My Breeding/Larva Grow Out Set Up

Hello,
Here are a few pictures of my breeding facility.
 
Thanks!
Doug







 
 

Nice setup!

Very nice - how easy do you find it to heat the room rather than each tank in what, I assume, can be a cold part of the world. I notice that you have lots of insulation, a large heater, and a ventilation fan.

The structure is a 24' x 24' cinder block, non-attached garage. The inside is 2x4 wood studs insulated and vapour barrier. It has a gas furnace and a de-humidifer fan to exhaust outside and a small vent on the entry door to bring in fresh air. The setup takes up less than half of the garage. Was setup in February of  2013, and running great. I live in Edmonton Canada,so we have very cold winter. As low as minus 20 to 30 celusis. ( below zero )
The breeding and grow out tanks do not have heaters. Breeding tanks at 80 F. Grow out tanks at 78 F. Heaters are in the sumps. All hatchery tanks have their own heaters ( five gallon tanks ) 80 F. 
When I was younger I tried heating a 14' x 14' room to 80 F. so I would not have to use aquarium heaters, but found the room heat not enjoyable to work in.
                                                                                       Thanks  Doug

Thanks for the info Doug. What temperature do you maintain in the room? Our winter's are not quite as cold as yours (occasionally we get down to around 0 Celsius) but I have a lot of trouble with evaporation.

Looks great! I drilled my tanks near the bottom too and I like it. The only minor issue you might encounter in having the drain pipe near the side rather than the middle is that the fish will hide there when you try to get them out. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

The furnace thermostat is set at 72 F.  During the summer temps of up to 32 C. are our out door temps. Thus allowing the garage to go over 85 F. The de-humidifer is then set to run all the time to draw out the heat / moisture and bring in fresh air. I lose 2 gallons of water from each stand setup per day. During the winter months the de-humidifer is shut off , as the furnace firing up takes care of the moisture.
                                                           Thanks
                                                                            Doug

Thanks
The drain pipes on the side work okay, as only the breeding tanks have them and do not block the view of the fish or the clay pots holding the eggs. I have 28 pairs of clownfish ( over half breeding ) 7 pairs of neon gobies ( all breeding ) and 1 pair of greenbanded goby ( breeding ). With the clowns I have one pair per 10 gallon tank and two pairs in the 20 gallon tank, separated. Neons are 2 pairs per 5 gallon and 3 pairs per 5 gallon.
                                                                         Thanks
                                                                                        Doug
 
 
 

Doug, that's a great looking setup.  I've always heard how easy neon gobies were to breed but was curious to see so few people growing them.  Congrats to you.

Thanks Dave,
The neons are not as easy as clownfish while working in the larval rearing tanks. I can get the clownfish on newly hatch brine shrimp on day four or sometimes on day three. The neons usually on day fifteen, but I have had them down to day ten. But the lenght of time to metamorphosis is way longer. Starts in two weeks and as long as four weeks. I have my first hatch of the green banded in the larval tank and we will see in a couple more weeks what the out come. The larvae are smaller than the neon larvae. I have to say the neon goby live longer than two years. I have some at over four and three inches long . Trying to locate the yellow goby in Alberta as I would like to breed them also. Just waiting for a fish shop to bring some in.
 
                                                                                           Thanks
                                                                                                          Doug
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Looks like you have a great yield on the neons! I always get a large die off on the first couple of days, then usually do pretty well. My yield is not so good.  Any tips or tricks?

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Hello Kathyl,
 Kathyl I stopped getting the larvae tanks setup days early. I now setup a day early or the day of. So Saturday morning should be the hatch out of this nine day neon. So this morning I added saltwater from my breeding tank of clowns into the five gallon larvae tank (3/4 full ) temp at 80 . At 5:00 p.m. I removed the tube of eggs and placed them in the larvae tank and put an airline into the tube. With in minutes the eggs started hatching and larvae on the go. With in 20 minutes tube was 3/4 empty. So I leave the tube and air line in, sieve out rotifers, dump into tank and add live phytoplankton ,just to lightly green the water. I then darken the end with the tube and eggs, approx. 3/4 of the tank so the ones that have hatch out can start eating ( lighted end ) and the others can hatch whenever.When I go out tomorrow morning the tube is usually empty. If the water is still green then I need to add more rotifers, If the water is looking yellow then the rotifer count is usually pretty high ( you can see the rotifers ) I just green it up a little. The next day and every second day I shut off the air and clean the bottom of the take. Siphon the tank and replace the water with fresh water/ salt at 1.018. If any larvae get sucked into the bucket, they eardropped back in.
If any are lost on the first few days , I find that either the airflow is too high, too soon, too much water movement so the can't catch the rotifers or the water is still green meaning you have lots of larvae but not enough rotifers thus starving, usually floating on the surface.
At the addition of brine shrimp at day 10 - 15 days is where I will take a greater loss or hardly any loss.
The tank bottom and side must be kept clean and inspected for hydroids, first the benthic polyp stage and if missed , then you won't miss the pelagic medusa stage. ( anyone with ideas to rid them )
I find it is better to underfeed the larvae , than to overfeed. ( when bine shrimp is still there from the day before ) I work on a light feeding in the morning ( a drop or two )  an add as needed at night.
I stopped setting up days before,not due to results, but less work as I need the tanks as so many things laying eggs.
                                                                     Thanks 
                                                                                        Doug

Thanks.  I think I do not set up the tank early enough.  Usually I do it a few minutes before the hatch.  I also want to try it with live phytoplankton, as I have been using the frozen stuff.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Live phytoplankton is a little more work, but it can be stored for later use. I have never tried the frozen phytoplankton. How long does it last for and how good are the results for rotifers and fish larvae ?

http://reedmariculture.com/product_rotigrow.php Most can be kept frozen for 2 years.
http://reedmariculture.co...ct_rotigreen_omega.php

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

For clownfish, it is just the same results as live.  But for other fish, I think Live is best.  Just my opinion.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Doug you have an excellent system, I love it. I am south of you, in MI, we have -12 F right now. So I appreciate your challenges, and how you handle them. I am looking forward to any updates on the system.

Jake
We are all in this together

Hello Jake,
                     Thanks, it's working good and this month it is two years old and no major problems. Holds about 30 pairs of clownfish.
ougald@live.ca">Dougald@live.ca

That's impressive Doug, I could keep you typing answers all night, but, will thin them out
 
What are you using for a first food for the neons?  I am impressed by what you are getting. I think its more then anyone else that I am aware of.
 
 

Jake
We are all in this together

Hello Jake,
For all my breeding I use live cultured rotifers ( Brachionus plicatilis ) and live cultured phytoplankton ( Nannochloropsis oculata ). And then after live cultured baby brine shrimp.
                                                                                                Thanks
                                                                                                            Doug
e-mail ougald@live.ca">Dougald@live.ca

Thanks, I was wondering mostly if the neons wanted something smaller at first like some of the copepods.  They sure make quite a picture  in the grow out tanks.

Jake
We are all in this together

Hello Jake,
I have been breeding for fifteen years and have never used copepods.I believe copepods have sharp appendages and some sizes might be too big for the larvae. I hope to use the same process with my green banded gobies and my hi fin gobies as I do with my neons and clownfish.
                        Doug
e-mail  ougald@live.ca">Dougald@live.ca

Doug, you're right on several counts.  Copepods typically have several tail spikes that would put a stegasauros to shame.   They're meant to jab through the cheek of a fish larvae, and it's true that most eventually get to 1mm in size which is twice the size of a baby brine shrimp and 4 times the size of a rotifer.  
 
However, because copepods are the natural food of almost all larvae, fish still find a way to eat them, especially the naups which don't have developed tail barbs.  And because copepods are typically available from 50 microns to 1,000 microns, you just need to size sort them and remove overgrown pods after several days like you'd remove overgrown artemia.  Copepods are more complex but their reward is higher also.
 
Certainly, for any fish that recognizes rotifers as food, that's what you should use.  But I think it was Martin Moe who once said "most fish, when presented with a choice between starvation and eating a rotifer, gladly choose starvation".  Or something to that effect.

Hi Doug
Yes, I have seen many copepods under a microscope. I was just wondering if the neon larvae were small enough to need copepods. I prefer rotifers too. The neons are a new species to me, thanks for your reply.

Jake
We are all in this together

Doug I tried to pm you but got a system message you didn't receive them. My email is jlevi_us@yahoo.com
 
 

Jake
We are all in this together