Maroon Clowns & Bangai Cardinal rearing setup

[Tuddy]

Hi Guys,

Thought I would post some pictures of stage 1 of my breeding & rearing set-up.

Last 3 days have been spent installing and plumbing the new clown breeding and rearing tanks, At the moment they are going through the cycling stage. I have a little more fine tuning to do as far as the the drain to the sump and return but so far thank god I have had no leaks.

The Laval tank will be a 2 foot tank I have waiting to install which I will be placing below next to the sump, I am going to be constructing another shelf above the breeding and rearing tanks to house the culture farm.

Below 2 x 2 foot tanks both split in to 2

Cultures of Green Water, Rotifers & Brine Shrimp

The tank with the skimmer will house my mated pair of Maroon Clown.
I am only using the Jebo until I can purchase a Beckett.

Picture of the sump with fuge the pipe you can see with the tap on it is going to be for the new skimmer but for now I am using it to just recycle back thru the sump.

This picture show my return, I decided to go with 25mm into a 75mm storm water pipe, This is giving me excellent flow.

I drilled holes into the storm pipe and have used a rubber grommet with a double ended 25mm barbed fitting (No spray and easy to remove.

Another angle.

So far my Cardinal have bred twice the first batch of babies are doing fine very healthy with no loses aged 18 days. I have these housed in a breeding cage in my reef tank, Cos of the feeding I have started to get a small outbreak of Cyno which I am treating and so far have under control.

The male bangai is carrying a 2nd batch of eggs which he has had for 4 days. I have read that once the bangai mate they usually don't interact with other bangaii, I have another male with the pair in a 239 gallon reef tank and so far I have noticed that the female will associate with both males. While she has only mated with the first male is it possible I could have a single female bangai mating with 2 males.

Lost my first batch of clown eggs, This was the first mating between a wild caught mated pair of maroon clowns I purchased 8 months ago,

I decided not to attempt raising the first batch until the rearing tanks were settled and I have increased green water and rotifer production which will mean I will be looking to raise batch 3.

Stage 2 will be approx 9 more rearing tanks and a breeding tank for a pair of Orchard Dottybacks that have started to mate.

Anyway love some feedback and any advice will be appreciated.

Cheers Andrew

 

[Nagel]

Re: Maroon Clowns & Bangai Cardinal rearing setup

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7040403#post7040403 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tuddy
I have read that once the bangai mate they usually don't interact with other bangaii, I have another male with the pair in a 239 gallon reef tank and so far I have noticed that the female will associate with both males. While she has only mated with the first male is it possible I could have a single female bangai mating with 2 males.

I have heard this is not only possible, but optimal. The female can produce eggs monthly, but the male eventually needs to eat. Some breeders I have heard keep two males for every female, so when one is carrying eggs, the other male is in a seperate tank getting fed very well. This gives each male a month to fatten up and reduces the chance of the male eating / dropping the "immediate next batch" because he gets too hungry.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7040403#post7040403 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tuddy
Lost my first batch of clown eggs, This was the first mating between a wild caught mated pair of maroon clowns I purchased 8 months ago,

Most breeders recommend skipping the first batch or two, to let the fish get in a rhythm, and also to make the nest "stronger" so to speak. (I mean as in healthier, better fry). I have three spawning pairs of clowns now, and let me tell you, they are much more difficult then baby bangaiis. It took a little time to get rotifer production down to a science for my needs, and right now I have three nests (two that should hatch monday, and one that was just laid tonight). I have so far successfully brought up a batch of clowns to the 7 week mark, but the first week is really the critical period IME. Thats when you are feeding the tank, not the clowns, and rotifer density is definately the key to better survival rates. Its a fine line between under feeding, over feeding and just right, so don't get discouraged if you lose your first few batches, just refine your process and do it again. Clowns can lay eggs on a regular basis, sometimes just a week after the last clutch hatches, so you should have plenty to learn on in no time at all..

 

[Tuddy]

Thanks for your comments Nagel much appreciated, I have decided to use 1 half of 1 of the 2 foot tanks to rear rotifers, By doing this I can feed the system with green water and rotifers when doing water changes.

In regard to the green water Im culturing Nannochloropsis oculata but it never goes really green after 4-5 days I only seem to get to a pale green with lights on. Im am using 10000k Flouro's is that to bright for algae, Roties dont seem to mined.

I have frozen Tetraselmis that Im using for the rotifers at the moment to continue their culturing. I have also fed 2 bottles of roties to my reef tank trying to take the pressure off of the algae culture. I am sure the green water has not been contaminated by roties because they are not going any clearer either, Also under the microscope I can not find any trace of roties I have not mixed the 2 algae culture except when feeding to the roties

Cheers Andrew

 

[Nagel]

I stopped culturing my own phyto, it kept crashing my rotifers with a high pH. Even after bubbling CO2 to lower the pH, it still crashed them, so in frustration I started using pastes for rotifer feeding. Currently using Reed Maricultures Nanno3600, and been having good luck with it, so for now I'll stick with it.

As for the green water not getting too dark, are you using any fertilizer? Like F/2 Guilliards? Greenwater will need a source of fertilizer to get really dark. When I cultured my phyto, I used 6500k daylight flourescent tubes (el cheapo brand from home depot) and they did well. Most algea likes a little more yellow light, but the 10k really shouldn't cause low production rates.

 

[Tuddy]

Ive read that a product called Aquasol can be used any thoughts on the subject in regard to fertilizing phyto
Andrew

 

[Nagel]

I am not familiar with that product. sorry!

 

[FuEl]

Aquasol is commonly used to grow Nannochloropsis oculata mainly in outdoor cultures which could be used to sustain rotifer cultures. It consists mainly of ammonium sulphate. Does lack the many nutrients that are present in F/2 medium but grows Nanno fast. If your main aim is to get rotifers growing you could use Aquasol to grow Nanno. But I would think Nanno grown with F/2 medium would result in more nutritious rotifers. If you are feeding your animals rotifers that have been fed Nanno grown using Aquasol I would suggest further enriching of the rotifers with Pavlova or other enrichment solutions.