breeding help

[Denbf58]

this is my second attempt at breeding my first was a pair of true percs. they laid eggs every 14 days for two years non stop. now my Ocellaris have stop'ed
after only 5 clutches is this normal? I 12 so so young ones in the grow out tank.
but keeping the rotties alive is eating me out of house and home.is there something I should look for or will they restart on there own?

 

[ichthyogeek]

Umm...what are you even typing? I don't think I understand what you're typing...are you saying that:

Your first attempt at breeding saltwater fish was Amphiprion percula, which constantly laid eggs on a bimonthly basis for two years without stopping. This is your second attempt at breeding saltwater fish, this time A. ocellaris, which stopped after laying 5 clutches. You have 12 A. ocellaris fry in a grow out tank. Keeping the rotifers alive is expensive, and they keep crashing on you.

If that's the case: you need to work on your rotifer culturing techniques. How big of a culture container do you have for the rotifers? How often are you feeding said rotifers? Harvesting them? What are you feeding them?

 

[Denbf58]

is it normal for the ocellaris clown to stop laying eggs so soon? my cultures do not crash i
have 2 5gal buckets going with both S and L type roties keeping rg complete in is costly.feeding twice a day. harvest a third of the culture daily. if it is normal for them to stop laying eggs for say six months it would be less costly to just start over a new culture.
i just do not want to have them start laying eggs and me not having clutures up and running.

 

[Reef Reaper]

I believe you may not be feeding the breeding pair the proper foods. Try using more frozen foods and less dry food.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Regarding the Roti-Grow, you may want to try culturing some microalgae, like Nannochloropsis and Isochrysis to cheapen the costs. Once you get production up, it should be a bit cheaper than the Roti-Grow. Alternatively, you can buy some Cryo-Paste which is basically frozen microalgae. I think that most people buy the T-Iso paste for regular feeding of rotifers.

As for eggs, try to incorporate some squid into the pair's diet. Not a lot, but it provides a large amount of energy for the female clown to use in egg production. How often are you feeding the pair? How old is the pair? What are you feeding the pair? Are there any egg consuming tankmates in the stock tank?

 

[Anna LR]

Also, check all the usual tank parameters. I am sometimes surprised to find that temperature or salinity has changed somewhat and thrown off the conditions, and I am unaware. Fixing this will usually get ocellaris spawning again.

 

[Denbf58]

as far as feeding they get a mix of dry and frozen pe mysis shrimp and new life spectrum pelllets. they are the only fish in the tank along with a cleaner shrimp if you think that is a problem i can move it to my other reef tank. thank you all for the help will try a better diet for them.

 

[Denbf58]

the pair is about 3 years old they get feed 1 time in the evening

 

[ichthyogeek]

There's one of the problems. You aren't feeding enough. General consensus (as per Wittenrich's Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide) is that you need to feed the broodstock multiple times per day with high quality food, no pellets for the broodstock. You also need to supplement with other types of food besides mysis. I suggest trying to find some clams, and freeze/feed them like Paul B does. You can also look into buying squid for feeding. Rod's Food has a special breeding mix with extra squid in it if you need to get prepackaged frozen food.

 

[hotelbravo]

I feed mine a mixture of mysis, arctic pods, and LRS Fish Frenzy. The fish frenzy stuff is no joke all my fish come out and go crazy for this stuff. It has lots of different meaty foods in it including squid, scallops, and oyster. I feel that this food would be an easy fix to their diet if you are willing to order a package. One of the 20$ packs has lasted me almost 3 months.