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info on Breeding (non-ceph)

CaptFish

Colossal Squid
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I am interested in trying to breed clown fishes, and maybe seahorses, I have an abundant supply of seahorses as they are one of my primary by catches. I don't have one right now but i see them every day. And my LFS has a few paired clowns both Maroon and Percula. Can someone point me in the direction of a book or website that deals with breeding either one.

I also would love some info on constructing an in tank breeder.

:read:
 
Seahorses:
Look for anything (especially forums) written by Peter Giwojna. He has an OLD book you might find and unfortunately, his newest tomb never got printed after the publisher was purchased by another and they wanted to water down the book. I have a ton of his docs I can send you via regular email if you go this route. Pete is still active with seahorses so any forum you find him participating is a good bet and he is very timely with Q&A

Clownfish:
Look for anything relating to clownfish by Martin Moe. He was one (if not the) first to figure out how to raise them. Marin lives in the Keys now and is not working with the clowns (last I knew anyway). He has been working with urchins for several years and came up with a very viable method of spawning and raising them past the palegic stage (document not yet published as far as I know). He also fairly recently (in the last couple of years) spent time raising jawfish (wish I had gotten a pair when Ken had them but I had no appropriate tank at the time). He is a good overall reference for raising fish and one of the first to write books on LR marine aquariums.
 
Great, Thanks! My finger will be searching for both them.

I googled the clowns and found (Breed Clown Fish) I did some reading, they sound really easy. The only complication is feeding the fry. Like cuttles they require tiny live foods. The site said they were only successful feeding the fry rotifers.
 
... Not exactly and although Pete might think of himself as a seahore, I think you mean seahorse.com which is OceanRider's (they breed and sell seahorses) website. I am not sure if that forum is still active. At one point they moved it to Yahoo but may have taken back locally since Yahoo said the last post was 9 years ago (my how time flys!). Never mind, I looked at the Oceanrider forum and it is current and Pete is still active with this group (he may be a moderator).
 
It is old and he will say we have learned a lot since then but it is still the best book I found. I have not kept up with the state of the new book for several years but I don't believe it was ever published.
 
Hey, PM me . I'll send you my regular e-mail.
The seahorse forum is a good source of info. Read all the backposts. But as all forums..there are a lot of really arrogant people on there...and some of them dont have any success raising seahorses. If you read their posts...you get the idea they have hundreds. They dont
They are really just posting info they've read in the past from other people. I dont even post there anymore. They sort of have the attitude you have to do stuff THEIR way. I dont do that. Im on a budget. I have to invent stuff. ( I have sumps made out of big rubbermaid containers) They work fine !
My sehaorses are going on over 3 years now. I have over 55.... All captive bred. There are some really big advantages to only keeping captive bred.
seahorses will re-produce pretty easy in captivity..Ive found that most people dont have a lot of experience with live food, so they fail.
I bred freshwater fish for years...so Im used to all kinds of weird extra containers for live food. When I raised literally thousands of bettas at once...you had to provide green water as a first food.
Also I have an unfinished basement...so I dont have to worry how a tank looks....Im able to invent a lot of stuff that works and isnt the prettiest.\
Im also out of work for a year now ( old guy) so I have to be inventive.
And of the two spevcies I keep...one has such small fry..they need rotifers as a first food....so Im in the same boat as you...since Im raising rotifers anyway...I just purchased a pair of black and white mated clown fish.
( Can you tell I can rant about seahorses?)

They are by far the most interesting specie I have ever kept.
No contest. I can sit for hours in front of one of my big tanks and just watch them go about their day. I have watched them pass eggs and also give live birth.
Its frking amazing stuff! and you have a really good chance of being successful.
I have all my seahorses trained to eat frozen food out of dishes. They fly from all corners of the tank when they see the turkey baster coming full of food

If you are in florida...you are close to the best two seahorse people in the country. Dan and Abbie from seahorse source are two of the nicest people you will EVER meet. Ive had to call them sometimes really late on a sunday night for help in the early days.

They raise only captive born that eat frozen food. Bacteria free and healthy. Their two main species ( Erectus and Reidi) will not dissappoint you.
The reidi are the ones with the super small fry. I dont findthem hard...they just need rotifers as a first food. I culture them in one gallon glass wine jugs.

Right now dan and abbie have erectus, and reidi available.

Also ( last thing I promise )
I feed a lot of live brine shrimp to my adults ( Against the forum advice )
But brine shrim has almost no nutritional value. I enrich the brine shrimp for fry and adults. When I feed live baby brine shrimp or adults...they are gut-loaded with all kinds of different stuff.

Im getting my first shipment of fiddler crabs this week for my first octopus...and I will feed the crabs nothing but enriched food to get into the gut of the octo.

OK thats it...
e-mail if you feel like it

mike

PS. I should mention...one of the main reasons I feel Im seahorse - successful...I only keep specific species in any tank. No reefs, coral or other fish....
No special lighting either.
Ever see a seahorse in a store that just sits there and barely moves?
Mine are all over the place all day long. They fly around the tank at high speed sometimes.
 
Cool thanks!

For clown fish I have a mated pair and a culture of rotifers going, and an in tank refugium all set up. I'm just waiting for that special moment, I have my Barry White CD on repeat but it doesn't seem to be helping. The seahorses I am not as far along with. But I plan on having them all set up by the end of the week.
 
Hey can I ask you something?
I see to be rotifer - impaired.
I just got some new rotifers on e-bay and they were packed when I got them.
Now they seem like Im losing my cultures again.
Im raising in gallon jars.

I know some people dump half their cultures every day

Some of the people on seahorse.org culture their own phyto...but Im not sure how to go about that
 
I bought mine live from my LFS. I have been harvesting 1/3 at a time for the last three days. I have been following the instructions here: ( http://www.breedclownfish.com/raising-rotifers/ ) the only difference is when I scoop out my 1/3 I take the water with them and replace it with new water already mixed with food, so basically I am doing a small water change every day. I'm only a week into the culture but it seem to be rolling along nicely.
 
There's a book called CLOWNFISHES by Joyce D. Wilkerson, I purchased this after "killing" many batches of clown fry. I read it and read it and finally I was able to breed the Darwin (Aus) variety with good sucess. It also covers growing your own green water and rotifers and how to keep them going. I still think it was worth the purchase price.
 

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