Sweet<3's Clownfish Adventure

[Acielot]

You said "beginner" and "9 pairs" that is impressive. I haven't purchased them yet but i would like to get a breeding pair for my 20 gallon do you think that they would breed successfully in there if there are no other fish. and if i get a refuge for the fry would they have much better chances to survive? I have bred guppies before and I know it isn't the same thing but i would really like to get that experience.

[smitty_1280]

Lol, I hope so too. Good luck to you.

[sweet<3]

You said "beginner" and "9 pairs" that is impressive. I haven't purchased them yet but i would like to get a breeding pair for my 20 gallon do you think that they would breed successfully in there if there are no other fish. and if i get a refuge for the fry would they have much better chances to survive? I have bred guppies before and I know it isn't the same thing but i would really like to get that experience.

 

Haha ya I guess I'm not exactly a "beginner" anymore

 

A breeding pair will do fine in a twenty gallon. There are several breeders that get their fish to breed in display tanks. I do not normally recommend it though. There are a few problems you can run into if you try to breed in a display tank with rocks/coral.

 

-First of all, it is hard to create the right "breeding" environment if you have coral. I keep my tanks at 84 degrees and at a salinity of 1.020. I also keep my lights running for 16 hours a day. These are not ideal conditions for coral, but it does help stimulate breeding.

 

-Also, in order for your fish to breed you have to feed them several times a day. I feed five times a day, which means the water gets dirty fast--also not ideal for corals/display tanks. You will have to do more water changes, etc.

 

-With rock in the tank, it can also be difficult to predict where the fish are going to lay their eggs. I like to remove the eggs on hatch day, or a day early, and let them hatch in a separate dedicated tank. This is hard to do if the fish lay eggs on a rock. You can let the fish hatch in the tank with the parents and then try to scoop them out as they hatch, but the parents will probably eat some (and this is just way to much work for me haha).

 

For these reasons and others, I'm sure, I recommend a dedicated fish only tank for breeders. It certainly isn't impossible to do, it is just more difficult and possible more work.

 

As far as the fry goes, they need a tank all to themselves. They also need to be fed rotifers, which means you will need to start a rotifer culture.

 

I hope this helps! Don't be discouraged if it is something that you really want to do. I have just found that if you set things up right from the start, your life will be MUCH easier If you have any more questions feel free to ask. There are tons of breeders on Nano-Reef as well as myself willing to help!

 

 

Lol, I hope so too. Good luck to you.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Sooooo I'm working on a new growout system. Here is the first tank that I have added fish to:

 

 

Adjusting nicely to their zip-tie anemone :

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a crappy pic of some babies:

 

[Degener8]

Yay we all love babies! Been following along with your thread and other breeders.. you are all insipring.

Thank You.

[sweet<3]

Thank you for following!

[altolamprologus]

Those babies are looking great. They're regular percs right? Lol I can't remember, too many breeding threads to follow

 

 

BTW, nice avatar pic. You're gorgeous (no homo)

[Acielot]

There are a few problems you can run into if you try to breed in a display tank with rocks/coral.

 

With rock in the tank, it can also be difficult to predict where the fish are going to lay their eggs. I like to remove the eggs on hatch day, or a day early, and let them hatch in a separate dedicated tank. This is hard to do if the fish lay eggs on a rock. You can let the fish hatch in the tank with the parents and then try to scoop them out as they hatch, but the parents will probably eat some (and this is just way to much work for me haha).

 

As far as the fry goes, they need a tank all to themselves. They also need to be fed rotifers, which means you will need to start a rotifer culture.

Yep right now I am coral-less so i could keep my options open for a breeding pair.

I have my old 10gallon SW tank before I went to the 20gallon so that would be their growout

but I have never been successful at growing any small creature like rotifers or copepods, could i give them fine-powdered marine fish pellets?

[sweet<3]

Those babies are looking great. They're regular percs right? Lol I can't remember, too many breeding threads to follow

 

 

BTW, nice avatar pic. You're gorgeous (no homo)

 

Why thank you!

 

Ya these are from my onyx pair but its hard to tell if they will be onyx or not. The black takes sooooooo long to develop. Some of them look like they are darkening up so fingers crossed

 

Yep right now I am coral-less so i could keep my options open for a breeding pair.

I have my old 10gallon SW tank before I went to the 20gallon so that would be their growout

but I have never been successful at growing any small creature like rotifers or copepods, could i give them fine-powdered marine fish pellets?

 

Sounds like you are on the right track

In a 20 gallon you are going to have to work hard to keep the water clean so I would consider a sump, or some sort of filtration. Just something to keep in mind.

 

The 10 gallon is perfect to hatch your babies out in and keep them in for a little while. But if you have a large clutch (some can be up to 500), then you are going to want a larger tank to move them to for growout.

 

As far as rotifers go, they are essential. I have yet to meet or talk to or read about a breeder that has been successful raising clowns without them. I WISH I could tell you different believe me! Rotifers are a little bit of a pain, but to my knowledge they are essential. Fine-powdered fish pellets are simply too large and are not mobile, so the fry don't go for it. The way it is, most breeders buy super super finely powdered food called otohime, but the fry don't seem to go for it any earlier than day 3. And even then, if you don't keep rotifers in their fry numbers start to drop.

 

Rotifers do require daily work, but they are not impossible. I have crashed my culture 3 times if that makes you feel better With the algae paste that is available for purchase, it really is a little easier.

 

Breeding is very VERY very expensive and time consuming. Just my bit of advice: If you are going to go through the effort for just one pair, I would recommend that you buy a "designer" pair. I know breeders who breed just "regular" clowns, and they end up with huge expenses and babies that they have a hard time selling. If you breed a designer pair (snowflakes, picassos, etc.) the demand may be higher and you may be able to make back some of the money you put into it!

[Acielot]

Just my bit of advice: If you are going to go through the effort for just one pair, I would recommend that you buy a "designer" pair. I know breeders who breed just "regular" clowns, and they end up with huge expenses and babies that they have a hard time selling. If you breed a designer pair (snowflakes, picassos, etc.) the demand may be higher and you may be able to make back some of the money you put into it!

Thanks for the advice I think I will settle for a yellow prawn goby and 2 sexy shrimp until I can afford a breeding pair of either the Black Perculas or Black Ocellaris because I love black and white fish :]

[iball1804]

BTW, nice avatar pic. You're gorgeous (no homo)

[sweet<3]

Aww shucks guys

 

 

Thanks for the advice I think I will settle for a yellow prawn goby and 2 sexy shrimp until I can afford a breeding pair of either the Black Perculas or Black Ocellaris because I love black and white fish :]

 

Well you could always invest in a nice pair if juveniles and raise them to breeding size

 

Be sure to keep us posted when you do start your breeding project

[smitty_1280]

I love the pics of your grow out system. The babies are looking good as well.

[FireCorals]

[*]Onyx x Platinum

 

That is one insanely beautiful Onyx. Mama is well fed!

 

Very nice pairs and setup!

[sweet<3]

Thank you so much! I know Im not supposed to favor one child over the others but she definitely has a special place in my heart haha i cant wait to get some babies from her!

 

You definitely need to start a thread when you get your breeding project started and keep us updated

[FireCorals]

Thank you so much! I know Im not supposed to favor one child over the others but she definitely has a special place in my heart haha i cant wait to get some babies from her!

 

You definitely need to start a thread when you get your breeding project started and keep us updated

 

For sure! It is not going to be anything as impressive as all of your setups, but I will do my best.

 

Just out of curiousity, do you sell your clowns? I know you may not sell your mated pairs, but I was curious as to the estimated price? I would really like to get a pair of mated Onyx clowns and Darwin's (both are my favorite), so was hoping to get a ball park finger before I start shopping around in a couple months. Is there a preferred breeder to buy from?

 

Would appreciate any and all advice.

 

Thanks,

Mike C.

[Acielot]

Just out of curiousity, do you sell your clowns?

I second that! I would love to get 2 juveniles from you because your clowns are most deff healthy but both Mike and I live in FL so i doubt you would be willing to pack up your babies all the way from cali XP

[sweet<3]

I do sell my babies all I have available right now are babies from my onyx pair though. I will be shipping but probably just the designer babies since it would probably be cheaper to buy a pair of onyx locally because of shipping costs.

 

In regards to mated pairs and/or breeding pairs prices can vary significantly. If you buy from a store or forums such as mofib you will be looking at prices in the hundreds. Ultimately it pays for itself if you can raise their babies but its hard on the wallet to start. What i try to do is pay attention to my local forums or post a thread asking if anyone is selling. A lot of times people have Healthy mature and often breeding pairs for very reasonable prices. It requires a little more patience but the outcome is worth it I think. I have never sold any of my pairs, but when i buy from local forums pairs of non-designer clowns cost between $50-$100 dollars depending on what variation of clowns they are. Darwins should be cheaper than onyx (which may cost you between $200-300) if you can find them locally.

 

Another trick that I like, if you dont want to drop money on a breeding pair, is to find a mature female (3+ inches and 2+ years in age) and pair her up with a smaller clown. Single mature fish are much easier to find and if you set the right conditions may start breeding sooner than you may think.

 

Hope this helps!

 

In other news....

 

Darwin x extreme snowflake laid today! Only about fifteen eggs left after the munch-fest but its progress! Very very excited

[altolamprologus]

I hope those guys make it! I would be extremely interested in buying a baby black ice from you.

 

Have you considered pairing an SA fancy ocellaris with a snowflake? The result is a "fancy snow" and they look amazing.

[sweet<3]

I hope those guys make it! I would be extremely interested in buying a baby black ice from you.

 

Have you considered pairing an SA fancy ocellaris with a snowflake? The result is a "fancy snow" and they look amazing.

 

No I haven't but that sounds amazing. I have been wanting to get a fancy white, that sounds like the perfect pairing! Thanks for the idea

[altolamprologus]

No I haven't but that sounds amazing. I have been wanting to get a fancy white, that sounds like the perfect pairing! Thanks for the idea

It's actually not a fancy white. It's just called a fancy ocellaris and they look a lot like mocha clowns. They're the ocellaris version of onyx. You should google pictures of fancy snows. They look like snowflakes with a super intense orange/red body and they get a lot of blue in their stripes. Here's an example of a fancy snow

[sweet<3]

Oh ok gotcha! I didn't realize SA had a "Fancy" ocellaris but I guess that makes sense! I learn something new everyday

 

The fancy snows have some really interesting snowflake patterns. I wonder if the fancy clown has anything to do with that, or if it is purely the genes of the snowflake that they are breeding. Does anyone have a pair of fancy snows? If so post pics! I'm curious to see how the black develops. It sort of resembles a juvenile black ice. I would love to see a more mature pair and see how similar to a black ice clown it is.

 

Thanks for bringing that to my attention alto! I'm really curious about this now

[altolamprologus]

Oh ok gotcha! I didn't realize SA had a "Fancy" ocellaris but I guess that makes sense! I learn something new everyday

 

The fancy snows have some really interesting snowflake patterns. I wonder if the fancy clown has anything to do with that, or if it is purely the genes of the snowflake that they are breeding. Does anyone have a pair of fancy snows? If so post pics! I'm curious to see how the black develops. It sort of resembles a juvenile black ice. I would love to see a more mature pair and see how similar to a black ice clown it is.

 

Thanks for bringing that to my attention alto! I'm really curious about this now

That one I linked is one of the better ones I've seen, but they do have very nice patterns for the most part. I think SA may be using premium snowflakes to get a good pattern like that. Fancy snows are a pretty new cross so I don't know if anyone would have a mature pair yet, but from I've seen, it looks like they do develop more black as they age. I really think these should be your next pair. I would also be interested to see what a fancy snow x black ice would look like.

[sweet<3]

That one I linked is one of the better ones I've seen, but they do have very nice patterns for the most part. I think SA may be using premium snowflakes to get a good pattern like that. Fancy snows are a pretty new cross so I don't know if anyone would have a mature pair yet, but from I've seen, it looks like they do develop more black as they age. I really think these should be your next pair. I would also be interested to see what a fancy snow x black ice would look like.

 

Yea I better start makin more room! Might need a new broodstock tank haha.

 

 

 

Here are some pics of the eggs today:::

 

 

 

 

 

[altolamprologus]

I can't get over how gorgeous that male is. Those babies should be very good looking

[sweet<3]

I LOVE him

 

I am soooo very excited to see what they produce.