Breeding Fish: Have you, would you, should you?

[dieselkeeper]

I always have a clutch of eggs under my carpet anemone. I've never tried to raise them.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I have bred fresh water fish accidentally mollies and guppies....and in my pond mosquitoes fish and some goldfish.
Breeding salt water fish is interesting, however I am not up for the challenge. I do hope many aquarists will though.

 

[Greybeard]

Used to breed seahorses (Kuda & Erectus). That was back in the 90's. I long ago decided that these beautiful creatures are better off left in the sea. EGBD took out my herd twice. Too painful, I had to exit this end of the hobby.

I suppose I've successfully bred clownfish, many times, including a mixed pairing in my current tank, a male cinnamon clown and a female tomato clown. They've been together for many years, lay eggs regularly... but I make no attempt to raise the fry.

Same with cardinals... I've got a pair of Orbic cardinals that breed regularly. Used to have PJ cards, years ago... again, I make no attempt to raise the fry, and have never had one survive.

I suppose I'm breeding rainbow anemones now, or more accurately, cloning them . I've gone from one to well over a dozen, and have given several away. That mismatched pair of clowns are happily living in the nem covered bommie.

 

[o2manyfish]

I've had lots of fish spawn - Goldflake Angels, Golden Angels, Joculator Angels, Flameback Angels, Venustus Angels, Mandarin Gobies, Frimandi Pseudochromis and Orange Tail Damsels.

I've never bothered to do anything with the spawn because usually as soon as the fish spawn the rest of the fish in the tank gobble up everything that enters the water column.

The Damsels, and lots of clown fish have laid eggs, but I have never seen more than that.

Successfully we have had up to Gen 4 of Bangai Cardinals, Had Blue Spine Cardinals holding eggs, had dragon faced pipes spit out babies.

My wife loves clown fish. The deal is when we go to a trade show or frag swap she can pick up any clowns she likes. She now thinks she might be able to semi-retire by trying her hand at raising designer clowns. So i just purchased this rack system for her home office. It gets installed after New Years. And then we will see how soon she can retire (not holding my breath).

Dave B

 

[vlangel]

I have successfully bred and raised fish to adults. My first attempt was tomato clownfish. My pair were spawning for years twice a month. Finally I bought Joyce Wilkerson's book on clownfish and followed her instruction on trying to raise the larvae. Out of about 200 larvae scooped from the main tank, I raised 7 to the juvenile stage. Adult tomato clownfish we're dirt cheap back then, so I kept 2 and gave the others away.

My next attempt was with H erectus seahorse fry. In some ways seahorses we're easier than clownfish larvae because they did not need to start on rotifer. (I really struggled keeping a rotifer culture alive). However, raising erectus fry requires rigorous endurance. Clownfish morph and are on crushed flake food in weeks. Seahorse fry need live baby brine shrimp ( that must be cleaned daily) for months until they have been weaned onto shaved frozen mysis. They are not ready to go to new owners until 4-6 months and all the while needing pristine water to prevent infections. I raised 16 out of 24 fry.

So yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences, ONCE! It was a lot of work and one time was enough for me.

 

[comically]

I used to breed freshwater angels before I switched to Saltwater. My brother has bred Clownfish but we've lost our phyto and pod cultures awhile back so we haven't been really actively breeding them.

I'm looking at breeding cherub angels soon :>

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I've bred and raised fry from a few different saltwater species in the past:
Amphiprion ocellaris
Amphiprion percula
Amphiprion frenatus
Pterapogon kauderni
Sphaeramia nematoptera
Elacatinus oceanops
Elacatinus evelynae
Gramma melacara
Doryrhamphus excisus

Spawned a lot of others as well, including:
Centropyge loricula
Centropyge bispinosa
Pseudochromis aldabraensis
Pseudochromis splendens
Doryrhamphus dactyliophorus
Valenciennea puellaris
Cryptocentrus cinctus
Lysmata wurdemanni
Lysmata amboinensis
Lysmata debelius

Of course I also have bred a ton of different freshwater fish, from cichlids to livebearers, to freshwater stingrays from the genus Potamotrygon.

Currently, I'm working on getting my broodstock all well-conditioned, and getting my animals regularly spawning, as well as building up my rotifer, copepod, and phyto cultures. I hatch a ton of live brine daily as well, and have a few 5 gallon buckets for baby brine where I can feed it with phyto and have plenty available.

Species I currently have spawning:
Amphiprion clarkii
Amphiprion ocellaris
Amphiprion sandaracinos
Amphiprion polymnus
Elacatinus figaro
Chromis viridis
Pterapogon kauderni
Sphaeramia nematoptera
Fowleria flammea
Zoramia leptacantha
Lysmata wurdemanni
Clibanarius tricolor
Clibanarius digueti

Other projects I want to attempt currently with animals I already have in various tanks (just not spawning yet or missing one gender) include:

Hippocampus erectus
Cryptocentrus cinctus
Chrysiptera hemicyanea
Chrysiptera cyanea
Gramma loreto
Chromis viridis
Acanthochromis polyacanthus

I plan on adding a few other varieties as well, probably another goby or 3, Doryrhamphus excisus, and some different shrimp (Rhynchocinetes uritai, Thor amboinensis, and Stenopus cyanoscelis). Just have to get the broodstock, and grow and maintain the cultures to feed all these babies.

Here's a picture of the nest my clarkii clowns laid tonight. They lay a nest this size every 12 days, and fertility is over 95%.

 

[vlangel]

I’ve bred clownfish and seahorses. Still breed seahorses

Me too.

 

[Eienna]

I do believe saltwater fish should be bred. The more we van get aquaculturing, the less we depend on the wild reefs - and the better our ability to repopulate said reefs if need be. I can't, simply because my body won't stand up to the work involved. I have bred mollies and goldfish in the past, though.

 

[Fishnut]

Bred a pair of basic clowns. It was a fun challenge, but definitely not worth it financially. A one and done project

 

[Piscans]

ive raised saltwater mollies, spawned cardinals, butterfly gobies, and in freshwater i have raised corydoryas and rainbowfish

 

[radar_17]

I’ve spawned, raised, and sold quite a few, but all freshwater. Angelfish, bristlenose plecostomus, various corydoras, various danios (including Celestial Pearl Danios), varios barbs, a few tetras, lots of live-bearers, and several types of cichlids. My Percula pair spawns regularly, but I have never tried to raise them. I’ve also had chromis and mandarin gobies spawn several times.

 

[mwilk19]

Back in the early 90's I had a pair of clownfish that spawned regularly so I decided to try and raise them. I envisioned myself getting rich selling the offspring to local fish shops. I set up grow out tanks in my basement and every two weeks I would wait for the eggs to hatch. I would use a flashlight to get the fry to come to the surface and I would syphon them into a bucket. I was also growing phytoplankton and rotifers to feed them. Later it was brine shrimp. I even got hooked up with a company that sent me powdered food to try. Martin Moe's book "Marine Aquarium Handbook, from Beginner to Breeder" was my main source of information. The internet was still in its infancy so information was scarce. I actually got pretty good at it but it was pretty labor intensive and there was no fortune to be had. Still it was fun to be able to say that I did it.

 

[kmzhq]

I have bred saltwater fish and freshwater fish​

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