I just looked at my pair of percs in my 12 inch deep frag tank. They had been digging a hole in the gravel in the back left corner for a couple days and i was wondering what was up. well, i just noticed they knocked down a big oyster shell i have a frilly green mushroom growing on, and they were bouncing all around it. a closer look with my glasses on and Hey, those look like eggs stuck on the shell. sure enough. a little bunch of eggs.
Now my problem, i used to raise bangai cardinals, but they are mouth brooders and pretty easy. Not sure what to do with these when and if they hatch. Does anyone have any info on hand about raising percs? My problem is they share the tank with a little yellow clown goby, should not be a problem, but also with a big blue hippo tang, yes, Dori. The percs have their corner pretty well defended and keep Dori in the far corner. the other thing is, their eggs on the shell are just 6 inches below the 650 gph overflow . when they hatch they are sure to go over the falls.
I wonder if i should move the percs and egg shell to a separate tank. I havent another set up though. but perhaps i could set a plastic tub next to it and run a small syphon tube to it from the frag tank and put a bulkhead thru the tub to overflow back to the sump. i figure with a 1/4 syphon feeding clean tank water, i can keep a light sponge on the overflow to keep the fishies out. or better still, a small pump in the sump to feed the tub, that way no mess up if the power goes out.
any other ideas? what to feed them? how long till they hatch?
thanks Rob. will do. i think i have the perfect tank for them. its like a gray thicker plastic almost file box type tub. sturdy. i was going to use it once as a sump for a small tank. holds about 7 or 8 gallon. 16"L x 10W x 12 H. i can fix it up tonight.
OH, Oh Too late. Looks like they hatched last night and went over the falls. the rock shell is all clean. I guess they were all ready to go by the time i spotted the eggs on the backside of the shell. the percs had moved it over and leaned it away from me. but that article says they might try again in a couple weeks, so i will get some feed supplies, i had none ready and a tank for the next bunch. if the mate again, i might have a chance with the next bunch, now that i know what to look for. I spose they will use the same rock, now thatthey have properly manicured it.
Ken, if they spawned sucessfully then they should do it like clockwork every 14 or so days from what I’ve read. If your interested, I have two really good books on breeding fish that you can borrow. The first is Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson and the second is The Breeders Guide to Marine Fishes by Matthew Wittenrich. They go all through anything you need to know about breeding and setting up a breeding system. If you want to borrow it I can either bring it to the meeting next monday or we can arrange pickup if you want them before that. Congrads on them breeding… we have been trying to get a breeding pair forever now because we want to give it a try to.
Ken any progess on getting that food lined up for the next batch? I know you, like me, tend to put things off till the last minute. Might not be able to get the food you need at an LFS it might have to be ordered. Were you clowns True of False Percs? I forget.
I’ve got the book from Witternrigh as well, a very good read. If you post which type of clowns you have Icy and I can post the books recommendations on supplies and food for breeding. Then you can pick up what you need ahead of time and then you can borrow the books later(Dr. Mac trip, meeting, that store the two of you were both planning on maybe visiting sometime soon?) to find out the details as far as which foods to feed at what points and so on.
Hey Ken, I talked with Keleigh and she had an idea. We are planning on buying a starter culture of both phyto plankton and rotifers in the next week or so because we wanted to try our hand in the future at clownfish breeding. Our idea was that we could share the cultures with you, and that way you woudlnt have to buy them yourself. Her idea was that after you collect a batch to try and raise then perhaps you would let us collect another batch while you are raising those. We’ll give you the algae and rotifer starter cultures anyways, but we figured since you probably wont be able to raise every batch if they lay every 2 weeks then perhaps we could give it a go too. Just a thought.
Thanks Icy. I have checked in with Chris and Barb, our Saddle Back Clown breeding guru’s and got some good advise and references. lost the first batch that night , over the falls. 3 days later , tuesday night after lights out, they laid another batch. i figure they should hatch tues, wed or thur. night sometime. got some culture stuff and dry foods from BSD out in Utah, and everything i can find around here. still setting up a culture system tonight. since it might take 2-3 weeks to get strong cultures of phyto and then Rotis going, this next batch will be experimental with trying to feed them freeze dried Roti’s and or Golden Pearls. Oh, and i think Chris and Barb usually have some extra phyto and roti’s for sale, if anyone is interested. They are my back up plan for my starter culture, if my plan “A” fails. Nice to know i can get some local in a pinch.
this time i will move the egg rock to a 5 gallon tank to collect them. then return the rock to the parrents for a refill. hopefully they keep doing it again and again until I get it right. Protective little buggers. I was working in the tank today, and Big Momma kept biting me in the soft web between two of my fingers. She got chunks!! I got 5 red bite marks to prove it.
You could try giving them a small terra cotta pot and put it near their egg rock to see if they will lay in it. Then it would be much easier to switch out.
Wish I had the time to get through a book that fast. I hardly go through half the amount of reading I planned on doing this summer.
Looks like it will pretty much be a team effort to get Ken’s clowns raised up and onto the market. If we can get a decent amount of them to club members that want them and off to some LFS perhaps we can slow down the amount that are ordered in from the wild… Ok that’s being a little ambitious, but it’s a starting point which we will all learn from.
We’ll have to document everything really well with photos as well so we can share our methods. I’ll make sure to take pics for Ken as he has yet to have a digital camera… or a high speed internet connection for that matter. Hey Ken when are you going to drop that old 56k?
I have already scanned the impotent stuff in your book, ICY . and Conversed with Chris and Barb about feeding the little guys. seems i have been moving a bit off the mark and will need to order some frozen nano algea paste to feed the rotifers. my attempt to grow a nano culture from DT’s LIVE phyto don’t seem to be going anywhere. maybe it’s not really live…live phyto. so i better order some nice nano algea paste concentrate, like a pint, and be done with it. to feed the roti’s. to feed the third batch of baby percs. the current, second batch of eggs are due to hatch tonight, 8 days, . so i will move the rock to the larval 5 gallon tank. and see if they will take freeze dried roti’s or golden pearls, at this early stage in the morning.