having problems with percs pair

[gal-reef]

hi to all my name is gal and im 16 years old
im kind of new in here
im sorry for my bad english but im working on it

so now the problem: i got a pair of percs that with me for like 15 month now and they seemed to lay eggs a few times but i didnt see no eggs im sure that they did beacuse ive seen one of the movies of it..so what can be the problem they did the same as the movie but i looked at it and no eggs

 

[Kathy55g]

Hi Gal,
Welcome to the fish breeding forum.
For your fish to breed successfully, you need to keep the tank water parameters very stable, keep the temperature around 80 degrees F, have a long light cycle, and feed them very very well. Also it is good to eliminate any critters that would eat the eggs. Also, your fish may be too young to breed successfully. It takes some maturity.

 

[mwp]

My perc pair, especially the male, cleaned the nest site for something like 6 months before they actually laid their first nest. Had them for a year and a half before their first spawn, and the average time given for percs to spawn for the first time around 2 years of age. Kathy probably gave you everything else I could've said...it's a waiting game once you have everything going right.

Good luck!

Matt

 

[gal-reef]

thank you..
but the male dont just clean the nest..they are laying eggs just with no eggs is it posible that its because i dont feed them well?
so the female dont have enogh protein to make the eggs?
and i have them for more then 15 month they are 15 month in the 400 liters tank they have been in a nano reef before....
the temp is stable and i think the water is good so it must be the food... i will try to upload a movie where you can see and tell if they breed or im just stupid:lol:

 

[mwp]

if you have a movie of the "laying eggs with no eggs" that'd be very interesting to see! If the male is not cleaning a nest site though, that makes "false spawning" even more unlikely.

What kind of foods are you giving this pair? One thing I came across when asking the folks here how to encourage the fish to spawn was "saturation feeding"...literally adding a little food at a time so that the clowns get every last bit, and when they no longer show interest in the food, that's when I stop. I probably do this once or twice per day, and I'm always rotating feeds between a very wide selection + 3 different types of enrichments get applied to frozen foods (mysis & brine). Basically I'm covering all my bases.

Matt

 

[Elmo18]

HI there Gal-reef.

I had a pair of OCellaris that did the exact same behavior. However, they are now fine and spawning.

They would do as you said, her ovipositor was down, and I thought she was laying eggs when she made her "egg laying waggle, or run". However, I saw no eggs.

What I concluded was that it was probably just stuck. A couple of times she "absorbed" them, probably the first 2 spawns that she tried.

The third time around, eggs were laid. I think if you give them good foods, and better water quality, it may be solved.

Best,
Ilham

 

[gal-reef]

thank you all
it makes me hopefull to know that i can make them spawn with just adding more foods i admit that im a bad feeder because im woring to my water quality
so how dose good feeding and reef water quality come together>?
im warking on the movie how can i upload it?

 

[mwp]

A lot of people upload videos to a site like youtube and then provide a link to it...

To maintain "reef water quality" while feeding a lot, basically I have a couple thoughts:

1. Nutrient Removal in the forms of Protien Skimmer, Purigen, Deep Sand Bed (denitrification occurs), and Algae / Turf scrubbing (or a refugium).

2. Closely monitoring feeding - i.e. if feeding pellets only place 1 or 2 in at a time...make sure the fish gets it, then ad one or 2 more, and so forth, until the fish show no interest in the food. Slowly feeding in this manner minimizes the amount of food that goes "unnoticed" and ends up rotting elsewhere in the tank.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[gal-reef]

this is the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcOl0h2ghgM
i dont have alage anymore

 

[gal-reef]

remarks anyone?

 

[raoul]

I think I might know what's going on. This is my first post in the forum, but my fish did the exact same thing last night. It was their first spawning event as well.

If you notice, their mouths seem to be pecking at things after she lays eggs. I saw ours doing this, and went in for a closer look. My fish were actually eating the eggs. It looks like yours might be doing the same thing - at least the behavior looks the same.

I may have answered your question (at least, I hope I did) but unfortunately, the answer creates more questions - like why would they both eat the eggs? The only theory I've received so far was that the eggs weren't viable, and the fish somehow know this so they consume them.

Strange creatures these fish!
Good luck!

If anyone else has any theories on why the clowns would eat their eggs, I'd love to hear them. If it requires a different thread, please let me know.

Thanks

 

[mwp]

Gal, it definitely appears that they're spawning - I even caught a glimpse of the ovipositor on the female. Raoul may be spot on with his observation. BTW, these look more like Ocellaris than Percula.

Anyway, what I noticed is that the female isn't very plump; she looks healthy enough but nowhere close to the "stout" / "bulging" look my female Percula gets when she's ready to spawn.

A lot of clowns have trouble the first few times going through spawning, so I wouldn't worry about it yet. I WOULD increase feeding quantity and quality (sometimes fish eat eggs due to nutritional reasons, or so I've read). In any case, my Perc's first batch (that I saw) was around 50 eggs, the next one was 400+ I believe; you'll probably get another shot in a couple weeks!

GOOD LUCK!

Matt

 

[Elmo18]

Kind of off-topic, but you have great random flow in your tank it seems.

That is awesome for the inhabitants.

Best,
Ilham

 

[gal-reef]

well thank you
i built it myself its 4 tubes with water exits from the sump and 1 flow pump on top (all pumps are chines and they do the work)