Reefing The Australian Way Forums

by **Cyclone1984** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 10:16 pm

Ive got a roifter culture growing for my seahorses incase they have fry. They are so easy to look after, just need a bucket, airline, heater, green water and water changes.

by **PaulG** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 10:17 pm

flame angles?

by **GTScotT** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:20 pm

Carcharhinus galapagensis

by **PaulG** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:28 pm

Too small.....

by **Hunts25** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:30 pm

Centropyge are beyond the scope of the hobby breeder. You would need Copepods which are hard to culture in high density,or catch plankton which will rule some people out.

In my opinion we are looking for a species that will, spawn soon after introduction to the system (2-5 months), A species that is not a pelagic spawner so the larvae are big enough for rots (rules out angels, wrasses tangs etc) and a larvae which has a short larval less than a month. (I think gobidon okinowa are around 2 months and grow very slowly)

Bicolour Blenny would be a good candidate, but apart from size there is not an easy way to sex them. Can you order them in pairs???

by **Hunts25** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:33 pm

Miacanthus grammistes.. Do look cool, can we get them easy???

by **lux_06** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:46 pm

yellow/blue assessors???

easily available, cheaps enough for brood stock, can keep a group together to ensure males and females, mouth brooders...

its winter in the tropics right now, so the broodstock allready think they are in winter, people can follow the light and temp cycle up from here to try to encourage a spawn by xmas time...

by **PaulG** » Tue 09 Jun, 2009 11:47 pm

lux_06 wrote:yellow/blue assessors???

Easy to get but difficult to spawn.

by **Chris** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 12:05 am

Hunt syou have some good ideas, I wouldnt worry about larval duration, alot of them are 30 days give or take, and gobiodon having more would be due to lousy nutrition.

Assessors will be a bit tricky to spawn, but productive info wise, Grammistes, easier to spawn, mild info value. Bicolour blennys highly unknown, high info value.

Christian

Christian

by **scottrichards** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 12:18 am

regarding bicolour blennies, look about half way down THIS page

by **Chris** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 12:22 am

Thanks for the link scott, but i suspect that info to be incorrect, or should i say it is a regional colour variant, I have heard of plenty of people with a pair though, but no sexing info.

The other species could be rainfords goby.

Christian

by **lux_06** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 12:31 am

Chris wrote:The other species could be rainfords goby.

Christian

the only thing with pairs of gobys, is pairing them, ive bought a "pair" of twin spots, orange spots, rainfords.... ALL ended up not being a pair at all and the bigger one has smashed the smaller one relentlessly.

by **Chantelle** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 7:58 am

How about flame hawkfish? Ive seen them sold as pairs before at my LFS. Not sure how to sex them though...

by **abbott75** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 5:08 pm

lux_06 wrote:
Chris wrote:The other species could be rainfords goby.

Christian

the only thing with pairs of gobys, is pairing them, ive bought a "pair" of twin spots, orange spots, rainfords.... ALL ended up not being a pair at all and the bigger one has smashed the smaller one relentlessly.

Rainfordi can be kept in groups, can't they?

by **damer** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 5:41 pm

thanks for all the suggestions,

Chantelle, Flame hawks are probably in the too hard for beginners category. in fact probably up the with grammas. would be good though, mmmm maybe one day.

Paul- your not helping :roflmao:

ill throw in Pictochromis diadem, or diadema dottyback. in Witts book, small ammount of information avaialble. may be a little aggressive for people with a community tank though.

Christian- you mentioned to me once about a coral sea blennie that cairns marine sometimes get. do you know the species name?

other than my suggestion

i think Meicabthus grammistes would be great.

according to Witts book, metamorphosis is around 15-20 days, with BBS at 10 days. sounds very doable.

do we want a poll on species?

by **lux_06** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 6:20 pm

its tricky, the ones that are doable are less desirable, the ones that are much harder are far more desireable... lol :roflmao:

poll sounds good to me

by **Chris** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 6:24 pm

Hi Damien

Instead of P. diadema, what about either the local false gramma/bicolour dottyback and or the purple one also.

I think if pairs can be worked out spawning is easy, rearing is fun!!!

The coral sea blenny is Miacanthus reticulatus i think, i had some but they seemed touchy, could be my lousy water though.

Grammistes and reticulatus could be good together, i dont think they will be very different.

Christian

by **Chris** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 6:25 pm

I think success far outweighs desirable.

There is nothign worse than killing yourself only to get a late stage larvae and thats it.

Christian

by **damer** » Wed 10 Jun, 2009 10:35 pm

Chris wrote:
Instead of P. diadema, what about either the local false gramma/bicolour dottyback and or the purple one also.

this was my first pick, but according to Witt, the diadema is not as aggressive as the paccagnellae. the magenta is a challenge to get spawning and to raise.

im leaning towards the srtiped fang blennie, only because of the shorter larvae stage.

by **damer** » Sun 14 Jun, 2009 1:27 pm

ok,

so far i think of the "doable" (in witts book)ones we have-

Meiacanthus grammistes-striped fang blenny

assessor flavissumus- yellow assessors
assessor macneilli blue assessors

pictichromis paccagnellae royal dottyback or pictichromis diademadiadem dottyback

i think the fang blennies could be worth a try

what do others think?

by **Chris** » Sun 14 Jun, 2009 1:57 pm

you should add coral gobies, they are doable.

Christian

by **Chris** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 4:58 pm

So the final list, is this ok to vote on to people, if not you have 1 day to voice your additions.

Meiacanthus grammistes-striped fang blenny
M. reticulatus - Coral Sea Fang blenny

assessor flavissumus- yellow assessors
assessor macneilli blue assessors

pictichromis paccagnellae royal dottyback or pictichromis diadema diadem dottyback

Gobiodon sp. - Coral Gobies.

Thanks

Christian

by **Chantelle** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 6:54 pm

Looks like a good list to me

Ive got no other ideas to add.

by **PaulG** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 6:57 pm

what about someing REALLy simple.... like banggai or seahorses? pipefish?

by **GTScotT** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 9:17 pm

seahorses are good, im up for that, yet wonder how long it will take to get em spawning after there tank has cycled and i get em.

i got occys that spawn the next day after one batch hatches, if the sea horses are that easy then it will be a walk in the park

by **Chris** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 9:30 pm

but then i would have to try to keep some seahorse, that is just pure evil!!!!

Christian

by **PaulG** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 9:50 pm

At least its not a clown fish!

by **damer** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 11:20 pm

sorry guys, my internet has died at home.

i dont think coral goby's are very doable for someone just starting out. this is all about getting people interested.

bangaii are far from simple, stupid things :wall:

i wont be back online until later in the week, so can we hold off for a few days.

by **Chantelle** » Tue 16 Jun, 2009 11:47 pm

Oh yes! Seahorses would be awesome!! Ive got 3 pairs of H.Angustus at the moment, added them to my tank within the last 2 months. They are captive bred but there is literally no info on keeping/breeding this species - try doing a search. I had plans of giving it a go myself and recording everything I could - but the more people the merrier!

Scott, as to how long it would take seahorses to spawn - it can be a matter of days or weeks if the horses are happy. Mine have tried unsuccessfully a few times - no egg transfers. I think they are still in their awkward teenage stage. Depending on the species too as to whether they need NH brine or rotifers to start feeding with. Plenty of general info about breeding seahorses avail.

by **wadeswang** » Wed 17 Jun, 2009 10:56 pm

i dont have much experience with breeding but would be very interested in learing i do alot of reading as it is now i need to put it to practice. so count me in.

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