How to Breed Fish

C-Reefer · May 9, 2018

Hey guys! I'm getting a new jbj 24 g biocube probably this week, and I'll be using it as mainly a coral growout/frag tank. However, I thought it would be really cool to, since I already have the fish I want in my main reef, get compatible fish, mabye more of a scaredy cat type stocking, so everyone gets brave and isn't hiding. Anyways, get compatible fish with the breeding pair or no fish except for the breeding pair.

Which fish are easy to breed? I know generally clowns and bangaii cardinals are the two most touted for being easy to breed. I can easily set up a bbs culture if I needed to, if its really as simple as this says. http://www.solidgoldfish.com/2013/11/easy-diy-brine-shrimp-hatchery.html and if these eggs or some like these would work. https://www.ebay.com/i/331356457920?chn=ps How many eggs would I use? I also have a bottle of Phyto plankton if need be.

I think it would be super cool to not only breed fish and watch them grow up, but also it would be nice to be able to sell them to my LFS for some extra money. Will I need an extra growout tank? I have a 10 I currently am using as QT, but it would be best for me to keep them in the biocube. Will the parents eat the babies if they stay in the main tank?

Palyzoa · May 9, 2018

Everything Ive read about breeding fish is you will definitely want to remove the eggs right before the hatch or they will get eaten or sucked into filtration. You would put them in another tank with a foam filter and heater and tint the water with phyto. I don't know a whole lot more but sounds like a fun project! There is allot of stuff on the interwebs about breeding fish, you just need to research and research. Maybe someone else here on the forums with more experience will chime in tho and give you some pointers.

C-Reefer · May 10, 2018

@revhtree can you change the title to "Easiest Fish to Breed and How To?" Thanks!

Palyzoa said:
Everything Ive read about breeding fish is you will definitely want to remove the eggs right before the hatch or they will get eaten or sucked into filtration. You would put them in another tank with a foam filter and heater and tint the water with phyto. I don't know a whole lot more but sounds like a fun project! There is allot of stuff on the interwebs about breeding fish, you just need to research and research. Maybe someone else here on the forums with more experience will chime in tho and give you some pointers.

Oh yeah. I have an airpump I can use, but I'll need a foam filter like you said. For some reason I thought I could leave them in DT, but thinknig on it they'd get sucked up by the overflow more then likely. I know! Always wanted to try and raise baby fish. Hopefully I can get a few people whose brians I can pick.

Palyzoa · May 10, 2018

Bump, Any fish breeding experts out there?

C-Reefer · May 10, 2018

SO I have a very fine mesh breeder basket. I think what I may do, is heavily feed/condition the cardinals until they spawn. Then when I see he has a mouthful, I'll wait about 10-15 days, as from what I've read they usually come out around day 20, and then move him into the mesh breeder basket. I don't think the babies will be able to make it out. As soon as I see the first baby, I'll start turning the pumps off, and feeding small amounts of bbs 3 or 4 times a day. As more babies come out I'll feed more. Once all the babies are out I will remove the Dad, turn him back into DT. I'll keep turning the pumps off for 15 minutes, and feeding bbs during that time. I'll gradually slow it to twice a day, and then once they're big enough they don't need bbs, I'll start feeding them older bbs, and only once or twice a day, until they're big enough that they need to move out. From what I've read, it sounds like that should work.

Anybody know how many mysis shrimp eggs I will need? https://www.ebay.com/i/331356457920?chn=ps Think this will be enough? This says to use 1 gram per liter or quart or approximately 1/2 level teaspoon of cysts per quart is recommended. A higher stocking density will result in a lower hatch percentage. So that thing of brine shrimp eggs should be plenty.

ArowanaLover1902 · May 10, 2018

Just a bit of economic advice, find a market before creating or acquiring a product, if something doesn't work out and you are left with the product then you'll have problems

C-Reefer · May 11, 2018

ArowanaLover1902 said:
Just a bit of economic advice, find a market before creating or acquiring a product, if something doesn't work out and you are left with the product then you'll have problems

Just called my LFS askin if they would be interested in Bangaii's, he was super enthusiastic about it, and said he would love working with me and would defnitely buy them off me. He said I'd have to grow them out, but I can grow them out in my 10 g QT.

Good news! This will definitely be happening. I picked up the tank from @Runner yesterday, and it came with all the stuff to hatch Brine shrimp! So I can't wait. The tank will be getting setup tonight, and will be started cycling. Shouldn't take long as it has the original sandbed and LR rubble. Then I can get started. If ya'll want to follow this/give advice I'll be following it on my buid thread. I think I should keep all this in one build thread, the new tank, and breeding. Or start new threads for each?

Captain Quint · May 11, 2018

Palyzoa said:
Bump, Any fish breeding experts out there?

I have bred Cardinals and Clowns successfully. It's a rewarding challenge.

Set up a small tank to culture rotifers of different strains, brine hatcheries, and tanks with airstones. One needs to move the clutch to a small breeding tank preferably right before hatching with an airstone only and same parameters as the tank they were in.

I like to give them away to fellow hobbyists.

C-Reefer · May 11, 2018

Captain Quint said:
I have bred Cardinals and Clowns successfully. It's a rewarding challenge.

Set up a small tank to culture rotifers of different strains, brine hatcheries, and tanks with airstones. One needs to move the clutch to a small breeding tank preferably right before hatching with an airstone only and same parameters as the tank they were in.

I like to give them away to fellow hobbyists.

How hard is breeding Cardinals? DO I need to culture rotifers because that adds a lot more work, from culturing phyto, then phyto into rotifers which need to be harvested daily, and the bbs hatchery. Can I raise Bangaii Cardinals like this:

Condition until the male gets a mouthful. Wait 10 days, then transfer him A) to a 10 gallon QT, I could set it up to only hold 5 gallons if that would be best, sponge filter or B) move him into a breeder box. Then on day 16 start hatching brine shrimp, feed extras to my reef, when I see the first baby start putting in small amounts of brine, and as I see more start feeding 3x a day of bbs. When the male has released all babies and starts eating again he goes back in DT. Babies keep getting fed bbs until they're bigger, and start eating mysis and bbs and other foods, then move or stay into the 10 gal to grow out.

Paul B · May 11, 2018

Bluestripe pipefish are easy and spawn constantly as do clown gobies and seahorses. Most cardinals are very easy. Clingfish, watchman gobies.

Clingfish

Watchman gobi with eggs

Clown gobi with eggs over her. These need SPS to lay eggs on and they kill the coral so you may not want to spawn these.

I only listed the easier fish you can keep in a smaller tank. As you mentioned, clowns are the easiest and will spawn on damp cardboard.

C-Reefer · May 11, 2018

Paul B said:
Bluestripe pipefish are easy and spawn constantly as do clown gobies and seahorses. Most cardinals are very easy. Clingfish, watchman gobies.

Clingfish

Watchman gobi with eggs

Clown gobi with eggs over her. These need SPS to lay eggs on and they kill the coral so you may not want to spawn these.

I only listed the easier fish you can keep in a smaller tank. As you mentioned, clowns are the easiest and will spawn on damp cardboard.

Wow I love your style of reefing, wish I could pull it off. Its so natural! Are clowns really easier then bangaiis? Where I am, Bangaiis are actually more expensive then clowns by $15. So I figured since bangaiis are supposed to be easier, I would do Bangaiis. The problem with clowns is don't you need rotifers, phyto, and bbs? I can't set all that up. I have the stuff for a brine shrimp hatchery, and figured if I could get the bangaiis to spawn, pull the dad and put him in a breeder box or 10 g tank until babies came out and then feed babies bbs until they got big enough to eat regular food then that would be about as easy at it gets.

Paul B · May 12, 2018

Bangai's are the only ones I could think of that won't need rotifers out of those fish. Any fish will spawn in a tank if you have a pair and feed them correctly. Even copperbands, angels and whale sharks, but you need a much bigger tank. Fish in good shape automatically produce eggs weather they want to or not.

C-Reefer · May 12, 2018

Paul B said:
Bangai's are the only ones I could think of that won't need rotifers out of those fish. Any fish will spawn in a tank if you have a pair and feed them correctly. Even copperbands, angels and whale sharks, but you need a much bigger tank. Fish in good shape automatically produce eggs weather they want to or not.

Perfect. Bangaii's it is! How do you feed them correctly? Will lots of frozen mysis, NLS thera A+ pellets, bloodworms, pods, baby brine shrimp sometimes work?

Paul B · May 12, 2018

No. I would feed them pieces of clam, as much as they will eat. They will also eat live worms but bloodworms are not really worms. You can feed them live blackworms or live whiteworms or even earthworms. But take all those pellets, baby brine shrimp, NLS thera A+Pellets (whatever that is) and brine shrimp. Put it in a nice box. Seal it with Scotch tape, and put it in the garbage.
If you want to spawn bangai's first of all they have to be adults and adults are about an inch and a half long. They won't see baby brine shrimp and frozen mysis is also too small and mostly indigestable shell.
Use mostly pieces of clam that you should buy fresh but I figure you can't get that in TN. And, No, frozen shrimp, squid, octopus and fish fillets are not as good food as clam. If you can't get clams, you can use LRS food. Get the stuff for larger fish and not the smaller food which will mostly be ignored by them. No pellets, no flakes and especially no freeze dried anything.
Healthy ones spawn constantly like all fish do.

C-Reefer · May 13, 2018

Paul B said:
No. I would feed them pieces of clam, as much as they will eat. They will also eat live worms but bloodworms are not really worms. You can feed them live blackworms or live whiteworms or even earthworms. But take all those pellets, baby brine shrimp, NLS thera A+Pellets (whatever that is) and brine shrimp. Put it in a nice box. Seal it with Scotch tape, and put it in the garbage.
If you want to spawn bangai's first of all they have to be adults and adults are about an inch and a half long. They won't see baby brine shrimp and frozen mysis is also too small and mostly indigestable shell.
Use mostly pieces of clam that you should buy fresh but I figure you can't get that in TN. And, No, frozen shrimp, squid, octopus and fish fillets are not as good food as clam. If you can't get clams, you can use LRS food. Get the stuff for larger fish and not the smaller food which will mostly be ignored by them. No pellets, no flakes and especially no freeze dried anything.
Healthy ones spawn constantly like all fish do.

Just the info I've been looking for. I cannot get fresh clam here for the life of me, east tennessee here. If I did it'd be crazy expensive. I'll feed earthworms, should i chop them up? Can you culture blackworms or white worms? For the LRS food, which is what I'll be getting, should I get this https://premiumaquatics.com/product...U-8DZjomhnFoor5YAD4GiZ3bW9tavlEEaAoLYEALw_wcB , this https://premiumaquatics.com/products/lrs-fertility-frenzy-frozen-8oz.html , this https://premiumaquatics.com/products/lrs-fish-frenzy-frozen-8oz-pack.html , or this https://premiumaquatics.com/products/reef-frenzy-8oz-pack.html ?

Paul B · May 14, 2018

C-Reefer, that chunky blend may be too large for smaller fish as the chunks are as big as 1/2". That breeding fish one has too small bites, I think the Fish Frenzy is better. I have to check.
If the fish can handle whole earthworms, feed them, or cut them up. Whiteworms are very easy to culture, I have a culture going for years and I have way more worms that I know what to do with. I feel blackworms are a little better and the fish seem to like them a little better, but you need a place to keep buying them.
LRS food will definitely make your fish spawn and I think it is the best "Commercially available food". But I would also try to get some fresh food into those fish with living bacteria in it like live worms.
White worms eating a cracker

C-Reefer · May 14, 2018

I think I'll plan on feeding some kind of LRS food, live earthworms, and white worms. I made a post in my local club page looking for someone with live white worms I can start a culture off of. Do white worms ship?

How do you start a white worm culture? From what I've read, get something like potting mix in a wood box, keep it good and moist, keep a cover on it, keep it cool, put white worms in, and feed pretty much anything, old cheerios, cracker, bread, but only enough that they'll eat every few days.

Paul B · May 14, 2018

I use Tupperware as you have to keep them pretty moist. They will live in salt water for a few days while blackworms only live a few seconds.
I feed them whole wheat bread that I put full fatted yogurt on and a little Nutritional yeast. Not bakers yeast. They will eat an entire slice in a week or two.

C-Reefer · May 14, 2018

Paul B said:
I use Tupperware as you have to keep them pretty moist. They will live in salt water for a few days while blackworms only live a few seconds.
I feed them whole wheat bread that I put full fatted yogurt on and a little Nutritional yeast. Not bakers yeast. They will eat an entire slice in a week or two.

So really easy. I'll definitely get them, as its easy cheap nutritional food. Good for corals too?

Will something like this work to start my culture? https://www.etsy.com/listing/558137638/white-worm-starter-culture-organic