Looking for clownfish breeders

[leukloki]

Hello,
I am a graduate student working on my thesis, and I am taking a survey of clown fish breeders to ask you what would be the parameters that you look at in your standard clown fish? I am using probiotics in several other species as well but would like to see if they can improve some market/ industry standards that might be problems right now.
I am looking mostly for measurable things, but I don't really know what a breeder would look at and say "oh yes that's a nice fish".
Most of my experience is hobby, and I only have "industrial" experience in freshwater fish.
If any one has any helpful answers or if you know a breeder! Please pass this along, I am already doing bottle neck survivor ship of young and growth, I am looking more for age problems, or perhaps size? Color?
thanks for looking!

 

[phender]

As a breeder I always looked for fish that were as close to a wild caught fish as possible. A wild caught fish with normal markings should be your standard. I don't know how you might measure each fish, but you could measure the percentage of fish with undershot mouths, flared gills, incorrect body proportions, mis-marks, poor color quality (brown instead of orange), etc. Most of these things can be eliminated by maintaining good water quality in the fry tank, especially early on. Color quality can be controlled by the addition of astaxanthin in the food either using food that has it naturally or by supplementing the food.

Hope you find the magic bullet, but IME there is no substitute for hard work (daily water water changes) and spending a little extra on food that contains asaxanthin.

 

[D-Nak]

I only have experience breeding percula and ocellaris, but to add to what Phil mentioned, you could also look at a specific part of the fish, such as dorsal fin height. Many captive bred percula and ocellaris have shorter dorsal fins. Granted, I don't know if this is caused by genetics or the captive environment.

You examine wild caught specimens, taking fin measurements versus total size, and then breed them. You can then measure their offsprings' fins to see if their sizes are reduced. You would then have a separate experiment with your probiotics, again examining fin size.