We've come a long way, babies!

[TheOldSalt]

Who knew, just 25 years ago, that the fish we could hardly keep alive would be so easily spawned in aquaria? Today there are over 100 species farmed commercially worldwide, both for food and for pets. That's a very far cry from the thousands of species produced by the millions each year on freshwater fishfarms, but in another 25 years, who knows?

This forum is dedicated to all aspects of the breeding of saltwater aquarium fish. I suppose that it won't be as busy as other forums, but that will change. FishForums is one of the very first fishboards to offer such a forum, and I'll bet that someday this topic will be a standard feature everywhere else. For now, though, the success of this forum depends upon our using it, so let's use it! It's not like there isn't a mountain of information to discuss, and even freshwater hobbyists will surely find a lot of info here very useful to them.

One of the biggest differences between fresh and saltwater fish is that the fry of marine fish go through a larval stage before being recognizable as fish fry. In effect, the eggs hatch much earlier, resulting in free-swimming larvae much like the larvae still safely nestled in the eggs of freshwater fish. This of course creates some special challenges, most notably in the feeding of these fry so tiny that a brineshrimp could probably eat THEM. An entire new sub-branch of science, mariculture, has developed in response to figuring out the ways around this and many other problems. Great strides have been made in a short time, and new discoveries are literally made pretty much every day. Here we can discuss them

The breeding and propagation of corals, shrimp, octopuses, sponges, and other inverts, along with macroalgaes, can be discussed here as well.

[Larry-T]

I'm really glad to see this topic here. I'm planning on getting into some SW breeding this year. It may be more inverts than fish, but I'm looking at some of the small fish that would do well in smaller tanks. I'm also considering pipefish, as they've always attracted me.

[hail_sniper]

if i had the money and the time, i would start breeding, im about to setup a prop tank this summer mainly to help others get some captive corals so we dont take so much from reefs, and for some money on the side

i really would like to raise banghaii cardinals, and some shrimp (already have a spawning pair) but as i said before it takes alot of time and even more money than that so im waiting for free time, at the moment, i give out free macroalgaes to all that want some, it just booms in my fuge (well, it did before i took down the tank) because its not easy to find macro out there

[TheOldSalt]

Yeah, it figures they'd make most macroalgaes illiegal just when we found a really good use for them.

I've bred a number of marine species so far, fish and invert, and the spawning is the easy part! I've been trying to invent some sort of nutritious "soup" through which the larvae can freely swim while they eat constantly, but so far it hasn't worked.

Banggais are easy, Sam. Luckily the parents do all the hard parts for us. Between those and frags, you should be able to make some bucks.

Larry, it's about time you got into saltwater breeding!

[Larry-T]

I've just gotten two tanks (a 29 and a 30) switched over to SW and have some live rock and a few inverts in each. I'm sort of letting things condition right now and planning on how to convert the other 30, the 20L and the two 20H tanks to SW and complete my marine section of the fishroom.

I had a talk with Robert Goldstein yesterday about it and he's really into SW breeding these days. I'm thinking of Bangais, of course, but also possibly dotybacks and/or some gobies. I figure the best way to feed the fry is to keep some live rock and use DT's Phytoplankton as the basis for their initial food. If I start on some of the shrimp, Aquatic EcoSystems has some feeds for various stages in their growth.

MACNA is this September, so I intend to go pick a lot of brains there.

[TheOldSalt]

You know Bob?

Roti-rich and such works okay as food. DT's is not exactly known as a food for fish larve, but it's good for feeding rotifers and corals and shrimp larvae.
For that matter V8, yes, the stuff you drink, is a very good replacement for DT's, and DT wasn't want you to know that, although at MACNA you'll hear this many times.
I don't think I'll be able to go to MACNA this year *snif*

For most gobies you'll probably need a chiller; just a heads-up for you, but dottybacks are simple enough with minimal normal equipment. Skip ( Martin ) Moe's book on breeding Orchids is full of info which translates well for the other pseudochromines.

Oh, by the way, here's a weird little thing that you should know, but might not have suspected:

Everybody "knows" that marine fish need super-clean water to spawn, right? Well, the truth is that you'll get a lot more spawns in water that's a bit aged. Clean and with nitrate below 10ppm, but still well-aged and comfortably "lived-in." Any marine fishfarm you visit will look deplorable to you, and you'll wonder how the fish can spawn under such conditions, but looks are decieving. Let that algae grow all it wants to. The "tonics" the algae release seem to make all the difference. I wish I could bottle and sell the stuff.

Anyway, don't go overboard trying to keep everything spotless, because the fish won't spawn as much. That's one of the most common beginner mistakes. The breeders like to see that their fry will have some food available, I guess.

[Larry-T]

Well, as far as V8 being a substitute, I really don't believe it. I know what's in both and it makes no sense. There are some well-known specialists doing a lot of feeding trials with many different products, including those by DT, Kent, and others, which will be published in peer-reviewed journals and I'll wait to see that.

I agree about somewhat "aged" conditions, which is why I'm going to let some tanks run for months before I even consider getting any stock to breed. My 30 has a small Xenia, some Green Stars, and three hitchhikers on live rock: a hermit crab, a large snail, and an emerald crab. My 29 has just some button polyps and a few small queen conch.

I don't plan on using much in the way of skimming, since I'd rather control water conditions with testing, low stocking levels, and frequent small water changes. I have a skimmer to use whenever necessary, and a polyfilter backup if I have a sudden increase in organics.

So I'm just letting things go their own way for now.

Bob Goldstein is one of the nicest guys in the hobby. He brought several tanks of native fish (small sunfish, fundulus, and others) which he was giving away, and he also was selling his new book on American Aquarium Fish (list $100) for $25.

[TheOldSalt]

I'm a NANFA member, so naturally I have that book. It's great.
You must mean the Killie convention, right?
Our NANFA convention is next week, but I won't be able to go on account of recently switching jobs. Rats.

Yeah, Bob's a cool guy. He's usually at MACNA, and he keeps everyone enthralled.

[Larry-T]

Right, the AKA National is here in the Washington, DC area and I'm a member of one of the host clubs.

I spent most of my time in the Fish Sales Room helping to set it up on Friday and run the sales on Saturday, but I can say that the Hotel did a great job of supporting us and I saw a lot of happy AKA members throughout the weekend.

I was told that a native American fish won the Best of Show award as well.