The Adventures of Breeding Marine Fishes!

[Triggerjay]

So, BigAl, I have hinted in the past that I was up to "something", and let the cat out of the bag the other day. But now its time to put my plan into action. The plan:

My plan is to create a fish breeding program, utilizing a large open area in my basement. Mainly focusing on Oscellaris clownfish, but with some other species in the mix.

I have learned through my research, that everyone wants "Nemo", and currently, this is the easiest fish to market, and get any kind of return on. Any money made from this adventure, if any, will be put back into the research, and devolopment of breeding marine fish in captivity. The oscallaris clownfish reaches a "sellable" size the fastest of all the clown species. At around 3 to four months of age, the fry will reach the 1" mark, which WILL be my minimum size standard for selling. I fell it is irresponsible to sell them at a smaller size, due to them being more delicate.

The broodstock system:
I plan to have 6 pairs of clownfish. 3 pair of them being regular oscallaris, which I currently have two pair, One pair of GSM's, which I also currently have, one pair of Picasso clowns, and one pair of black oscallaris. I also plan to try my hand at bangaii cardinals with at least two pair, in seperate tanks tied to the same broodstock system.

My broodstock will consist of two 30g breeder tanks (already on hand) with two black NON-transparent dividers installed in each tank, with an egg crate strip affixed to the top of the dividers to keep everyone in their partitions of the tanks. The system will have a sump, with a skimmer, and LR for filtration. I will also run carbon in this system. The broodstock tanks will have sand bottoms, with a clay pot, and single peice of live rock in each partition.


Lighting will be provided by two T-5 bulbs over each tank, set on a timer. The system will also have an ATO system.

The broodstock system is almost there as far as equipment, and shelving, I just need to assemble it. The broodstock I currently have is housed in my reef setup. One pair oscallaris in my 55g fuge, one pair oscallaris in my DT, and the GSM pair is in my daughters tank. These will all be moved into the new system once it is assembled and cycled.

Growout tanks:
I have three more 30g breeder tanks that will be used as growout tanks, and may or may not be tied into the broodstock system. I am still currently undecided.

Hatching and new fry tanks:
I plan to use 5g tanks for hatching and holding the fry through meta. I have read that it is easier to keep the rotifer density concentrated for the fry to hunt in a smaller tank.

Rotifer and Phyto cultures:
I plan to use 5g buckets (we all have some of these on hand) for my rotifer culture. I have yet to decide on the Phyto. there have been advancements in the quality of "instant phyto" such as the algae pastes, and concentrates. I may try to go this route. If it prooves to not be cost effective however, I will start a two-liter phyto plankton culture station.

So, this is the basic setup I plan to use. Currently, none of my pairs have spawned. There are some spawning triggers that many use including elevated temperatures, and saturation feeding. Since my broodstock is currently in my reef system, this is not an option at this time.

Marketing my babies:
I am lucky enough to have a friend that is a wholesale supplier to many of the LFS'es in our area. He has agreed to purchase as many baby clowns as I (or my fish rather) can produce.

Why?
Some of you may ask why I would even attempt this. There is not really any money in it, and a TON of my time will be consumed into this project if I am to be successful. I feel I have expanded my knowledge enough in the hobby to be successful at a breeding program. I have killed my share of marine life throughout my journey into this hobby, and I feel, that for every one clownfish I am able to put into someone elses tank, it will be one less taken from the ocean. Aquaculturing, and tank raised fish are the only sure future for our hobby. Some of you may know that Fiji and Tonga are already slated to quit exportation within the next couple years, and more will follow. I feel our hobby will end up like the pet bird market. Importation into the US was completly outlawed,.. Now, the only birds available to the hobbiest's are captive raised, which for the enviornment, is a great move,.. but for the hobbiest, will stop the availability of certain fish that have not been succesfully bred in captivity. The only chance we have, for a future in our hobby is aquaculture and captive raising of the animals we like to keep. So, this is my attempt to prepare for the future, so my children, and their children can enjoy the hobby as we do. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions as my journey into breeding marine fish unfolds.

As I start putting this system together, I will try to remember to take photographs to go along with my progress updates in this thread.

Thanks for reading the DRY start to my plan!

Jason

[charlestonemt]

Jason,

Sounds like a good, well-thought-out plan. Good luck!

[DaveK]

I think you have a reasonable plan. However, I think before you build the entire project, do a pilot project that is much smaller. In other words plan and set up a small scale system using a pair or two of the clowns you have and work out al the problems of breeding them before you go all out.

This will give you a chance to see if you can actually breed the fish and get them up to selling size, healthy and in good color. Because it's smaller you'll have a lot less work, and more importantly, a lot less investment. You would also get to see if the project could actually pay for itself, or at least partially pay for itself.

The worst thing you could do is to built the whole project at once, find a serious problem and have to rebuild major sections from scratch.

[Woodstock]

Excellent Jason! DaveK has a good point. Maybe you should ease into it with just one breeding pair and then expand later?
Tagging along to learn!

[Gina]

I wish you success in your breeding program!
I would also try to start out smaller and if successful, go all out.
I used to breed cockatiels and started out with 1 pair and ended up with 9 pair. That's when it became overwhelming! Working full time and trying to keep up with feeding as many as 10 or more babies at a time.
Looking forward to following your thread and pics!

[Triggerjay]

Starting small would be good, and I am planning to build the system so it is expandible. I figure 6 pair will give me better odds for spawning. As of yet none of the three pairs I have spawned (well that I have noticed anyways). One pair of oscallaris, I have had for 6 years, the other pair for a year, and they were together in another persons tank about a year,... so I would "guess" them to be about two years old, and the GSM's I am unsure of the age. I have had them for about 6 months, but the female was VERY large when I got them, but the male was tiny. I will try to get some decent pics of my current broodstock later today and post them. They are all well suited to reef tank life, so I expect it will take some months of conditioning to get them to spawn in their new homes once I get that step completed. I have been planning to do this for about a year, but time has not permitted me to get everything in place.... until now. I was working my full time job, and working at my own handyman service. Now that my wife is working full time, there is not a need for me to kill myself working all the time anymore, so I chose to quit doing the handyman work. This should give me lots of free time to dedicate to breeding, and raising clownfish fry. Working nights at my full time job, I have had TONS of time to do research on the subject, and have thought out the whole thing many many times in my head. The only extra cost at this point will be salt, and purchasing the other three pair. All the tanks are already in the basement. This will be a pretty slow thread though, until the magic happens. Every time I see where someone had their clowns spawn, it makes me wish I already had the system in place... but its like anything else in this hobby... go slow, and do it right. I can't wait to see how Doni's babies do. It looks as if she has all her ducks in a row. I'm sure she will do well.

Jason

[Frankie]

Awesome Jason! I am excited for you.
There is an up side to starting large over small. Stability. The more water volume you have the more stable the system and the better chances of success.
The best breading system i have seen is my friends Discus set up. The spawning room was lined with 10 and 20 gal. tanks back to front. The fronts and backs were painted and the viewing was done from the side. This allowed for more room to line tanks up and less chance of stress for the fish. He is very successful with it.
Good luck buddy! I look forward to some progress pictures.

[GSELLERS]

i have 5 pairs and all 5 spawn regularily....my true percs in my 90 reef spawn every 2 weeks on the dot. i have collected the fry out of the main tank when they hatched..it is very tricky.
1. cover the entire tank....no visible. they will hatch within 2-3 hours after sundown.... roughly 11pm-1am depending on what time the eggs were laid.
2. shine a small light at the top of the tank. the babies are phototrophic (attracted to light)
3. make sure all powerheads are off and all returns are off
4. wait to see babies then remove via cup or similar.....no netting!!!

i did this method 5 times before my clowns spawned on a piece of slate...i like the slate better because its not an eye sore in my reef.
if you and woodstock would like any help maybe all 3 of us can chat and share our knowledge on our findings...that way we all can know the different approaches we use and basically compare notes...
ill be glad to help you any way i can

[NanoNewbie]

Hey good luck in your adventure of breeding marine fish. If you havent already been there here is a site that deals only with breed marine fish and invertabrates

Marine Onamental Fish and Invert Breeders

This is execellent place to learn what it takes to breed marine fish

[Anselth]

Really cool Jay! good luck to you. I really want to do something like this once I get my own place, hoping to learn a lot here!

[Triggerjay]

yes, MOFIB - Marine Ornamental Fish & Invertebrate Breeders - Marine Fish Breeding / Saltwater Fish Breeding / Marine Invertebrate Breeding GREAT resource for the marine breeder. Thanks for all the support guys, and GSELLERS, I will be picking your brain!

Jason

[BigAl07]

Jay this is freaking AWESOME bro! WOW! I'm thrilled you're attempting this program. I'm "hoping" to do something similar in the "Coral Arena" in the future.

I'll be tagging along and if there is ever anything I can do don't hesitate to give me a yell

Allen

[cracker]

Very interesting ! Tagging along as well!

[Triggerjay]

Ok, Its pic time. Forgive the condition of the GSM's tank... hair algae and calupera have taken their hold. Looks like an algae forest.

Here are my 6 YO oscallaris pair:




This is my 1+ year old pair of oscallaris in my fuge:


And here is my GSM pair. They prooved difficult to photograph:


Female:


Male:


Thanks for looking! Oh yeah, I also just noticed there is a breeding board... can the mods move this there? Thanks

Jason

[Triggerjay]

I was wondering if I could get this moves to the Livestock Breeding area. I overlooked it when I started the thread. Thanks!

Jason