Tips on what to propagate?

[Anonymous]

I have an 11 tank(20L) tier system with aproximately 80watts (flourescent) of light per tank. I'll be using two nice canisters and a homemade skimmer for filtration. Please give me some nice and "simple" suggestions for propagation (corals, seahorses, clowns, etc...), or even suggestions on the system.

Thanks,

Dragoon

 

[Len]

I have no idea how to breed clowns (shame on me!) or seahorses, but they are more labor intensive then corals. I personally would consider propogating all species of photosynthetic soft corals, mushrooms, and polyps with the amount of lighting you have. I do recommend you install a skimmer into the equation since you'll have a lot of chemical toxins floating about in a prop system.

That's not to say fish (gobies, clowns, basslets, seahorses) aren't a good idea, but I have no experience breeding them. It's always something I've always wanted to pursue though, but time, space, and money don't permit it right now.

 

[liquid]

Is there a way you could draw up your existing propagation tank setup and upload a pic of it to this thread? I'd love to see how you have it currently setup. Also this way others will know how you're setup and maybe can offer some suggestions on system design.

Things to prop...the first thing that comes to mind are Banggai cardinalfish. Pretty straight forward as they're live-born and their first food is freshly hatched baby brine shrimp.

Do you have any specific things you'd like to prop? Are you more interested in fish or coral?

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I'd like to do Seahorses and Maroon Clowns, but they seem pretty labor intensive. I was also thinking of using a few of the tanks for coral propagation. I'll try to get a picture of the system or at least a diagram for you this weekend.

OOOOy yOOOO
OOOOy yOOOO
OOOOy yOOOO
OOOOy yOOOO
OOOOy yOOOO
xxxxx
This is a rough
sketch of the system on my basement wall.
Each y is a overflow drain for each 20Long.
The bottom xxxxx is the sump for the system which is a 45 gallon rubbermaid container. lights are above each tank and are only a series of 48" all weather shoplight (dual 40watt) fixtures at home depot for less than 20.00 bucks. The Skimmer is going to be a homemade one suitable for 350 gallons. Try o get a better picture with my Digital camera.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry about that it looks like it all got aligned to the left. All the tanks are in a tier form draining into the next five by five with one sump.

 

[jorcutt]

Hmmm...are the overflows going to create a problem raising small fry? I would think especially with seahorses...don't baby seahorses gather at the surface? Mine always did anyway, but I can't remember if I ever looked into why that is. But maybe if your water movement isn't too severe they won't get sucked down into the next tank? If that does pose a problem, I'd agree with Shane that Banggais would probably be the easiest. Especially for this set up since they're already pretty good sized by the time papa spits them out. I don't know just something I'd think about.

Seems like a great set up for corals though. If you're looking for easy, I'd load one tank up with shrooms, maybe another with xenia, perhaps some ricordea (good $), a lot of softies, etc. As far as hard corals go, I can't think of any that are as easy to frag and grow as quickly under moderate conditions as Blastomussa merleti. HTH.

 

[Anonymous]

You could probably do Bannggai if you can make one tank a fry raising tank by covering any overflows with a guard made of screen. Then when they are a little bit bigger you could spread the babies out to the other tanks until they get to a saleable size. It has been my experience that they grow faster when not crowded.

I like banngai because you don't have to fool with rotifers or greenwater, just baby brine, and if you are crafty you can get them on frozen pretty quick.

 

[Anonymous]

I did Pixie seahorses for about a year. It was fun but boy was it work. Crystal clear water, live food, constantly monitoring fry.... Look before you leap.

NK