Breeding Marines

[braddo]

Just wondering about breeding marines wondering if anyone has done it or doing it. Thinking about getting a pair of clowns to start and graduate through the species. Bred most freshwater types of fish, now want to try my hand at something different. Ideas please.

[batters]

definetly start with clownfish. its been done just copy what others have done and stick to it, i plan on giving it a go too. creating colonies is easy as only the dominant fish will become a male when mature and the next dominant will be the only breeding female. 1 large +1 small juvenille = big will be dominant and become male small only other fish so becomes dom female, can also buy pairs, should breed i guess. there is a list somewhere that shows which fish have only been breed under natural conditions (natural sea water & microorganisms) and those that havent been breed at all eg. yellow tangs so stay away from them.

do you need a chiller for clowns? if so it will be a long while b4 i give it a go-little expensive.

cheers
mick

[sealord1au]

just so you know big is the female and small is the male with clown fish

there are a few fish you can breed in salt water, by far the easiest is your clownfish.  however it doesnt stop there, you can breed blennies which are like your cave breeders of the cichlid world and even you marine betta (Calopsis altveis) dont quote me on the spelling:)
but like was said above all you need to get a pair in clown fish is get two small ones,  the more dominant one will become a female and once they are up to breeding size are quite easy to start.
feed them a lot of live food such as brine and mysis shrimp along with a good quality flake to condition them.  provide them with a nice flat rock i used a kitchen tile and placed it next to their anemone.  they layed their eggs on it and fanned them all the time.  after about 2 weeks you can see the fry within the eggs facing downwards in the egg, remove them to a hatching tank and DONT let the touch air!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you will kill them.  you will need to feed the babies rotifers and baby brine.
i havent been able to rear the fry to date and have kind of given up but i hope this helps and good luck.
Matt
ps you can buy breeding pairs of shrimp which are also good fun to breed.

[braddo]

Once i have everthing finished and up and runnin it will give me an oportunity to try some was going to start with clowns and move on form there. The shrimo sound interesting where would be the best place to get these.

[wanderer]

Dottyback species are also quite easy to breed....apparently...
I've also heard of Bangai cardinals being bred in tanks.

HTH

Wanderer

[Dead Fish Floating]

By far the easiest are the mollies
Mine have bred many a time while riding out a tank cycle.
Best part is, it is VERY rare for them to get a disease
and they make good dither/feeder fish for the later expensive ones.
Work well with clowns too.
http://www.bestfish.com/tips/032698.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/anemcompfaqs.htm
http://www.carlosreef.com/AnemoneFAQ.pdf
above are some sights to help with choosing anemone
and http://www.reefland.com/rho/0505/main4.php just as a backgrounder.
anemone are harder to keep than clowns.
lots good articles on breeding clowns