Simplified set-up

[mazda2002]

Hello

I have an interest in breeding some of the stuff in my tank. Right now, the only thing actively breeding are my 2 cleaner shrimps, so that's what I have to play with. I do have 2 clown pairs flirting but haven't spotted any eggs yet.

I have learned over the years that I am a lazy aquarist. My 2 tanks are plumbed to the same sump and I have continuous water changes, large skimmer and lots of live rock so maintenance is rly kept at a minimum. I clean the glass wit a magnet, turn a couple nobs every week and feed the fish, that's pretty much it.

To avoid water changes in the breeding tank, I was thinking of plumbing it to the same sump and maybe making some king of cleaning robot, like a pool cleaner. Have you guys attempted anything like this?

To avoid feeding 6 times a day, I have to set-up some kind of autofeeder. Has anyone tried using a brine shrimp bottle with a hose underneath. Something similar to the drip method we use to acclimate fish?

I was thinking of using a 10 gal to start with, since I already have it, to try some stuff out.

Anything else I should be looking at?

 

[reefstew]

Lazy & breeding fish = fail. Hard work & research = good chance of some success. It took YEARS before I seen a lot of fish.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Check the sticky on this forum. I asked about continuous culture(you're "drip-method"), and it's pretty expensive. I'd also be worried about accidentally adding in BBS cysts, which would kill the larvae. The machine you describe is intriguing, but I can't help but feel it would be the death of all the settled larvae. A 10g would work, but if you're going to be lazy about it, go with a fish bowl that has mesh on the sides to help concentrate the larvae and food inside, that way you don't waste a ton of nauplii. Other things to look at: phytoplankton culture, rotifer culture, and breeding methods. If you plan on breeding the clownfish, then you will need to culture phytoplankton, preferably two strains, like Isochrysis galbana var. Tahiti and Nannochloropsis, which will be used to help the fry find food, and to feed the food (rotifers). All of this would be a very labor intensive activity. I hate to burst your bubble, sorry.

 

[Betta132]

Baggai cardinals basically breed themselves, and fry emerge from the mouth at a reasonable size. Give them a macroalgae/pod tank to grow up in, and you should get some adults with fairly minimal feedings.

 

[kizanne]

I too have a desire for a simplified setup. I have some theories and things I will try. I am culturing food and will also try some of the current methods. But I am also one that believes improvements can be made and that closer to nature is better.

I am thinking what if your fry were in a really large tank that had phyto and a mix of rotifers and copepods that were already breeding. There has to be a density of fry that wouldn't deplete a low density rotifer culture. Controlling the reproduction of the rotifers would be the real issue. A low density rotifer culture is 50 rotifers per ml. Fry food is recommended at 5 / ml with copepods as low as 2/ml.

I am still waiting for some of my cultures to work the kinks out of my management system but then I need something spawning before I can really test some of this. I think my sharknose gobies will be first. Though I have some peppermint shrimp that are making babies I just am not getting there before the fish. LOL.

Experiment and let us know how it goes. The worst that can happen is you decide it doesn't work and move on the the next thing or back to the tried and true. But maybe someone will discover a better system (because that happens almost everyday).

 

[mazda2002]

I too have a desire for a simplified setup. I have some theories and things I will try. I am culturing food and will also try some of the current methods. But I am also one that believes improvements can be made and that closer to nature is better.

I am thinking what if your fry were in a really large tank that had phyto and a mix of rotifers and copepods that were already breeding. There has to be a density of fry that wouldn't deplete a low density rotifer culture. Controlling the reproduction of the rotifers would be the real issue. A low density rotifer culture is 50 rotifers per ml. Fry food is recommended at 5 / ml with copepods as low as 2/ml.

I am still waiting for some of my cultures to work the kinks out of my management system but then I need something spawning before I can really test some of this. I think my sharknose gobies will be first. Though I have some peppermint shrimp that are making babies I just am not getting there before the fish. LOL.

Experiment and let us know how it goes. The worst that can happen is you decide it doesn't work and move on the the next thing or back to the tried and true. But maybe someone will discover a better system (because that happens almost everyday).

Let me know how that works out for you. I have some cleaner shrimp breeding right after the lights turn off. Well haven't caught them in the act yet, just found the tanks full of babies.

I have a hospital tank I don't use, it's about 25-30gal and it's already drilled and partially plumbed to the rest. I think I will move one of my shrimps when it's full of eggs in it and let it spawn there. I'll attack this after the holidays.

 

[kizanne]

Well my Banggai is now holding eggs. It is his first time so I don't know if he'll make it the full 21 days. Banggai can do bbs but can suffer from shock. I plan on trying a combo of rotifers, bbs and copepods if I can get any going. I have a culture but doesn't seem to be increasing.

I don't know if I'm going to set up a separate 10 gallon or if I'm going to try breeders nets in tank. I think the baby brine can't escape the breeders net.

 

[mazda2002]

I know the typical breeding tank is usually a bare bottom, but I have some dried live rock and I am wondering if I should toss those in there to give the baby food a chance to colonise the rocks? The only thing I can whip up real fast is BBS, so I will start looking at what to feed the baby shrimp soon. From what I can read, there is no real success story that I can copy, so any food suggestions are welcome.

I was thinking of starting with BBS and trying to introduce some flake or pellets or something ASAP, but that's probably too simple to be the solution. I have at least a dozen different types of fish foods I can try.

Maybe I should try and colonise some base rocks before introducing the baby shrimp? Colonise with what, I don't know?

 

[kizanne]

The standard answer is no because you want to siphon the bottom without interference after every feeding.

I plan to try some things like rock and macro algae for filtration with live foods. Try it out and let us know how it goes.

 

[mazda2002]

Well my Banggai is now holding eggs. It is his first time so I don't know if he'll make it the full 21 days. Banggai can do bbs but can suffer from shock. I plan on trying a combo of rotifers, bbs and copepods if I can get any going. I have a culture but doesn't seem to be increasing.

I don't know if I'm going to set up a separate 10 gallon or if I'm going to try breeders nets in tank. I think the baby brine can't escape the breeders net.

Congrats, that was quick.

 

[mazda2002]

My limited experience with reproducing fish is with freshwater angelfish. I found that using a siphon was hard because I was siphoning the babies and ended up using a turkey baister to siphon. The process was far too long and ended up with a dirty tank. Needless to say that the survival rate was low, but being a hardy fish a few survived to adulthood.

There has to be a better way without reinventing the wheel. Perhaps I'm not using the right siphon, what are you guys using?