Lionfish breeding

[Happylionfish]

Hello.never been on this site before but mabe someone can help.ive had a salt water tank set up for 6 months now.it hold 140 ltrs.it a community tank of chromis.bennys.shrimp small grabs and a pair of dwarf fuzzy lionfish.lionfish put into tank 3 weeks apart and living happy.that happily in fact they are breeding and i now have a small container in tank holding several hundred new born fry.my question is .how do i keep them alive and how quickley do they grow.

 

[WVNed]

@Peace River
Perhaps move this to the breeding forum.

 

[Happylionfish]

Still try to figure site out.doing my head in lol

 

[WVNed]

I keep lionfish but have no idea what baby ones would eat. Probably amphipods and copepods at first but that is just a guess.

 

[Happylionfish]

 

[Happylionfish]

All the opaque dots are the babies

 

[WVNed]

I have raised freshwater fish but never salt fish. Finding and keeping something to feed them is problem one.

Do you have a Local fish store? Perhaps the know someone near you that raises fish.

 

[Peace River]

@Happylionfish - if you are okay with this idea, I can move this thread to the breeding forum and then we welcome you to post an introduction here in the Meet and Greet forum so our members can say "Hi" and "Welcome" (it is a thing we like to do! ).

 

[Happylionfish]

Ok

 

[Happylionfish]

Im in perth w australia.been to 3 saltwater fish shops.spoken to 6 people.phone a marine scientist and none of them have heard of anyone with lionfish that are breeding

 

[SaltBabies]

Well it is hard to see size or scale in the picture. You could try freshly hatch baby brine shrimp. they are good for seahorses and cardinals. But for many marine fish you have to start smaller and with better nutrition. So Rotifers are smaller and with the right feed can be nutritious. Of course copepods are the gold standard. I would think lion fish wouldn't need the smallest copepods. So you could probably do tisbe's. If you have anything else breeding like gobies or clowns their larva may be small enough too.

Any idea on the size? bbs if you get the small version is about 220 but the normal version is 300 to 400 microns.

Don't worry if they are happy they will throw more babies. You probably won't get this batch to survive unless you have a bunch of copepods in your tank. But you will get more chances.

** Don't know anything about lion fish babies. Just bred other stuff.

*****in the US lionfish are a no-no species as they have invaded the whole southeast coast.

Good Luck!!

 

[ThRoewer]

Most likely you will need copepod nauplii as a first feed.
In Perth you may be able to collect enough from the ocean or brackish lakes if you have a plankton net and/or a strainer set with ideally the following strainers: 25 µm, 40 µm or 50 µm, 75 µm or 100 µm, 250 µm, and 1 mm.
The first feeds likely have to be in the 40 to 50 µm range. As the larvae grow the feed size can go up until they can feed Artemia nauplii. But, in order to avoid sudden freight, I would not stop adding copepods to the mix until they went through metamorphosis.

 

[NashobaTek]

Very cool and welcome to R2R!

 

[ThRoewer]

*****in the US lionfish are a no-no species as they have invaded the whole southeast coast.

Only on the gulf and especially in Florida. In the rest of the country and on the west coast they are fine. Though there isn't really much of a market for them as most people prefer smaller fish these days.

 

[SaltBabies]

Only on the gulf and especially in Florida. In the rest of the country and on the west coast they are fine. Though there isn't really much of a market for them as most people prefer smaller fish these days.

Yeah I live in Florida and they are a hated species here. They are very invasive

 

[ThRoewer]

Yeah I live in Florida and they are a hated species here. They are very invasive

...and likely there to stay. Once established, such a species is near impossible to eradicate.

 

[dedragon]

Whenever i dive in the caribbean it is a pita having to flag and kill these guys, its really a shame the harm they cause to other ecosystems.
For the breeding though i would check for rotifers, then maybe apocyclops copepods mixed with tisbe as apocyclops is a bit smaller. Depends on the size of the fry and how fast they grow each day as to what you want to feed them.

 

[Happylionfish]

Here update .i lost all the lionfish fry a day ago and i mean lost.one day they where in hold tank the next day it was empty.they were either small enough to wriggle through the fine mesh i used and ended up being eat or going into filter, or as they died off,dissolved in the water but as i could even see any remains in way of waste,i think they were eaten.but on a happier note last nightmy female laided another two sack of eggs.i have know put them into a separate container with an air stone to keep water moving.updates to come

 

[Happylionfish]

So in the last 3 weeks.i had had three more bstches of eggs.one lot were not fertised.the male not doing his thing lol.the other two lots eaten by other fish in tank before i could save them all.have about 100 in isolation tank.just have 30 hour wait now to see if any of them good

 

[ThRoewer]

So in the last 3 weeks.i had had three more bstches of eggs.one lot were not fertised.the male not doing his thing lol.the other two lots eaten by other fish in tank before i could save them all.have about 100 in isolation tank.just have 30 hour wait now to see if any of them good

How do their nests look like and what kind of care do the parents provide?