Broodstock tanks - plain or nice?

[Peter Schmiedel]

Hello @ all!

I wonder how most of the active users in this board keep their brood stock. Do you have tanks where you keep your pairs together with other fish, or do you focus on breeding and output and therefore prefer functional tanks only, neglecting a bit the beauty of a aquarium?

O course it makes a difference if you breed for living or for fun ( with the aim to reduce cost), but the pro's here might remember their start up phase and can refer to that time.

I like to combine the breeding pair, or future breeding pairs with other fish which I enjoy.

[clownfish75]

I try to keep things seperate if at all possible. clowns tend to be on their own, but occasionally you do get mixed species spawning.

I have had 8 PJ cardinals and a pair of Banded Gobies spawn in a 3ft tank.

clowns tend to be as seperate as possible.

Christian

[marinebetta]

Peter,

My pairs are pretty much in their own tanks for breeding. Of course you can only put 1 pr of clowns in one tank (or section of the tank), but you can have more than 1 species of fish breeding in the same tank.

I have a few mixed tanks - royal gramma and perc; perc and priolepis nocturna; Bangaii and P fridmani. These have at least one confirmed breeding pair in the tanks.

Of course, the aesthetics suck! (see the pic of my RG tank :) )

[David M]

In my case space is at a premium so I keep o's in 10 and 18tall tanks, larger species in 20's. In those small quarters I think it best to leave the pair alone with no other fish, I have tried adding pairs of psuedochromis species, gobie species, bangaii's, assessors and other small fish but the best results have been leaving the pair alone.

Having said that, I have also found that the best breeders come from larger mixed species reef tanks. I try to collect broodstock pairs by watching the local postings for tank tear downs and "getting out of the hobby" sales, almost everyone has a pair of clownfish in thier reef tank. The pairs I have that matured and began to spawn in reef tanks are far more productive than those I "formed" and kept in the small tanks from the beginning. This theory has been confirmed by several other breeders.

As for asthetics, well, these are not "display" tanks :rolleyes: They are bare except for a flowerpot. I do keep sand in them and have copious bristleworms and snails for cleanup. This way I spend very little time cleaning the tanks and disturbing the pairs. However others keep the tank totally bare and report that the pairs don't seem to mind a weeekly scrubdown, so I recently set up 4 new tanks and I'm gonna try it that way. Totally bare with weekly cleanings. We'll see how it goes.

[Dman]

Minimalistic utilitarian all the way baby.
Broodstock in 10's-30's depending on species with a clay pot. Pairs that are laying have nice neat little windows bladed in the front pane so I can monitor egg development.

[Kathy55g]

I am brand new to this fish rearing business, and my only broodstock, until last Friday, came from my reef tank. Last summer I had to move them, and I put them in a smaller tank in my basement. It is still a reef tank, and I have a few corals in there. It is difficult to deal with the algae that grows in such a heavily fed tank, but I think I am getting a handle on it.

The new broodstock is in a bare QT with a few large pieces of PVC that they completely ignore. I know they came from a reef display, and I may add some live rock and low light corals as I transition the QT to an on line tank after a few weeks. I want them to feel at home.

[Peter Schmiedel]

Thanks @ all so far for the contribution!

I don't know if I ever explained my tanks set ups so maybe I should do that once. Are you interested?

For me the aesthetic points wins the most - I need to have a tank which I can really enjoy. Like MB I have my potential breeding couples mixed and plan to extend that further. Mostly is is Amphiprion, Goby, Gramma / Pseudochrmis mixed - or planed that way. As I have a crush on small Trimma / Eviota gobies some are in all my tanks. Breeding is for me more a matter of improving my skills and a potential to reduce cost and something to salve consciences for all the fish I killed in my beginner years.

Reason why I posted was not only pure interest but a major aggression problem I have in one of my tanks. In that tank a C. flavissima is a real SOB and on the weekend badly injured my pair darwin ocellaris (the ones which came from Australia) which was just starting to clean potential nest sites. Now the female has a really bad eye injury and I am not sure if the eye will be recovering, fallen off or if she turns blind on that eye. Really depressing :(

[marinebetta]

Peter,

Understand your point of view and ideally, that would be the thing to do - multiple pairs (whether breeding or not) in a nicely set up display tank - full reef to simulate natural habitat.

Unfortunately, that often doesn;t work too well as you are beginning to see. Once fish start breeding, they may get a bit territorial and everyone starts stepping on each other's toes (or fins). I have a pair of black ocellaris that are showing signs of nest cleaning etc but my tomini tang doesn't like them for some reason - they on/off show a bit of torn fins, marks on their bodies....I'm sure that is not conducive to breeding so they may have to come out into a dedicated breeding tank one day.

Oh....and I think you misunderstand - my multiple breeding pairs are in basic plain setups! Nothing beautiful about them and they definately don't look like a natural habitat - unless you consider a jetty habitat "natural" :D

[David M]

It's just a matter of balancing your priorites. You can't have it all ;) The ideal breeding set ups are not ideal for display, but there is lot you can do with a compromise. Unless of course you are like me, where the most gratifying asthetics are the sight of a clean and efficient breeding system :D Hey, I guess you can have it all :cool:

[xfury]

I'm suprised Matt hasn't jumped in on this one.

[tanglovers]

I do barebottom 10s and 29s with clay pots and/or clay tile.

Kathy - for what it is worth, one of my spawning ocellaris pairs came from a 120 full reef, I bought them put them in a basic 10g and they started spawning 2 months later, their transition was fine.

[mwp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8992740#post8992740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xfury
I'm suprised Matt hasn't jumped in on this one.

Not really much to say...I keep my broodstock tanks as full blown reefs just 'cause I like to defy convention, but even I (with my 3 24 gallon reeftank/overstocked with fish madness, which BTW one tank hit a new record at 16 fish), with my years in the industry including running an African Cichlid Hatchery, will never disagree that for a true BREEDING operation, plain bare tanks are much easier to maintain and work with. They just tend to be UGLY ;)

Matt

[David M]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder my friend ;) To me nothing looks more rediculous than a tank packed with a bunch of unrelated corals, fish and inverts from a half dozen different biotopes and geographic origins :p

[Peter Schmiedel]

David, you got a strong point there - but already in my fresh water years I never really kept focus on the geographical distribution of fish and plants.