Captive Breeding: Who's Into It?

[fishtal]

Hello everyone!

Just checking to see how many ORCA members are interested in captive breeding.

How many members are currently breeding?

If you are breeding, what species are you working with?

What would you like to know about captive breeding?

Thanks,
Tal

[Iggy]

I'm currently working with Amphiprion Ocellaris, Amphiprion Ocellaris (Darwin Black), and Elacatinus oceanops. I've only had success with the regular false percs at this point. I'm struggling with crashing/recovering rofiter cultures and dealing with disease and death in a breeding system. Any information about medications and their effect on fish reproduction would be awesome as would information on re-pairing after a loss.

I would love to have more information on obtaining new pairs to work with without mortgaging the house to pay for it. I am interested in breeding some of the common nano fish like Shrimp gobies, Basslets, Dartfish, Dragonets, and Filefish. Most of these species require smaller first foods so I'm interested in obtaining "S" and "SS" type rotifers in the US and culturing 'pods like A. Tonsa as a first food. Also most of the species I'm most interested in haven't been successfully bred in captivity at a hobby level so I'd love to know how better breeders approach this type of problem.

[fishtal]

Cool Iggy! It's nice to see people interested in breeding less common species.

[Coach]

I am interested in breeding any fish at the school; however, I am unsure of all of the requirements. Therefore, I am unsure that we can pull it off. Iggy is trying to encourage me for the educational benefits. I agree on the education, just unsure of ... well ... everything.

[fishtal]

Sounds good Coach! I'll second Iggy's encouragement. May I suggest this site as a starting point for finding out what you need to know: http://www.mbisite.org/Default.aspx There is also a poll that I started that you may be interested in looking at: http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=50529

You mention school, what level of school are you referring to? Just curious.

[Midnight]

Hey fishtal I am working on breeding my mandarins and also have some clowns who spawn about every other week or so.

[fishtal]

Very cool! It does take some research but it's worth it.

[rcypert]

I would be interested in purchasing or trading for some of those clownfish eggs if you think you can get them out of the tank. email me aeris367 at yahoo dot com.

[akabryanhall1]

Hey Fishtal, unfortunately I will be out of town for this meeting. I am going to miss out as I am planning to start a clownfish breeding program. Are you local by any chance?

[fishtal]

Hey Fishtal, unfortunately I will be out of town for this meeting. I am going to miss out as I am planning to start a clownfish breeding program. Are you local by any chance?

Bummer. I'll leave some info that should help you get started. No, I'm in sunny and warm Michigan.

[TorryRx]

I've (accidentally) bred Bangaii Cardinals in the past. I had a pair that mated several times and when the dad released the babies from his mouth, I couldn't let the poor little guys fend for themselves! So, I raised the fry (at least the ones I could catch in time) on newly hatched baby brine shrimp and gave them to a close friend who owns an LFS when they were big enough and eating pellets.

It was a really cool experience...I'd love to do that again someday.

[fishtal]

That's cool! Congrats on your success! I have to say that captive breeding is probably the most rewarding thing that I've done in my life. Yeah, I'm a fish geek, I know! LOL

[Mordaulf]

I'm currently in the middle to late stages of breeding my maroon clown fish. I used rotifers and BBS to get them to about half an inch long, not sure how to get them to start eating pellet or ground flake though.