So you want to be a breeder too!

Or maybe you just want to raise a batch of clowns for the sheer joy of saying you did it...

Over the last couple of weeks and months many great reefers and aspiring breeders have approached me online and in person and have asked me what is takes to do this. Figured it was time to put together some of my thoughts on how to get started, what it will take, what it could cost, etc.... I cannot begin to tell you how many countless folks have shot me a message exclaiming.


"Oh my gosh, my clownfish have eggs! What do I do?"
or
"I got eggs!, and I just went to Amazon and bought every book with Clownfish in the title, I have twenty two 55 gallon tanks on standby and half a zillion rotifers, is this gonna cut it?" Sheesh.


My first answer is usually the same, "Congratulations!" Now let's get down to business and get you prepared for that first (most likely second) hatch, I'll explain that statement later. I plan on tailoring this basic system setup for the clownfish folks. I mean let's be honest here, unless you have a dead set plan on raising ornamentals, you most likely got yourself here completely by accident. I mean who would figure that those two cute Nemo's you picked up for your daughter would grow up and make babies. Sure you've all been online and probably read countless breeding threads and now have many more questions than answers, or you find it difficult to get anyone to answer your questions, or you simply feel overwhelmed by the terms and abbreviations (nhbbs, rots, greenwater, larvae, prolarvae). Ah relax and sit back, we'll dive into some of these terms and make this a whole lot less painful, possibly even enjoyable.

All right get your pencils out it's time to make a short list of the things you can easily acquire locally. Keep in mind, local to us Kentucky folks is a lot different than local to those big city Los Angeles-type folks (I used to be one). You guys can pretty much get anything within an hours drive, us country bumpkins will need to order some of the supplies online, but with that said here is the stuff you can score at your local LFS, whom I try and regularly support whenever possible, but I digress....

~ My recommendations for a single breeding pair of clowns ~

1. Two 5 gallon glass aquariums (roughly $15 bucks each) = $30.00 <-- Why two??? I'll explain the cost effectiveness of this later.
2. An air pump. Nothing gigantic I wouldn't recommend spending more than $20.00.
3. Gang valve (with at least 2 outlets to feed the 2 tanks) = $5.00.
4. About 10 feet of 1/4 airline tubing (50 feet is around $7.99) so +/- $2.00.

Each aquarium will need the following:

2. Small heaters. I use the Hydor THEO 50 watt heaters ($22.99 x 2) = about $45.00.
3. Thermometers. I use the Hagen Marina floating variety ($1.99 x 2) = $4.00.
4. Ammonia Badges. Not necessary if you want to test the water every other day but these just make it nice. I use the Seachem Ammonia Alert devices ($6.49 x 2) = $15.00.
5. Airline suction cups. These are a must to secure the airlines to the bottom of the tanks and a pack of 10 cost around $5.00.
6. Sponge filters. I use the "HydroSponge I" filters ($5.49 x 2) = $11.00.

....And of course you will need a good source of saltwater, I prefer to use RO/DI and ReefCrystals.

"Wow Kurt, that's a lot of stuff just to raise a batch of clownfish. This is already going to set me back about 150 bucks, and we haven't talked about feeding them yet!" "Why are you suggesting that I get doubles of everything, what gives?"

Keep your shorts on, we'll get to that in a bit!

Food and Specialty item items you will need (For me this involved a bit of eCommerce to secure since I could not source them locally).

1. Live Rotifers.
2. Food for the rotifers.
3. An old bucket to grow the rotifers.
4. Optional air line to aerate the rotifers (I've done it with and with air bubbles, I prefer to aerate).
5. Rotifer sieve (Optional becuase I have done it with coffee filters, but it is a PITA). These can be made from PVC and old media bags or you can do what I did, buy one from Florida Aqua Farms. You'll be glad you did, even more glad after trying out coffee filters!

Rotifers are my preferred choice as a first food for fish fry (larvae). I went out on the web and found a source called Reed Mariculture. Good service and support, 'nuff said. They sell rotifer starter kits which will get you up and running, I think they run $30.00 plus shipping. I'm not going to dig into the details of culturing them in this article. Simply put, ya need 'em.

5. Brine shrimp eggs (BS - Brine Shrimp, BBS - Baby Brine Shrimp, NHBBS - Newly Hatched Baby Brine Shrimp) some abbrev's for you all, in the end we're talking about brine shrimp.
6. Brine shrimp hatchery, many types exists.

Brine shrimp make an excellent second food source for fish fry. When hatched they are simply bite sized bits of happiness for babies. I will however consider this "Optional". Why you ask, because I was able to skip them altogether when I raised Tomato clown babies. I will say that I highly recommend them for the sake of proper fish development. With that said, I was able to source them from a place called Brine Shrimp Direct. Got some eggs and a hatchery for about $75.00. I bought a large supply of eggs which may not be necessary for a couple batches of clown fishes. You can also DIY your own hatchery for much less but this route for me was just too easy to pass on!

7. First dry food (I chose the Otohime starter kit offered by Reeds for $44.00) I have been using the same starter kit for over a year now! Well worth it in my book. Comes in about 6 or 7 different size grades that you gradually step up as the fry grow up.

"Well Kurt, that's another $150.00 bucks, this whole breeding thing is getting expensive...." Yes it is!

Lastly, you're going to need a place for the baby fish to grow up once they are weaned onto dry foods. Use your discretion here as I do not plan on going into much detail about growout systems. I've used everything from cheap tanks people leave out for the garbage man (I'm a dumpster diver 'til the end! ), to those cheapy All-In-One tanks, and even Rubbermaid tubs. Take your pick.

Before I total up the initial cost of getting into the game I think now would be a good time to clarify why I chose to double up on the larval tanks (5 gallon ones from above). He is my reasoning: Clownfish, depending on the species, usually lay a batch of eggs about every 2 weeks, give or take a day or two. This means you'll be getting new fry at the same interval. I have found that during the learning process mistakes get made, it's a fact of life. That first batch you raise will be a real eye opener and there is a good chance that after two weeks of struggling with ammonia, or rotifers not growing enough to feed the demand, etc you'll be down to maybe a dozen fish in some state of health.

Low and behold you got another hatch coming tonight! and nowhere to put them. You really want to learn from the last batch of mistakes but you've still got 12 holdouts in the tank. What will you do....

Hence - Two tanks!

Another benefit is that you won't be wasting your rotifers, or rotifer foods on a batch by batch basis. Rotifers are only necessary for a short time and then you still need to keep them feed until the next hatch, with two larval tanks you can better utilize the resource that you purchased. The choice is yours. You could save some cash and use one tank, but be prepared for some headaches and frustration with the learning curve. You wouldn't want to frustrate yourself right out of the breeding hobby.

So without running for my calculator I've listed out roughly $300.00 to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind one thing. You as a die-hard fish person probably have a garage or basement stuffed with aquarium odds and ends. Many of you would be able to scavenge up enough stuff on this list to bring down the cost significantly with the drygood portion. There are also those lucky newcomers that may know of a local who is breeding. SWEEET! Bribe them for some rotifers. You could always grow your own rotifer food too, it's just phytoplankton. I buy it because it is one less thing on my chore list. Many people cultivate phyto (greenwater) on their own with great success.

Let me close with some pearls of wisdom. Be patient, keep all your breeding equipment as clean and disinfected as you possibly can, take notes, and lastly, enjoy the ride! The rewards of breeding can be profound from your wife coo'ing at the cute baby fish to making a couple bucks at the LFS, or simply trading for frags... ANYONE can do this, and "Yes, that means you!"

"Kissie Cousins" - From My Wife.



Thanks for reading hope to get more folks in on the fun!

Kurt