How long did it take for your fish to breed post-acquisition?

[ichthyogeek]

So fish breeding takes a long time. But some species spawn almost instantaneously, while others can take years (if not decades) to start spawning. And to complicate that, it can also be affected by factors such as light, and more importantly, nutrition. So:

• What fish did you have that spawned (Common + Scientific name please! )? How large were the fish when they initially spawned?
• How long did it take for the fish to spawn for you after acquisition? At what size were they?
• What did you feed the fish prior to the first spawning event (within 2 weeks prior to spawning)?
• Were there any special "tricks" that you did to induce spawning?

 

[Dbichler]

My clownfish took five years before spawning now it’s every 14 or 15 days. I feed a mix of nls algae max pellets, my own mix of seafoods whatever is cheapest at local market. Nori and spirulina powder mixed in the blend as well. Feed heavy and often. Happy healthy fish will spawn any stress and they won’t.

 

[ThRoewer]

My current Amphiprion percula pairs took between 3 to 5 years to spawn for the first time. In the past, starting with mature adults, it was within a year.
My Amphiprion bicinctus 69 days after I got them, 26 days after finishing quarantine. They were about half their potential maximum size and I picked them as individuals at the store. Though judging from how fast they paired up I may have just reunited a pair that was separated at the wholesaler or store.
My Amphiprion milii spawned precisely a year after I got them. They were still relatively small back then and grew a lot in that year.

My Marine Betta (Calloplesiops altivelis) pair #2 which I each bought as juveniles/small adults took about 3.5 years to get large enough to spawn.
In the past I had C. altivelis spawn within 2 weeks after putting a male and female together. With my pair/harem #1 it took only 8 days to the first spawn after adding the larger female.

Generally I would think that fish that form strong pair bonds need longer than those where males and females primarily come together to spawn.

 

[TvanB1]

1. Nahacky’s Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus nahackyi)

Size at first spawn:
Male: 2.5”
Female: 2”

Feeding:
LRS Fertility Frenzy
LRS Fish Frenzy
Live Blackworms
Tigger Pods
Homemade soft pellet
Reef Nutrition ROE

First spawn:
1 year after introduction

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2. Starry Blenny (Salarius ramosus)

Size at first spawn:
Male: 4”
Female: 4”

Feeding:
LRS Fertility Frenzy
LRS Fish Frenzy
Live Blackworms
Tigger Pods
Homemade soft pellet
Reef Nutrition ROE

First spawn:
3 months after adding male

—————————————————————
3. Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)

Size at first spawn:
Male: 2”
Female: 3.5

Feeding:
LRS Fertility Frenzy
LRS Fish Frenzy
Live Blackworms
Tigger Pods
Homemade soft pellet
Reef Nutrition ROE

First spawn:
One week after introduction

—————————————————————
4. Randalli Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli)

Size at first spawn:
Female: 3”
Male: 2”

Feeding:
LRS Fertility Frenzy
LRS Fish Frenzy
Live Blackworms
Tigger Pods
Homemade soft pellet
Reef Nutrition ROE

First spawn:
1 year after introduction

—————————————————————
5. Blue Dot Sifter (Valencienna sexguttata)

Size at first spawn:
Female: 3.5”
Male: 2.5”

Feeding:
LRS Fertility Frenzy
LRS Fish Frenzy
Live Blackworms
Tigger Pods
Homemade soft pellet
Reef Nutrition ROE

First spawn:
1 Month after introduction

 

[Paul B]

I find that all fish that can spawn in a tank do so after a few weeks if they are old enough.
Any clownfish are the easiest and you can't stop a healthy clown from spawning.
In my tank randalls gobi's, 6 line wrasses, bananna wrasses, clown and citron gobies, blue stripe pipefish, watchman gobies, mandarins, ruby red dragonettes, seahorses, hawkfish and every other paired fish spawn.

If you have paired fish and threy don't spawn, they are not very healthy or the tank is not set up correctly and the fish are stressed.

Fish that won't spawn in a "regular home tank" are tangs, butterflies and all egg scatterers inless the tank is huge but I have never had them spawn.
There is no secret. Feed them real food like shellfish or live worms.
My watchmans are spawning now. Here they are with their eggs.

 

[Peng1606]

Have a pair of blue hippo tangs (Paracanthurus hepatus) that I got when they were about 2.5 inches (got 3 initially but one jumped into overflow) and now the remaining two are about 5.5-6 inches.

Every few weeks I see them do a mating dance and then release a cloud close to surface of water late in evening just before lights out. The rest of the fish go crazy and start feeding frenzy then... they are in a 650 gallon 10’ x 3’ x3’ tank with 8 other tangs (yellows, purple, scopas, Kole), rabbitfish, mono argentus, 10 wrasses, 6 royal grammas, 3 clownfish, and sand sifters.

I feed pellets (mixture of NLS algae max, NLS Thera A, NLS probiotic, NLS red, Saki Hikari herbivore, Hikari marine S/A, PE mysis pellets), Frozen (Hikari range mixture), Nori, homemade seafood mix (seafood, nori, spirulina, BSD golden pearls, vitamins, Selcon, garlic), and newly hatched baby brine shrimp.

 

[dennis romano]

My neon gobies bred after a couple of months when they reached full size. They stayed in a one inch PVC tube and bred every few weeks. The fry would emerge when the lights came on and headed for the surface. They became breakfast before they got too far. The parents ate just frozen brine shrimp and mysis.