Breeding System

[phljess]

I have set up a 12 tank breeding system over the last couple years. All tanks are pumbed together. Do I need to run carbon in the sump for all the tanks? The reason I ask is because I was wondering if pheromones from one pair would keep other pairs from spawning considering all tanks are sharing the same water.

 

[Luis A M]

Possible,but very unlikely.A bag of carbon in the sump won´t hurt though

 

[terryp01]

How about posting some pics of that breeding system in your gallery?

 

[David M]

Using carbon is at least somewhat controversial, some agrue it strips essential trace elements from the water. Most agree it has benefits. The compromise seems to be to use carbon one week out of each month. I have some of those HOB Magnum filters, easy to move from tank to tank.

 

[phljess]

I will try to upload some pics this week of the set up.

 

[phljess]

Here is a pic from when I first put it together. Since this time I have added four pairs to the system.

Two pair of ocellaris
One Pair of Tomatoes
One Pair of GSM
The whole system runs into one sump and then returns back to the breeding tanks. However, no breeding has been taking place and so there lies my problem. All pairs have been together for over a year now, except one pair of ocellaris. Two pairs are over two years old.

I believe it is mostly my fault I do not have any mated pairs yet. I have not been focusing on getting them to spawn as much as I used to. But I do want to get back into breeding fish so, I was just wondering if having all the tanks running into the same sump without any carbon could keep my fish from spawning.

 

[David M]

Nice. Are the dividers opaque so the pairs cannot see each other? Looks awfully bright to me, just brainstorming here. The tanks may be a tad small to get tomato's and gsm's to spawn, what are the dimensions? What about diet? Feeding to saturation? Temp?

 

[phljess]

Yes, I put white plastic dividers on the glass between the tanks. The tanks are 15 gallons on top, and 20 gallons mid and bottom. Tanks are 24 inches long, 15 wide and 15 high. Top bank is smaller. The lights are not that bright, just standard shop lights. I usually only run one bulb in each side. I have not been saturation feeding. This is something I will be working on in the near future. Anything in particular I should be feeding. I used to feed table shrimp, flake and mysis, when I had breeding pairs before. Temp stays at about 80 degrees.

 

[TomRep]

Might try bumping the temp up a little as well. Just a thought.
Tom

 

[David M]

OK the tanks are bigger than they look in the pic, my gsm's and tomato's spawn just fine in 20's. Regular light cycle right, 12/12 or 14/10 should do it. Try adding a moonlight at night? Heavy feeding, good WQ, temps at 80+, not much more to do but wait Try a large water change, sometimes that will stimulate spawning.

 

[Luis A M]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8827456#post8827456 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phljess
I believe it is mostly my fault I do not have any mated pairs yet.

It is not your fault.For some unclear reason everybody like to believe clowns are easy to breed.They are not.Clowns are difficult to start breeding but very easy to raise.Other marines are the opposite,easy to breed but very difficult to raise.
You could have say 10 nice,healthy, well cared for,mated pairs and have only one spawning.Real %may change with given conditions and large commercial breeders could be a big help but they won´t tell.Everybody post about their spawning pair,nobody like to post long fruitless waits.
One would expect that a pair would start spawning more readily in a large reef tank with an anemone.In fact all reports of skunks or other seldom bred clowns seem to happen in reef tanks.But this is not proved either.