My new breeding set up

[butwa20]

This is my new breeding setup it will have 3 40gallons and 3 30gallons and room for another addition later onhttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/Rentarox123/1325952181.jpg

[Europhyllia]

Thank you for posting this. Makes mine look actually hardly noticable :)

[butwa20]

Lol I just hope all the hard work will pay off now just need to find some tank to put on it and fish to fill it. I picked up a 55gallon yesturday stand t-5 light set up bioball trickle sump mag7 pump powerheads overflow box and canister filter for $100 great deal IMO! Going to be my new frag tank.

[clownfishgems]

what are you going to be breeding???

[butwa20]

I have a pair of cardinals clowns and blue devil damsels I want to do more clowns and jaw fish or gobbies

[Big_Pun]

are you setting that up in a garage? wouldn't temps be hard to keep in range??

[butwa20]

Insulated garage with r-6 rated foam and a portable ac unit so no should not be that hard

[butwa20]

Plus it only gets 2 1/2 hours of direct sun a day and just in the morning

[clownfishgems]

any updates on setup??

[butwa20]

No waiting on more cash prolly next week but I did set up my 55 next to it for just a frag tank. And I am waiting to see if anyone around here has rotifers or phyto I can start cultures from but my clowns are becoming even more territorial nipping at me and tale smacking me lol so any day on them I hope

[butwa20]

so i have started making my own food today from a recipe i found in "The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide" by Mathew L. Wittenrich.
The recipe calls for
4oz of fresh frozen shrimp
1oz squid
1oz clam
1oz crab meat (make sure it is not imitation)
1oz marine fish flesh
1/2oz nori or other seaweed
1 gelatin packet (unflavored i opted not to put this in dont want anything i dont need in my tank)
1tsp liquid fish vitamin supplement (i used Selcon) which can be purchased at http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5009
i also added
1oz of scallops (not in the recipe but recommended)
1oz of of mysis shrimp and brine shrimp (just for flavor)
placed it all in a gallon size zip-lock baggie and freeze it my fish love it.
Squid should never be more then 20% of the diet as it leads to dietary dysfunctions.

Although you don't need to make your own food to breed the fish from what i have read they dont get the proper diet from pellet foods as you do making fresh foods its like us eating McDonald everyday. I have also read it will help with better number of eggs hatching.

I hope this information helps others as it has me.

[Big_Pun]

so have the clowns laid eggs before? or have they already laid them. so how do you plan on catching the babies, always been interested in that especially if they are in a tank with other fish.

[butwa20]

around day 7 when they turn silver i will take them out of the display tank and place them into a hatchery with a slight roll of bubbles on them so that they will hatch. i dont want to take this pair out of my display cuz i like them but my others will be in their own tanks.

[butwa20]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/Rentarox123/1326422154.jpg
the new frag tank all set up next to the breeding section!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/Rentarox123/1326422332.jpg
just a quick update on the breeding tanks got the boards all laid down and 1 40gallon in love petco's $1 gallon sale going to get the rest i hope tomorrow.
STILL LOOKING FOR THE PHYTO AND ROTIFER CULTURES IF ANY ONE HAS ANY PLEASE :cry_smile:

[BSJF]

I personally wouldn't bother with a phyto culture. The frozen stuff works great and is one less thing to worry about! It's hard enough to deal with the rotis and nhbbs.

[butwa20]

i have thought of that too but would i get the same results with the dead phyto then the live i mean most things that die start losing their nutritional value right after death and i dont think that they would get the most out of what i am trying to accomplish if i dont use fresh phyto instead. i mean the cost to set it up is really not that expensive and i think i ill save more money in the long run if i make my own and that way i know exactly what i am putting into the water. a lot of products we are using do have preservatives in them i have stopped using pellet food for this reason and have noticed a very big decrease in the amount of alge that is growing in my tank i think home grown and home made are the way to go but only time will tell if i am right i might do some experimenting to decide which would be better if not a combo of the 2.

no real up dates yet still waiting on some more funding i will be getting the last 2 40g here in the next few days as petcos $1 gallon sale ends on the 21 of this month it saves so much money i love it. if anyone has a mag 7 to 9 pump please let me know i am still looking for one cheap or maybe even free :). as soon as i have more updates ill post some. still reading all the books i have bought. if anyone has any advice on any of this please feel free to post. i want this thread to become a tool

[butwa20]

ok so a little update clowns have now been moved into the new set up they are at home in their new tank. in the first week they were not eating very much at all which made me a little nervous bu now they are coming up to my hand readly accepting foods that i have prepared. Also i had gotten a yellow headed jawfish about a month ago and had been searching all around town since for more finally today petco had 2 and they are larger then the first one that i had gotten. everyone i happy to my surprise the 3 jaw fish huddled together in a little ball it is very interesting cuz what i have read and heard from people is that they would fight with each other all is well so far. so i dont know that maybe i got all females in my little group or maybe 1 male and 2 females or if the fighting will come at a latter time i hope not. But none the less i will be keeping a close eye on the for the time being they have not started eating when i fed them earlier it too my fiorst one a couple of days before he ate for the first time and it now comes readily to my hand for food.

[butwa20]

so a fast update dont know if anyone is following this or not the yellow headed jaw fish (female one) had gotten a very big tummy on her and i took so photos not the clearest but i need to upload them. she has not returned to normal size i showed some others around and they also thought she had eggs in her but i never say the male with the eggs in his mouth i am assuming that he swallowed them. but i have high hopes in the near future that we can try again. clowns are still just hanging out. if anyone has a pair of banji's or another type of clowns that have been around for some time please let me know i would love to take them off your hands and see what i can do with them.

[KING]

im a fan..lol.cant wait to see pics..

[Scutterborn]

I'm on board...

[Kristy]

Seems like You are really doing your homework. For what it's worth, we listened to Matthew Wittenrich do a great presentation on breeder setups last year at DFWMas Next Wave. He mentioned using the bottled phyto and how much better health, survival rates, etc since using Reef Nutrition's Roti Grow. This is not the stuff onthe minifridge shelf at the LFS. You'd have to order it or get your LFS to order it with their next Reef Nutrition order.

BSJF has done a LOT of research on this, has the experience to go with it, and would be a great resource for any questions you may have on clownfish feeding and rearing.

You may need more patience than you realize. Our bonded mated pair of GSM clowns that we've had for five years gave us their first clutch ~3 years ago. But they are only now getting to the point that they spawn predictably every two weeks and produce good numbers of eggs. Most clownfish we buy are young snd it takes them at least a year to be sexually mature.

[Big_Pun]

is this setup still in garage ?? just wondering how temps are doing since its warmed up

[butwa20]

well i know my clowns are about 2 years old cuz the guy i got them from had had them for 1 1/2 years the temp have been just fine around 78-81 with any fans or anything to cool it. i am out in the garage most of the day anyways so the door is open and the heat does not really have a chance to rise on the tanks but even on the days when i have the door closed i have not had any problems.

the Bottled phyto you are talking about is it the phyto paste or something else. i have a culture of rotifers going finally which makes me happy. ill post up some pics of the what was happy trio untill i had a jumper :( need to make a top for the tank.

[butwa20]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/Rentarox123/SU1BRzAwMjAuanBn.jpg
here are the yellow headed jawfish you can see the one to the far left is much bigger then the rest the belly is huge

[butwa20]

my jaw fish have locked them selves in the cave now for about 3 days i havent seen them i hope he pops out with eggs. and i can get them befor he spits them out wish me luck. any one else have luck with these guys can let me know how long they may stay locked in the cave.

[BSJF]

http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155

Check out the link above for an overview, and the one below for a list of several threads where people describe their successes/failures/questions:
http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=184

I had my Bluespots spawn a few times. They total trashed their cave, then disappeared for a few days. I videoed them just before and after the transfer, but missed the transfer itself.