How many breeding nutters are there on here

[Dragonets Den]

So amoungst my other bits of useless talents I am attempting to breed these wonderfull creatures we keep in our tanks

My pairs:

Mandarin (spawning)
Scooter (spawning)
Green Spotted Mandarin
Orchid Dottybacks (they have eggs male keeps eating them)
Yellow Coral Goby (establishing sex)
6 line Wrasse (starting thier courtship dance)
Royal Gramma's

any one else a phone call away from the looney bin???

[Johnboyminster]

Always something i've fancied dabbling with fella - any pics of your pairs???

[cl0wn]

had cinamon clowns and mandys breeding. have you seen mwp's thread on rc us on mandy breeding, if you've got a few hours it's a fantastic read.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=824111

[Johnboyminster]

Whats the deal with RC uk and RC us, are we affiliated in any way?

[Dragonets Den]

Yeh I asked him if he ever got that batch to settlement and he reckons coz he was using greenwater he could have had them settleing earlier then he thought, but coz they were green he missed them. You know he and a few other big hitters (Witt and co) have started up another breeders site alltogether - seemed to have moved away from mofib.

Did you get you mandys to settlement then? What did you use for first feeds? I always lose mine on day four after starvation period - SUCKS but am looking at getting some of that alagen stuff over from the states - waiting for my cefas license as we speak...

[cl0wn]

the female passed away before i had chance to give it a go. was giving them a few goes at "it" before trying when she died.

[Dragonets Den]

aww sorry to hear that. Will you try again?

[michael.]

Whats the deal with RC uk and RC us, are we affiliated in any way?

no bud, completely seperate

[Johnboyminster]

no bud, completely seperate

Look really similar ah..

[cl0wn]

aww sorry to hear that. Will you try again?

definitely. just a case of finding the right female (isn't it always).

[Bluez]

My cardies are currently rampant, male has eggs every 3-4 weeks in his gob, first lot I managed to get to, to place them in a breeding net which my lovely cleaner shrimp had a feast on and cleaned out in a matter of hours (lesson learned there), second lot wasn`t fertile, hes currently got a mouthfull at the moment which should be ready around the 28th may I have worked out. hopefully 3rd time lucky.

My perc's are not matured yet, so waiting on them to decide whos gonna be the female, but it does look to me that one has started to grow larger as of late, apprantley once its been decided which is going to be the female she grows at an alarming rate? I hope so anyway, seems like its taken ages for them to decide, *typical female?*... lol.

Also considered looking into breeding/spawning "live sand refills" no where I have found sells this stuff, and you can never have too much life in your live sand, guess it wouldn`t take much to get setup, just abit of time to get the sand full of life, though transporting it may be a problem to keep it alive long enough.... :(

but thats my status at the moment, in time maybe i`ll look into other breeding, but finding time is the hardest part for me to get anything done...

[Dragonets Den]

My cardies are currently rampant, male has eggs every 3-4 weeks in his gob, first lot I managed to get to, to place them in a breeding net which my lovely cleaner shrimp had a feast on and cleaned out in a matter of hours (lesson learned there), second lot wasn`t fertile, hes currently got a mouthfull at the moment which should be ready around the 28th may I have worked out. hopefully 3rd time lucky.

My perc's are not matured yet, so waiting on them to decide whos gonna be the female, but it does look to me that one has started to grow larger as of late, apprantley once its been decided which is going to be the female she grows at an alarming rate? I hope so anyway, seems like its taken ages for them to decide, *typical female?*... lol.

Also considered looking into breeding/spawning "live sand refills" no where I have found sells this stuff, and you can never have too much life in your live sand, guess it wouldn`t take much to get setup, just abit of time to get the sand full of life, though transporting it may be a problem to keep it alive long enough.... :(

but thats my status at the moment, in time maybe i`ll look into other breeding, but finding time is the hardest part for me to get anything done...

Now that does sound interesting. You are right about your clowns, but cover the tank top and dont do what I did. My female Clarkii jumped and went carpet surfing, needless to say she was full of eggs...

[CP Ocean]

I know this is the fish section but it got me thinking, how do hermits breed? Are they born with some sort of temporary shell?

[Bluez]

©Copyright HermitCrabsHome 2009

Hermit crab breeding is very difficult. You have to be able to distinguish between a girl and boy crab and make sure you have one of each. It is difficult to tell the difference between a boy and girl crab even if they were willing to come out of their shells more often. Determining that you do, indeed, have a pair of hermit crabs your difficulties have only just begun.
Crabs lay their eggs in very special conditions that you are required to recreate. Also, in the wild, predators prey on the eggs of hermit crabs so a mom will lay a significant amount of eggs in order to ensure the survival of some hermit crab eggs. What I mean to say is, be prepared for a lot of hermit crab eggs! The actual number of eggs a mother hermit crab lays is dependent upon her size.
Another consideration that you face is that hermit crabs lay their eggs in the sand where the tides can wash the eggs into the ocean. When the eggs hatch they will return to the shore. You will be required to simulate this natural process.
First you will need to set up a saltwater tank so that it mimics the ocean. This may be difficult to create in your home and an outdoor pond is a wonderful choice.
Next you have to recreate the effect of tides and waves on a shoreline. It is believed that the movement of ocean waves aid in breeding process of hermit crabs. So, somehow you will need to generate waves.
You do have the option of standing out and waving a fan over the pond or you can choose to purchase a machine designed to create waves. Yes, there are machines that will simulate the motion of waves in your pond! Wavemakers by Sea Swirl Aquarium is one of the best and expensive brands in the market. If you take time to search you may be able to find a suitable model at a more affordable price that will adequately suit your needs.
As hermit crabs tend to breed at night you will need to create the illusion of moonlight. Romance under moonlight, is there anything better to encourage the breeding process? Moonlight bulbs may be purchased either online or at your local pet store. You should be able to find them for around $15. You will need to string them around your simulated ocean.
You have the ambiance, now you need the couple. If you are not sure that you have a male and female hermit crab you can purchase a breeding pair from your local pet shop. Discuss your needs and goals with an informed staff member of the store who I familiar with hermit crab breeding and they will be able to provide you with what you need.
You need to be sure that your simulated ocean stays in the 72 to 80 degree temperature range. This is the range that hermit crabs normally thrive. Temperature below 72 degrees will result in your hermit crabs to become ill or even possibly die.
Continue with the regular care of your hermit crabs to keep them happy and healthy. Ensure they have the correct temperature, salt, lighting and clean air requirements they need. Add calcium supplements to their diet if you are not already doing so. You will also need to stock up on a large supply of brine shrimp as that is the main diet of hermit crab larvae.
Now all you have to do is to wait while you observe your hermit crabs in their mating dance. It is fascinating to watch your pair in the mating dance. It may take as long as up to three months to successfully breed your hermit crabs so don’t get discouraged. When you observe your pair going through their mating ritual and return to normal crab behavior you do not have to keep them together any longer.
You will know you are successful when you see the baby crabs emerge. When they begin to come ashore the will need a home. You can purchase tiny shells at the pet store or on the Internet; but they must be very, very small as your babies will only be about 5 mm in length. Again, the informed staff at your local pet shop should be able to assist you in you selection of shells.
When your babies are safe in their shells does not mean that your job is complete. You now have the task of raising them to adult hermit crabs.

* Note Taken from: http://www.hermitcrabshome.com/hermit-crab-breeding/ All rights reserved for this information from there. *

[Bluez]

Now that does sound interesting. You are right about your clowns, but cover the tank top and dont do what I did. My female Clarkii jumped and went carpet surfing, needless to say she was full of eggs...

Arghhh! bet you was gutted...
Ive had a fair few of my original fish go carpet surfing, first one was a firefish which was only in my tank for an hour! got him in, made sure he was ok and all, went to the local chippy for my tea, on returning he was sunbathing on the carpet, not impressed... second was my cleaner wrasse, one day he decided to explore the carpet, again was'nt discovered for a day or so, (kinda ironic you dont seem to notice they are missing untill you find them on the floor), I found my mandy had gone missing a few weeks after that, but couldn't for the life of me find it on the carpet anywhere, only to discover by accident that he had some how managed to leap over a 3" bit of plastic into the back sump section of my tank, not sure who was more surprised, him or me, (kinda gave me that look of: its about bloody time you found me...) after that I decided to do something about this sucide pack the fish had taken on, so I invested in some black plastic mesh that now goes over the tank top to prevent such things. (lesson learned).

[rod130]

I know this is the fish section but it got me thinking, how do hermits breed? Are they born with some sort of temporary shell?

The hermits Bluez extract refers to is for those land based pet hermit things you can buy, the hermit we keep in our reefs reproduce in a different way. The female carries eggs under their abdomen (inside their shells) they release the fry into the water column much like shrimps do and the fry become plankton. They can be raised by hobbyists (I have raised a hand full of red-legs), they can be fed rotifers and then later brineshrimp and after about 11-14 days they go through a metamorphosis and settle out of the water column and become tiny hermit crabs living on the seabed. This is the tricky part though it seams they need tiny shells (i.e ~ 1mm diameter) from day one without them they die within about 6hrs of meta. Still if they find a shell they appear to be relatively easy to feed and it's just a case of finding suitable shells to give them as they grow.

Here's a little vid of one I raised (kinda by accident) last year, for size reference the coin he's sat on is a 5p piece


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jsQ466Zg4M

This is what they look like on day one
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb318/Rod130/DSCF4183.jpg

And just after they settle out
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb318/Rod130/Boxing_Fry_190810-1.jpg

Not raised many myself, and don't know of many others who have bothered trying (there's no money in it), still they're not really any harder than clowns to raise so long as you don't mind sifting through coral sand looking for lots of tiny shells.

Back to the thread title I guess I'm a bit of a "breeding nutter" not had much success yet so far I have only managed a few hermits and a couple of orchid dottybacks, but at the moment I have boxing shrimp spawning regularly and just noticed this week my midas blennies spawning. Also have a few sexy shrimp I'm hopeful will lay soon, and a pair of reidi seahorses, pair of tomato clowns, a pair of yellowhead jawfish (hopefully a pair anyway), couple of bangaii's and a pair of steitiz gobies. :) There's a few other species I plan to try later this year too - this part of the hobby interests me much more than a reef tank nowadays :)

[cl0wn]

wow, amazing first post!!! welcome to reefcentral.

[rod130]

:) thanks clown, I was just googleing how to clean filter socks and discovered the site, tried to register my usual name and found I had already joined years ago - just forgot you all existed :)

[cl0wn]

stick around a bit longer this time!!! lets have some details of what you keep.

[Dragonets Den]

Rod that is awesome! Are you like me then and tend to buy fish in pairs? I even buy turbo snails in even numbers...

[rod130]

Rod that is awesome! Are you like me then and tend to buy fish in pairs? I even buy turbo snails in even numbers...

:) yeah, although I never come across breeding pairs for sale round here. Most of my pairs are just two fish I've bought and thrown in together to hope for the best. I'll start a tank thread later.