Breeding.

[reffer69]

Hi

I am setting me a 250L aquarium (mayby) and would like to make the money back off it by breeding the fish. Here in NZ Marine fish can get pricey so theirs a market for them, i would like to breed ->

Clownfish
Angelfish
Basslets
Dragonets
Gobies
Blennies
Cardinals

But what should i get? I would like some rare species, which are lovely to look at and arnt gna kill all the corals. Any advice?

 

[mwp]

Some sort of clownfish and Bangaii Cardinalfish - those two alone could probably keep you pretty busy! Add in some sort of goby and maybe mandarins...you probably have every level of hobbyist breeding difficulty there from "easy" to "very tough but can be done".

If you have access to the ocean, heck you could probably try rearing Centropyge too!

Just my $0.02.

MP

 

[Kathy55g]

Hi, and welcome.
IMHO it will cost you more breed those than it cost to set up the 250. If you want to make some money, frag some corals in a 20 gallon tank (80 liters) and sell to local stores.

If you are INTERESTED in breeding, however, and willing to do the work involved, you will need more space than just an aquarium or two. You also need to get good at raising live food. Joyce Wilkerson's book "Clownfishes" can get you started.

Cheers,
Kathy

 

[Kathy55g]

PS, your list is my dream. I have one pair of spawning clownfish and not enough time or space to raise all the nests they produce. I've decided that when I retire, I will attempt SOME of the ones on your list, and BE like Martin Moe.....

 

[mwp]

Kathy does raise a point that was sitting in the back of my head...you're going to need more than just the 65 gallon tank if you're gonna raised fish. The one exception are Bangaii Cardinals, you could PROBABLY do those with a couple breeder nets in a sump/refugium and otherwise still enjoy the tank as a display tank. Granted, getting the baby bangaiis out of a display tank is a nightmare!

MP

 

[reffer69]

I was planning to set-up a series of 10 gals in the gaurage, with all them conecting to a filter/heater and have a basic colour light and a deep sand bed and a few pieces of LR for the confert of the fish, but no corals or anything in that tank except snails and hopefully babyfish! i would like to offer a range of fish so i would like to get breeding 4 or 5 of those species as above.

If the eggs get out of controll could i ad something that might eat them? this might sound mean but if i cant controll the amount of breeding goiong on I could end up with a few hundread fish! and no space! i was thinking mayby a Yellow tang just to be the aggresive one in the tank or something else?

Cheers
Nick

 

[mwp]

Nick, I currently have Apogon margaritophorus, Apogon leptacanthus, Pterapogon kauderinii and Gobiosoma multifasciatus all breeding in a 24 gallon tank. I'd think in the 65 you could easily add in a pair of clowns and a pair of dragonettes and have PLENTY of species to work with. If you are full on babies, simply don't collect and the tankmates will do the work for you!

Matt

 

[reffer69]

thats good to know.
Q. mandarins- how much LR do i nead for each? becasue i wanted to do like a really high amount ill try to do a pic on paint of the tank design then how i want the LR to go, basically really tall and well year ill try to get a pic up ASAP.
I havnt decided on the acctual fish specie itself.

Cheers
Nick

 

[mwp]

Nick, burried somewhere in my mandarin thread is details on how I trained them to accept frozen foods - once they take them with gusto the amount of live rock doesn't really matter for the Synchiropus. I have a S. stellatus male in isolation (breeder net) with NO live rock and he's gaining more and more weight every day (at the LFS he was basically skin and bones, he's now healthy and on his way to being "FAT" like I like 'em)!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=824111&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 - I know it's a freakin' book...but the info you'd need for training is early on in the thread, page 2-3.

The mandarins are your only fish where the height of the live rock may make a difference, but even that is still in the "speculation" stage based on my experiences with the mandarins....for them it seems like lower might be better. Less is also better if you're breeding (and need to catch the parents for any reason).

FWIW,

Matt

 

[reffer69]

how many inches of fish could i have in that tank? tank size isnt final got to check space and such!

Cheers
Nick