Nauticus

I have 2 Darwins Clowns in a 20G tank that seem very interested in one another. They appear to be courting and have been for the past several months. I don't have an anenome but they seem to host in the macro algae and like the flower pot cave I put in for them a week ago. The Female likes to sit in there for most of the day even though my male two-spot goby likes to hang out in there at the same times. I have no idea about my water chemistry other than the fact that the tank has been up for almost 14 months and seems very stable. I have about 25 lbs of live rock and a coralife 130 watt compact fluro on the tank that stays on for about 10 - 12 hours a day. Tank mates include a midas blenny, lawnmower blenny, six-line wrasse, 2 1 inch banggai cardinals, a sharknose goby, the two-spot pair, and some other cute little grey goby. I am curious about breeding these fish. Can anyone give me some tips or hints? Thanks

In a 20 gallon, I often keep about 5-8 snails and the same number of hermits. I prefer the scarlet legged hermits as they are less destructive to corals. In feeding, I cook up a batch of frozen foods ranging from brineshrimp, mysis, cyclops, and even spirulina enriched cichlid chow with a pinch of NLS grow pellets. THen I mix in one capful or Marine Snow for my corals. I have never kept the brian so I can't help you there. All I know is my fish are all happy, eat well, and showing excellent color. My corals grow and frag regularily. For my feeding I tend to do what I said above once every other day and on the off days I just sprinkle in the grow pellets twice a day. Also the frozen may seem like a lot but it is the mix that I give to all of my tanks, betta included, so you will want to downsize it a bit. Hope that is a bit helpful. Also keep in mind this is only what I do and what works for me. I keep mostly little gobies and blennies in a 20G nano reef. I also have clowns and breed two types of cardinals in 30-Gs

I only had to do that once, but it wasn't so severe, it was for my four turtles. Hope your fish are all okay.

I too love the independant store where you can walk in and get the friendly hello from a person that knows your name and what you have in your tanks at home. They aren't pushy and they already have some clue what to small talk with you about or suggest for your tanks. That experience is worth driving the extra mile for me. I also find that on most livestock there is a price drop on the LFS where as the chains tend to charge a pretty penny.

That looks awesome. I have a 10G cherry shrimp farm and was thinking of adding a fish but thought that any fish would eat the shrimp. Do the rainbows eat them?

I have kept all of the above listed fish and it is my experience that the Pearl and moonlight tend to be a little less aggressive and more beuatiful than the other mid sized gouramis. If you plant the snot out of the tank and keep the flow nice and gentle you should have a sweet tank with a pair of female bettas, a couple of croakers, and a pair of pearls or moonlights. Surface floating plants and thicker growing bushy plants are the way to go. That or some mosses with some drift woods and the floating plants. They give the little guys places to hide and territory to stake. Have fun with them they are all great fish.

Too True on the shrimp lunch thing. However the goby should still be okay. Sorry I didn't know what you had in there.

A few natural options for you would be to always have a cleaner shrimp of some variety or another and a neon or shark nose goby. I have had my Salt tanks for years without one disease outbreak. Sometimes I find various fish with ich etc. and a day later there is no sign of it. The goby is good at cleaning the fish and the shrimp keep the goby clean. I hate to use chemicals especially when there is so much in a salt tank that will take a beating from them.

Sweet, probably still problematic if you have cats.

Sweet looking monster.

Hey thanks for the suggestions and the help. it is much appreciated. Usually if I do everything you have said will all the fry live or is the some normal level of die off?

It is hard to tell exactly which they are as they are still so new to the tank and are probably not displaying their full colours yet. They are about 3.5 - 4.5 inches long and are a very orange/ golden hue with tons of turquoise speckles especially on the fins. Aside from the speckles the base colour of the fins are blood red. This leads me to believe that they are Hemichromis lifalili as that site also says that they can have golden yellow coloration. Who knows. Thanks for you help, I will get the food you all suggest and unfortunately I can't move my other fish at this time so they will have to tough it out. How do I care for the fry or will the parents do that for me? Water changes how often? Do I need to kill the flow on my filter? Right now it is about 295 G/hr. How do I ensure that the food makes it down to them on the substrate? Thanks again for helping me out.

I have only had my breeding pair of Jewels for 3 days now but already there are 100+ eggs. The tank has only been running for 3 days also. I guess they are comfortable. Anyway, the thing is they pushed my Kribs out of their cave and then proceeded to lay their eggs like stucco all over the exterior. The one sits outside and watches them while the other proceeded to push my Kribs out of the second cave, which is only a few inches away, where he sits inside and ambushes anyone who ventures too close. This is my first ever freshwater egg laying, and I have no idea how long until they hatch and then what to feed them etc. Can anyone help me? The tank is a 55G planted and there are the two Jewels, 3 juv. Angels, and 4 juv, Kribs right now. Thanks.

Jewels