. The reality is that raising clownfish fry is a huge investment. I'm not talking 100's of dollars but $10000+.

To my knowledge no experienced local hobbists have had success.

There were several breeders in town up until a year ago. Ive also breed a pair twice now. Cost me about $100 in total, Mostly for rotifers.

[HaZRaTTy]

Not to be negative but I will be. The reality is that raising clownfish fry is a huge investment. I'm not talking 100's of dollars but $10000+.

To my knowledge no experienced local hobbists have had success.

I'm going to have to disagree like a few have already. I haven't tried breeding clownfish but from what I've seen, researched and talked to a few local people breeding clowns they are fairly easy. I'm sure you could do it under 100$

Unless you factor in your time/effort as the Rotifers for the first week, and constant WC's!! But then again you could be over estimating your worth :lol:

Good luck breeding, I guess as long as they keep breeding you will get to keep trying!

[Reef_Geek]

this is the book that started it all and inspired farms to become started

http://www.amazon.com/Conditioning-Spawning-Rearing-Emphasis-Clownfish/dp/096629601X

it takes more time than it does money, mostly in water quality management, feeding around the clock, live food culturing, phytoplankton culturing etc.

But then again, time IS money... so your opportunity cost of your time is... (up to you)

[Reef_Geek]

I've actually been working on another article, but have been procrastinating, hitting writer's block, swamped with my day job, lurking on CanReef/in LFS's and buying frags, playing xBox, playing ultimate frisbee, and really... NFL season just started.

Anyway, have been quoting Frank Hoff's book a bit in my 31 pages to date. Here's a chart from Hoff that I'm referencing, gives you an idea of how useful this book is...

As published in
Hoff, F.A. 1996. Conditioning, spawning, and rearing of fish with emphasis on marine clownfish. 1st edition. Aquaculture Consultants Inc. Dade City, Florida. Pp. 82-97, 130.


http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/303553_10151245038887953_456259294_n.jpg

[monocus]

i can start you out with rotifers,nanochloropus,tetraselmius,and isocrysis

[mohammadali]

i just saw the eggs have black dots
is it their eyes :o ?

[Doug]

i just saw the eggs have black dots
is it their eyes :o ?

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=41750&highlight=clown+eggs

[mohammadali]

just one of the fry is out of the egg it swam and the mom ate it threw it out again
is it normal ?

the new tank i sat up , the water condition should be the same as the main tank ? i know the light has to be low light

[mohammadali]

hey
one of the fry is out of the eggs i need some routfires

text me 604 700 5087 if u can stop by ill text u the address

[mohammadali]

eggs start hatching today at 3am so far i see 4 fry
my other tank isnt ready yet ? any idea ?

[reefwars]

eggs start hatching today at 3am so far i see 4 fry
my other tank isnt ready yet ? any idea ?




you need to have this stuff before hand, you waied too long , wait untill next hatch

[mohammadali]

i had water in the tank since last week , when i found out the eggs in the tank ,
but the water still isnt good yet

[reefwars]

i had water in the tank since last week , when i found out the eggs in the tank ,
but the water still isnt good yet


exactly , it should be set up PRIOR to the hatch, you dont have food so they are as good as gone, a miracle could happen and you get lucky on one surviving , but they need food....which you dont have

[vaporize]

Realistically it runs most people around ... $200-400 or so, if you only want to raise a few it can be done relatively cheap.

Not particular hard as a hobbyist, but not easy if you wanted to do it on a commercial level

Phyto or substitute
Rotifer
BBS
Baby food etc
Equipment
reading
+
a few failures on rotifer culture

[mohammadali]

im broke now to spend $200 +

does JL sells Rotifer ?

[Coralgurl]

im broke now to spend $200 +

does JL sells Rotifer ?

I would say you should probably not even attempt this until you can have a proper set up and rotifers before starting. From what I've read, you need a fairly stable system to hatch rotifers and alot of them ready once the eggs hatch. Then you need live brine and this is done separate from the tank the eggs are kept in. This should have been ready before they started to hatch as they need to eat almost constantly.

[mohammadali]

well my brine shrimp is ready , and idk where to buy rotifers and the other tank had water in it witha powerhead and blue t5 on 24/7 but the water was shallow water
the water condition is almost fine

[BlueWorldAquatic]

I finally had a moment to chime in a bit.

I apologise if I have repeated any information;

The key to raising any fry is the food, and the combination to give the maxinum nutritional value for the buck.

I will list the most inexpensive methods for the following;

You need Phyto to feed rotifers, phyto can be cultured in a 2L pop bottle with a little air movement, and light. To feed the phyto you need a fertilizer, G2 or F2, or even miricle grow (not recommended)

You need a good concentration of rotifers to even attempt the first 24hours after a hatch, if not they WILL starve to death. This needs only a 5gallon pail, with an air bubbler. When the rotifers go yellow, add more phyto.

The rotifers should be set up at least a week in advance, they pail should go from green to yellow at a depth of around 5" every 24-48 hours. If it doesn't, you do not have enough rotifers.

clownfish will hatch out from spawning date between 7-9 days, depending on your species, and the temperature you have them in.

They should be removed from the parents tank prior to hatch. You can use tank water or make NEW seawater for this. The eggs are more resilient than the fry to changes in water.

I've been told that Baby Brine shrimp can be fed after 6 days, I have done as early as 3. THEY CANNOT EAT BBS ANY TIME BEFORE THAT, rotifers are their first foods.

After the metamorph stage (7 days), they can start eating other foods.

[mohammadali]

thanks all
but all gone i dont know where did they go , or whatever ate them all

this is the livestock i have
1 Dragonet Mandarin Spotted
1 Goby yellow watchman
1 Fire Blood Shrimp
1 shrimp pistol
and a pair of percula clownfish
i see the female keep open and close her mouth

[Reef_Geek]

you'll never be able to rear larval fish in a tank with other fish, adult omnivorous inverts.

also, most filters are good at eating larvae.

If your parent pair are in good spawning condition, they'll spawn again in as early as 2 weeks. If you're interested in getting serious on rearing, time to start culturing phytoplankton and rotifers... you might be ready in 2 to 3 spawnings from now. Good luck.

Time to check this out: http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/W3732E00.HTM

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Actually, with new spawing clownfish it is good to leave the first few batches. They will be larger everytime.

Try to put a tile or clay pot near where they spawned last time. If they are going to spawn again, it should be withing 4-5 day from now.

The female is capable of laying eggs every 14 days or so, but sometimes they take a break for a month or two also.

[Enigma]

BWA's advice is very solid.

Their spawning wasn't a fluke. The conditions in your system have contributed to it. As long as you don't radically change anything, they should keep spawning.

Take some time to get your cultures up and running, and then once you've got everything in order try to rear the fry. Go slow, and set your breeding system up a bit at a time as you have the funds/time/inclination.

Don't stress yourself out. Don't expect great results at first, either. It is a learning process, and you're going to make mistakes.

[monocus]

i've been supplying rotifers to j&l for a while now.if you need phyto cultures i sell them out of my home.if you need any help with setups or ideas i can give you a hand

[Reef_Geek]

from: FAO Manual on the Production and Use of Live Food for Aquaculture
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/W3732E00.HTM

culturing algae (phytoplankton) needs care as cultures are prone to crashing. Cultures crash due to contamination with other organisms, inappropriate conditions, age/crowding. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e08.gif

TO manage crashes, culture phytoplankton from small containers in continuous production, upgrading to larger containers (but restarting smaller seed cultures along the way).http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e0a.gif

algae culture set up:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e0b.gif

Use the phytoplankton to sustain rotifer cultures, it's what they eat, and it's what gives them nutritional value for larval fish.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/W3732E/w3732e0o.gif

[mohammadali]

okay thanks
i do need help with everything ill send u pm

[Reef_Geek]

There's a very important piece to all this. Ask yourself, what will you do with the clowns you'll raise, and how much will it cost in effort and money. If you're trying to do this for an experience to self-pay for itself, then a very important question is to ask your local fish store(s), how much they are willing to pay for a clown from you, and at what size. Then you can do your personal economical assessment and research, how long will it take to grow-out to sellable size, costs/efforts, required number of fish to sell to break even.

[Reef_Geek]

here's a simple breakeven example, hypothetically:

if each fish can be sold to your LFS at $5 each, and it costs you $4 to produce each fish (feed, salt, your time, electricity), then your margin per fish is $1.

sales quantity required to breakeven = total fixed costs / margin per unit

Thus, if margin earned per fish is $1, and if your set up (start up equipment, grow out tanks, algae/rotifer culturing tanks, lighting, heaters, filters, tools) costs are... say $400.

Then, sales quantity required to breakeven = $400 / $1 per fish = 400 fish sold before project is broken even.

[mohammadali]

they just laid eggs today

[mohammadali]

this is the 3rd time laying eggs and only 3 fry left from last time and 3 of em doing well
http://i1053.photobucket.com/albums/s464/alexafg/P1040236.jpg

[Reef_Geek]

very nice. you're well on your way!

[mohammadali]

thanks :)
ill post a video the way i take out the fry out of the main tank :)