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fishtal

Fishtal Propagations: The Breeding Room

Rating: 9 votes, 4.00 average.
31 Comments
by
fishtal
, 01-03-2010 at 09:05 PM (9802 Views)
Hello everyone!,

My name is Tal, AKA: fishtal. I live in Michigan and I got back into the hobby in early 2006. I soon found my way to MASM.org, the Marinelife Aquarium Society of MI. Each year MASM hosts the Midwest Marine Conference. At the 2008 Conference I met Frank Marini who talked about captive breeding and got hooked. A week later I started turning a spare room into a breeding room.

Later in 2008 I attended MACNA in Atlanta and met Matt Wittenrich and eventually Matt Pedersen online, that pretty much sealed the deal. Both Matts, and several others, have been a huge help to me, thanks guys!

Moving right along I spent most of the summer researching, designing, and building my system. You can read a really long thread that documents the progress here: http://www.masm.org/mForums/tm.aspx?&m=18311&mpage=1

This is what I ended up with...

Workspace, pardon the mess, for supplies, phyto culturing, rotifer culturing, and I'm trying to culture copepods in the 20 long on the second shelf.



Broodstock on the top shelf and grow out on the middle shelf, sumps on the bottom.


Here is a diagram of the sump:


And the larval area where I raise the fry from hatch until they're ready to go into the grow out system.



Various juvenile fish in the grow out tanks:





Sorry about the salty glass, I just ran in and snapped the pics.

I currently have 5 pairs of clownfish, a pair of Orchid dottybacks, and a pair of Banggai cardinalfish that are all spawning for me. I won the Banggai pair at MACNA 2008 and they've just recently carried a batch to term. All of my other pairs have produced offspring that I've sold to local stores.

Banggai pair before I moved them to the refugium:



Juvenile Banggai from December 20th:



P. fridmani with eggs:



P. fridmani juveniles:




A. ocellaris (Darwin Black) post spawn:



A. percula pair:



A. ocellaris first born:



Picasso spawn:



Artsy pic:



You can see more pics and read my captive breeding techniques at www.fishtalpropagations.com

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Updated 01-04-2010 at 12:45 AM by melev

Categories
‎ Propagation - fish & corals

Comments

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  1. melev's Avatar
    Great blog. I'm going to make sure it is associated with the propagation category.

    I love all of your clowns. What's the Fridmani's temperment like in a reef tank, in your experience?
  2. VulcanRider's Avatar
    That's cool.
  3. fishtal's Avatar
    Thanks! I don't have any P. fridmani in my reef tank yet, but I may put a pair in there if I don't sell out of them. They seem to be pretty mellow compared to a P. porphyrea that I got a long time ago. They are prone to jumping if they get spooked.
  4. Snakebyt's Avatar
    very nice setup, and looks like you are having great sucess
  5. bleachandvomit's Avatar
    This is all I want when I get back from this deployment. No fancy cars,... just this.
  6. "Umm, fish?"'s Avatar
    The fridmaniis seem really mellow in my tank, Marc. They never have any problems with any of my fish, including the royal grammas. Those purples are awfully close and the size difference is pretty small. I would have expected to see some issue there, but I've never seen any.
  7. dlandino's Avatar
    Fantastic and thanks for sharing!
  8. melev's Avatar
    It's a very pretty fish. I think I've had a Purple psuedochromis in the past that was rather mean and would chase much larger fish. I think it isn't the Fridmani though: http://www.melevsreef.com/id/pseudo.html
  9. fishtal's Avatar
    Thanks everyone. Marc, the Magenta dottybacks are much crankier than the Orchids, IME.
  10. VulcanRider's Avatar
    So are you a vendor or is breeding your thing? With the egg tumbler, I am assuming that the eggs need to be in constant motion for oxygen intake. Never seen anyone breeding livestock so this is cool.
  11. jcandler's Avatar
    Fishtal: all I can say is wow and wow. You have taken the hobby to another level.
  12. Reeftankjunkie's Avatar
    Very nice setup. I can tell alot of thought went into the design of the whole system. By the way, beautiful Picasso clowns.
  13. fishtal's Avatar
    I have been selling to several local stores, trying to get more interested in CB fish. Some still don't get it.

    I only use the tumbler for dottyback eggs. And yes, to keep the eggs oxygenated and to prevent fungus. I only tumble them for a short time now. I pull them right before they're ready and they hatch after about an hour of tumbling in front of a bright light. Then I transfer them to the rearing tank.
  14. fishtal's Avatar
    jc and RTJ, Thanks! I'm really enjoying this. Check out the Breeding Initiative that MASM has started: http://www.masm.org/mForums/tm.aspx?m=31124
  15. BetterMetalReef's Avatar
    Very cool. Any thoughts on trying to rear some other species?
  16. fishtal's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BetterMetalReef
    Very cool. Any thoughts on trying to rear some other species?
    I'm looking into Neon gobies and seahorses next. I picked up two gobies recently but they aren't a M/F pair, have to try again. I have a 30XT ready to set up for seahorses, just waiting for a nice pair to start with.
  17. rarelyseriousb's Avatar
    looks good Tal. when I finish up my tank I may need to get some live stock form you.
  18. fishtal's Avatar
    Thanks Brandon! Keep me posted on you're progress and we'll work something out. I just delivered 18 A. ocellaris and 1 A. percula to Moby's this afternoon. :-)
  19. fishtal's Avatar
    My next species: E. oceanops(Neon goby) Not sure if they are a M/F pair yet but I'm hopeful. The first two fish I got were the same sex so I switched one out, these two seem to be getting along.



  20. melev's Avatar
    They look huge in that picture.
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