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Looking for some interesting activity to put in my tank. Can we all list a few fish that have bred? Not to raise, but just to watch mating/nesting behavior, and to add some zooplankton to the water, to feed the corals and such. Also state how difficult it was to do, and how many fish did you have for this to happen. I can't wait to hear your experiences. I'll start!

Neopomacentrus bankieri or cyanomos regal or scissor tail damsel (the yellow tail ones)
Easy, they did it themselves, just have 7 as dither fish, and one dug a small pit in the sand, under a rock to lay eggs on the ceiling. Never saw any fry.

Scartella cristata Molly Miller blenny
Easy, they just needed a 2 inch length, 1" diameter PVC pipe sticking vertically in the sand, started with 3, 2 paired up, move the extra out. Never saw any fry.

Pterapogon kauderni Bangai cardinal
Hard, stated with 8 to12, had to wait for a pair to form, at which point the others were all herded to the corner of the tank. Once the pair was identified, moved them to the refugium, fed them frozen cut shrimp and then they were easy to breed. Sold the surplus adults, since I could only hold 1 pair.
The male grew weak after months of mouth brooding and died. The female continued to be healthy. Fry raised successfully.
 

MIKE NY

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Numerous species over the years and I had nothing to do with it except able to get pairs...LOL The nest builders were a few different species of Damsels..most were even nastier when defending a nest especially Humbugs.. (They are the white ones with three black stripes). Clowns are the easiest. I had maroons, perculas and the common ocellaris and they all very aggressively defending the nest...especially the maroons. They drew blood a few times while I tried to clean the tank. Then there are the broad cast spawners. I had Lyretails and Dispars spawn as well as chalk bass. Yes the cute little blue with stripes that books say only grow to 3”. My pair grew closer the 4-5” and lived up to their name a bass. They hung out under rocks and caves most of the day unlike the juveniles and would eat anything they could fit in there mouths. The male was smaller than female, but had a beautiful breeding dress with an orange sheen over his gill plates and fins. The broad cast spawners all did their dance close to surface and just created feeding frenzy always when the main lights went off and just the blues were on. Fun to watch, but the bass always splashed the hood and lights. I had lots of photos, but lost them with my photobucket account. Spawning fish is always a sign of a healthy environment.


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Location
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Mike, could you specify some of the easy damselfish? Did you start with a school of them and ended up with a pair or was it just randomly having a pair of 2?
The chalk bass sound interesting, how long do they live or grow to 4+ inches? I saw your post on reefcentral about them as an adult, do they turn predatory and aggressive?
 
Last edited:

Geraud

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Location
Manhattan
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I had a pair of swissguard basslets (Lioproproma rubre) for about 7 years, and for the good part of that I would get eggs every month. They are easy to pair, as if you put two together, the bigger one becomes a male, the smaller a female, and then they change every month.

Sadly I lost one of them recently, I had not noticed eggs for the past year or so, so it could be old age.
 
Location
Queens, NY
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Ouch, I just looked up their prices, so are these peppermint bass hermaphrodite? I've read royal grammas (similar to clownfish but backwards) start out as females, whereas clownfish start out as male. For grammas, the switch is pretty fast, so it's hard to get 2 juveniles females that are only 1" in size. Plus trying to acclimate them into a full tank would be tough. I may have the male to female switching backwards, but you know what I mean. heh.
 

Geraud

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My bad actually, according to this article, they are not simultaneous hermaphrodites, but close species are. The Long Island Aquarium (Todd Gardner) had been able to breed them as well as the "Candy basslets". And yes sadly the prices of the Swissguard has gone up by a lot...


Here on reefs.com, the announcement of the settlement of the candy basslets:

 

MIKE NY

Two Decade Club
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Mike, could you specify some of the easy damselfish? Did you start with a school of them and ended up with a pair or was it just randomly having a pair of 2?
The chalk bass sound interesting, how long do they live or grow to 4+ inches? I saw your post on reefcentral about them as an adult, do they turn predatory and aggressive?

The easiest was probably the Blue devils. The male has an orange vertical stripe on the edge of the tail. Rolandi were easy too because the males are so much more brightly colored especially the black on the head. I purchased most of them in juvi groups and they paired up as adults.
Wow...I forgot I documented the bass on RC...that has to be over ten years ago. Did I post any pics? If so can you please send me the link to the thread. I would appreciate it because many don’t believe that they grew that large which took about 4-5 years. And yes they were ambush predatory feeders, so I didn’t have any small fish or crustaceans, but did come out when I fed.


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Location
Queens, NY
Rating - 100%
98   0   0
The easiest was probably the Blue devils. The male has an orange vertical stripe on the edge of the tail. Rolandi were easy too because the males are so much more brightly colored especially the black on the head. I purchased most of them in juvi groups and they paired up as adults.
Wow...I forgot I documented the bass on RC...that has to be over ten years ago. Did I post any pics? If so can you please send me the link to the thread. I would appreciate it because many don’t believe that they grew that large which took about 4-5 years. And yes they were ambush predatory feeders, so I didn’t have any small fish or crustaceans, but did come out when I fed.


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