Assessors

[David M]

Nicole, I have them in specimen containers with holes, all in the same tank side by side. They can see each other but not touch. I will keep them this way for observation/ acclimation for at least a week. The tank is a divided 60, if all looks good I'm gonna try two and two on each side of the divider. If that goes well the "pairs" will be moved to permanent homes, probably a 20 gallon for each. At least that is the plan but I'm open to the free for all approach in one big tank.
There is UV on the Q-tank but no cautionary meds. I have been told that pipezine is a good internal parasite killer, would you think it wise to hit them with it just in case?

 

[shred5]

I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t mind miss barring. I think it makes a fish different and unique. I think it would be cool to breed a set of bars out of a clown..

Dave

 

[RCS]

Although I'm not a personal fan of physically deformed fish (which I'm assuming the stubbies are, similar to blood parrots and "balloon" rams), my understanding (and observation) of the mis-bar trait seems to come from a few different places. I know with captive breeding efforts it seems to stem from a slight increase in ammonia levels during certain development stages. While definitely not healthy, most of the fish I've seen grow just as well as the regular-barred varieties without any apparent issues.

I've also seen wild mis-bars, so there has to be another reason for this trait (I can't imagine an ammonia spike in the ocean!!).

 

[David M]

OK, just MHO but all the "weird science" and misbar posts are so far off topic I'd like to ask Frank to break them out and move them to a new thread, do you guys mind?

 

[ediaz]

Would there be cookies and punch in the other thread?
Then I don't mind:lol:

 

[NicoleC]

David, I like Pipzine for worms (and will miss it when my stash runs out), but it didn't touch my nasty bug. I have started to think that deworming all WC fish seems to be a good precaution.

 

[clownfish75]

DOnt remember where i mentioned this but David dont let them go over 30oC otherwise you will have mass dieoff, i dont know how your system is setup, but they have a huge temperature prob at that point, i lost all my yellows in 2 days from a tank being 30.5-31oC.

Christian

 

[roverhere]

Wow... ORA has certainly riled up some folks. Yes - let's let them go to another post and keep this "Assessor-centric".

Nicole - have yours shown *any* spawning behavior so far?

David - I too just got some A. flavissimus from SDC - my guy got them in on Monday - a total of four flavs, and three of them promptly expired that night.

Let me know how yours are doing... They presumably all came from the same imported batch!

He also got an A. mcneil too. My plan was to get the mcneill and 2 flavs, but he's only got one flav left.

Assuming those two survive, I'll grab them this weekend, and he should be getting some more in next week. I'll pick up another flav at that point... You're spot-on with the price ($24 wholesale, plus shipping - ~$30 bucks ea. final). Although I've seen them in the $50-$60 range before (when available at ALL) for Flavs.

They really only seem to come around *right* after the new CITES permits come up; otherwise not much comes from Oz the rest of the year since it's such a limited supply.

I may follow back up with ORA - I'd much rather get CR fish than wild caught.

EDDIE - we exchanged emails a few months back. I may drop you a link re: Assessors as I move forward, if that's cool.

Tim

 

[NicoleC]

Spawning... maybe? They took a couple of months to form a close family group, and I have seen a couple of bellies wax and wane a little occassional a fish disappears for a few days (except at feeding time.) But they hang out around the back corner of the tank much of the time, so I will probably never know for sure.

 

[David M]

a total of four flavs, and three of them promptly expired that night.

I inspected those fish personally at SDC and thought they were in excellent health, at least visually. They were certainly in good enough shape to not drop dead in 24 hours, I suspect something went wrong with transfer or acclimation. My four seem fine so far, three eat very well and one I'm a little concerned about but he does eat, just not as aggressively.

 

[David M]

Well I lost the one that I was worried about, found him dead yesterday AM. The remaining three look good, eating well and adapting to new foods. Soon I will try putting two together.

 

[NicoleC]

Why not leave all three together? If 3 is a crowd, they will let you know.

 

[David M]

I might do that, but I would pull the odd one as soon as I could identify a pair. I plan to get more. I'd like 3-4 pairs.

 

[roverhere]

Didn't get to pick my blue & yellow up this weekend afterall. Probably for the better - I'll wait until some more come in this week (assuming they didn't run out or that more come in...).

How do you feel about putting a pair of them into a 10-12gallon tank for breeding purposes?

They're small fish - but would that be too cramped? It would keep them out of my 90reef, where they would wind up laying eggs who-knows-where, and then worst case have them eaten by one of the more aggressive fish.

How do you think assessors would get along with a Comet/Betta? would it know not to eat them cause they are little cousins, or would they just be fish-food?

Just trying to figure out where to put them...

 

[NicoleC]

They do like to swim and dart about. With 4, they about killed each other in a 12g. A 20g would probably be better.

 

[clownfish75]

Has there been any development in the knowledge base on assessor breeding.

i have a group of about 13-15 in a 10 gal tank and they just seem to like shredding each others fins.

no signs of breeding that i can see, does anyone have any info updates?

Christian

 

[David M]

Hmm..., well..., I couldn't keep 3 macneilli's in a 40 without a war so I'm guessing the ten galon tank is a tad small

I'm down to two now and while I do believe they are a pair they have never done anything interesting

 

[clownfish75]

perhaps time to spread them out you think?

they are blues (macneilli too)

Christian

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

Christian,

10-15 in a 10 G tank and you expect them to breed? Ever thought about that this fish need space and feel comfortable before they would think of breeding? IMO this is way to overstocked and hence the agression and tored fins.

I have a breed group of 4 in a 320 G tank

 

[clownfish75]

ok well overstocked, yes peter i had thought they were overstocked but space is a premium, how many in a 3ftX18X18, i was hopeing to dump the lot in there possibly.

Peter do you have any info on the social structure of the breeding group uyou have? do they need the full size of your tank or are they generally in one smaller area?

Christian