Any clown breeders out there willing to give a guy some advise?

[Rod Buehler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15102650#post15102650 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by landlord
I personally do not think the broodtank environment, at least in my case, lends itself to an environment comfortable for making them feel at ease.

Good Luck - Kurt

I agree.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15102744#post15102744 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WDLV

Most breeders use similar setups, so I'm not too concerned with this aspect.

Just because it works doesnt mean that its the best way of enticing a spawn. Not being a breeder, all of my pairs are in a natural set up and not broodstock tanks.

Anyhow thank's for posting. I'd like to hear more about your experience with A. sandaracinos and A. nigripes. Particularly as it relates to behavior and system description. The skunks are giving me the hardest time.

Ive had the skunks for a few years. I believe that someone traded them in. Thy ignored their first h.mag to accept a RBTA, until I switched them to another tank with a different mag. They were bonded before they came to me. My nigripes were also given to me ( Thanks Bill of midwest saltwater.. ). They were spawning before I got them and spawned the first week in my systems. Sorry that I dont have more experiences to share with these two. I dont think that it would hurt by putting a few rocks in your tanks to make the clowns feel a bit more "natural" .


Good Luck

 

[WDLV]

Thank you for sharing that.
If that's the case, I guess this pair is just not meant to be together. They have been in a 210 gallon full reef setup, a ten gallon breeder and a 100 gallon trough. In the first and last case they had their own anemones and never showed interest.
I think I've been patient. These two have been together since march 2002 and have never really shown any pairing behavior. I don't know if this is just typical skunk behavior and I need to exercise more patience or if I should throw in the towel on them.

 

[Grunt]

Well nigripes ship like dogcrap. At least you have two to work with

 

[WDLV]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15103689#post15103689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grunt
Well nigripes ship like dogcrap. At least you have two to work with

.... at the expense of 11 others.

Beleive me I want to breed these suckers. I hate that so many die in transit or shortly thereafter in newbie's tanks. I am trying to set an example and breed the more difficult species so people will leave them on the reefs. i feel the same way about anemones. Which is why I have decided to keep species that are capable of asexual reproduction in captivity.

 

[Arati]

FWIW stepping up the quality and amount of food is a big one. I also think that the black worms you can find live in most lfs are major plus. since they are fw worms they die fast so I like to feed them 1 at a time.
Also Roe is HUGE I find the simplest source of that is in Rods food. but you can goto the local seafood place and get it also.

I target feed my females till bursting 3 times a day.

Also PM Colby either here or RCF he is an ace and inducing spawning.

 

[WDLV]

I guess I can't expect too much. Until about a month ago I was feeding primarily pellet and flake foods. Granted I do look at the labels to compare before I buy, but they can't be as good as fresh meat. It's the fish equivalent of eating jello every day.

I plan to see if I can find some flying fish roe for my own frozen blend. I think adding some selcon enriched BBS to the mix could also help. Even a little nori put through the spice grinder might be good. I will be using an oily fish next time I mix a batch too. Something high in HUFAs. Possibly mackerel.
I do occasionally feed black worms but not religiously.

 

[rrcg50]

be very careful with the worms. can kill your fish. i use a longer photo period and feed as often as i can. also feed whatever i can. flake, pellets, mysis, frozen mix, nori ground up with frozen mix. i have a pair of occs and a pair of wild onyx breeding. i do it for the challenge of it. the best thing you can do is keep your water quality up. with that much hair algea your nutrient level may be higher than expected. maybe add a fuge to the system so that you can get natural food growing. i am no expert just given the recommendations that were given to me
rich

 

[kerusso316]

I have moved the older ones around two or three times in the last two years......I know my Sandra's will spawn 1 year after I move them.Just like GSM It takes them a while to settel in.

 

[WDLV]

Every once in a while the planets allign and something good happens to me. I got the in stock notification from Blue Zoo aquatics for a small leucokranos for $229. I never saw myself paying that much for a leuc, but since they were offering free shipping over orders of $225, it was a reasonable deal. We'll have to see how the pairing aspect works out. I figure I'll put him in with the other two (after quarrantine) and let them choose who wants to pair with whom. The other will get her pick of A. sandaracinos juvies.

Wish me luck!!!

 

[Sullyman]

Walt sand off those snail eggs on the clay pot and clean the tile, the clowns look for a smooth surface, at least mine do.
I've had a lot of spawns happen around a full moon, does their tank get any moonlight?
Good luck and let me know when you a have third wheel, I'll take it off your hands. I didn't read the email from blue zoo til today, lol.

 

[rkelman]

WDLV You've gotten alot of advice that is very good. I personally think you need to pickup a breeding pair of something so you have some to work with while you wait for nature to take its course with some others. I would pick a relatively easy breed like Ocellaris. You also have to think of what you can sell in good numbers. Having that many breeding pairs is a full time job so I don't think its realistic even to try and get clutch's from all of them.

There are some pretty basic things you can do to entice them to breed.

1: A stable low stress environment
2: Ample (almost too much food) can help to get them started
3: Turn up the heat. Depending on species cranking the heat up a bit can help.
4: An Egg friendly environment which I think you have.

Good luck I hope you get some eggs soon!

 

[WDLV]

Sorry sullyman, those two will never be a third wheel. There's too much sentiment involved. I sold the three CB leucs I had but these guys are keepers.

rkelman, thanks for the advise. It has crossed my mind.

 

[adtravels]

Are most of you fish wild or tank raised, IMO tank raised will mostly spawn more easily then wc, unless you provide something as close to what the fishes natural setting was. which is always difficult and they were collected as a pair. I have had/experienced two pair spawning, Both paired up by humans the first were onyx percs both tank raised, the second occelaris one wild one tank raised, both had nems and were in reef type settings, one had a tile and loved it one didn't and spawned on a rock.
I have three pairs one spawns, one is new but are showing all the signs of spawning, maybe I will slip a tile in and see if it helps.
I also feed a "RODS" type food, based on bornemans coral food, I make it myself so I suppose you could call it Ad's food and I have been making it for years.

 

[WDLV]

Most are WC.

 

[ILLiDaN]

Look around for a guy named colby he had to fully grown percs that had never met, he paired them up supposedly 4 weeks later he got them to spawn.And i quote
"I get my fish to spawn so quickly by emulating nature...

When I get a new pair here is what I do...

They go into QT with hyposalinity for a while and I treat them with cyropro for deworming and metro in their food for internal parasites. I do that for two weeks. During that time period and for two weeks after I keep them on a 10 hour photoperiod and at about 78 degrees. I feed sparingly, just enough to keep them happy. After about four weeks I begin to raise the salinity, temp and light cycle until it hits 1.021, 16hrs of light and 84F. I also flood the tank with phyto and live zooplankton on a daily basis. After a week or so of that I will add a nightlight as well. Typically this will get them cleaning a lot. Then after two additional weeks I do a 60 percent water change and drop the salinity down to 1.017. Of course during this time I am stuffing them full of food. I feed atleast ten times a day all they will eat. I highly advise using roe, black worms (only after they have been thouroughly rinsed several times a day for atleast a week to remove parasites) as well as squid and mysis. I also feed spirulina very heavily, many people overlook the importance of algae in their diet. Spirulina is a green/blue cyanobacteria that that is essential for clownfish. In the wild their diet consists of roughly 80 percent algae/cyanobacteria. For this reason I let my broodstock tanks get covered with the stuff. Spirulina is not the only species of cyano that I have found in my tanks when I look under the microscope, but the clownfish seem to enjoy the other species as well."-Colby

 

[WDLV]

Wow. That's pretty good stuff. Thanks for posting.

 

[adtravels]

I have always fed my clowns nori mixed in with their food.When soaked it breaks up into small flakes and I add it to the mix before freezing. They love it.

 

[WDLV]

The new leuc came in about an hour ago. He's swimming well, is about the size I hoped he'd be and was over packed. Thumbs up to blue zoo for that.
I'll take some pics when I get him in the QT. I'm not promising high resolution national geographic quality since I'm opposed to using a camera flash on a new arrival, but I'll post what I get.

 

[ILLiDaN]

Nice, not to hijack the thread but adtravels do you have any more pics of yours, and how have they been in maintaining the dark coloration?

 

[WDLV]

Not to be rude but I would like to keep this on topic. Would you mind PMing AdTravels or creating a new thread?

Thanks.