Breeding/Grow Out Room (1 Viewer)

[LitzmanMarine]

My roommate and I decided to expand our small scale operation and kick it up a notch. This will take about a month to completely build out so I'll post progress and more information as we go. Feel free to ask questions!



There is a third lamp that will hang above the top rack, but I havent had the chance to hang it yet. Top rack is a split long tank with overflow baffles, it is going to be used for larval phase, middle rack is breeder tanks on the left and split tanks on the right for grow outs, bottom rack will have refugium/sump along with two rotifer tanks on the left and a quarantine tank on the right. Total system is around 150 gallons. Planning to do all of the plumbing this weekend and leak test it.

 

[steveb]

Nice. Looks like your using a steel rack. You concerned about rust? What are you breeding?

 

[LitzmanMarine]

I'll take some better (non iPhone pictures) to show up close, we had the rack powder coated. Hoping that will keep rust at bay. We are going to see how the shelves do though, it is too easy to breakdown the setup if necessary.

Fancy clowns, currently breeding Snowflakes and a "Black Ice" variant, but planning to try some others once this system is setup and running.

 

[steveb]

Cool. I think the powder coating should be fine unless it gets chipped. I was mostly thinking about the shelves themselves.

 

[mike13oy]

Nice.
If i didnt read it wrong, your brookstock and grow out are going to be plumbed together as 1 system? If its, i suggest not to do it. Reason, if ur brookstock has disease, it will wipe out ur grow out too. Been there and done it many times.
My larval, brookstock and growout has their own system.

 

[Traclly Le Tran]

Mike knows his stuff. He is great at breeding clowns.

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Nice.
If i didnt read it wrong, your brookstock and grow out are going to be plumbed together as 1 system? If its, i suggest not to do it. Reason, if ur brookstock has disease, it will wipe out ur grow out too. Been there and done it many times.
My larval, brookstock and growout has their own system.

Larval and grow out will be plumbed together (may change later). Broodstock is too much of an investment to chance. In fact our breeder tanks are completely separate from even each other. This is just a side project for us, that I am realizing will be taking up the majority of my free time lol.

 

[mike13oy]

I have 2 brookstock systems and here is 1 of them.

My growout system:

My fry, rotifers and ro topoff station.

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Nice! Way bigger system then we are planning! How many breeding pairs and what varieties are you breeding?

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Also whats your larval metaphase survival %? I read your old breeding thread but was wondering how high your % is now.

 

[mike13oy]

I have 40 pairs and only 10pairs that are laying eggs.
I have many type of clown pairs. black snow, snowflake, snow onyx, ocellairs, true percs, onyx, picasso, clarkii, fancy white, B/W, Blackfoot.
Still have 5 of my Hoang Goldflake Maroons. 40 of them got wipe out due to disease out break and the parents too.

I have 2 white caps (Amphirpion leucokrano) but RIP due to disease out break last year. broke my heart when they die. They are very rare to come by and i cant find them anymore..

I dont have WW yet and they are on my list.

I get about 50 to 95% to meta depend on the type of clown. 95% with Ocellairs and 50% on Clarkii

 

[dayton]

Can someone explain the "meta" to me? I keep hearing about it but not sure what part of the stage you are referring to. Iv got a pair of snowflakes that are starting to look pretty cozy so I am reading all about how to take care of it if/when I need to.

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Metaphase is basically the larval period of the fish. Its the most difficult time period and where most losses occur. Once you start getting numbers like 90%-95% with Occelaris you are doing well.

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Some of our breeding tanks cycled and we've been able to move our breeding pairs into the new system. Fish all seemed a little out of it for a few days, but the two pairs we moved over have already started cleaning their clay pots. Plumbing is finished on the rest of the system, but the refugium popped a seal on one of the interior panels so I am currently in the process of resealing it.

 

[kyletc]

Good job so far man! I will tag along throughout your journey

 

[mwilliams62]

Man Mike you got it going on don't you????

I have 2 brookstock systems and here is 1 of them.

My growout system:

My fry, rotifers and ro topoff station.

 

[LitzmanMarine]

Man Mike you got it going on don't you????

I love his display tank with the breeders on the side. Wish we had that much room at the house.

 

[mwilliams62]

Me too... I do have a really long wall I could put up a tank like that but I would be more concerned with the width of the tank might would be an issue....
Oh I see you have the Finding Dory logo... I just can't wait till it comes out... I sure hope that up the date for it. 2 yrs is to long to wait....

 

[mwilliams62]

I'll take some better (non iPhone pictures) to show up close, we had the rack powder coated. Hoping that will keep rust at bay. We are going to see how the shelves do though, it is too easy to breakdown the setup if necessary.

Fancy clowns, currently breeding Snowflakes and a "Black Ice" variant, but planning to try some others once this system is setup and running.

You mentioned you had the rack powder coated where did you have this done at? Also what is the weight limit on the shelves for that rack? You are going to put something underneath the tanks to keep them off the metal part?

 

[LitzmanMarine]

You mentioned you had the rack powder coated where did you have this done at? Also what is the weight limit on the shelves for that rack? You are going to put something underneath the tanks to keep them off the metal part?

Before I joined the Army I worked in aftermarket automotive industry here in Houston and had a buddy take the rack and do a fine grain coating on it. I had to do some cleaning on where the shelves met up, but wasn't too bad. Currently I have the tanks sitting on the shelves directly. I looked at some mat materials to put under them, but decided against it for now as I wasn't sure if they would absorb water and eventually start to foul. The shelves are stainless and can hold somewhere between 800-1000lbs a shelf so not even close to what we have on them.

I may go back and replace the shelves with treated wood eventually, but decided to try this for now. With the 10 gallon tanks I can break down and move the system in about 2 hours with how we plumbed the system (just wouldn't be fun).