accidentally breeding yellow tail damsels. . .

[Timfish]

You'll need to feed live foods. Cardinal fish and some of the mouthbrooding gobies or blennies maybe but you'll have to do your research to see wht's the best way to raise them. There are supposedly some damsels that skip the larval stage that might be raised with prepared foods but it's been a couple decades since I remember reading anything about them.

 

[areefer01]

Maybe a dumb question, but I have only ever breed freshwater fish, will saltwater larva and fry eat tiny prepared foods (was thinking of trying coral foods as I have tons in various sizes), or will they only eat live foods?

Hi @MoshJosh. Good morning. No - I have not tried or know. I apologize.

I have to say that while I have a few different spawning fish (clowns and the sapphires previously) I have never tried to raise them. I never took the time to understand the various foods they will need as they go through their various stages or day to day change.

 

[hsosa]

My pair of yellow tails do the dance never seen the eggs I do see the female defending her coral home whenever this happens. I agree adding fish to a established reef is tough

 

[OrionN]

Your fish spawned. In order to be a breeder you got to successfully raise the babies.
I imagine the first food for these damsels are rotifers like the clowns. The eggs are smaller than clown eggs and so the fry are smaller too, thus may need smaller food.
I would get phytoplankton and get a rotifer culture start. Choose the smallest rotor left species that you find and likely you can be successful.
If I am you, I would raise clowns.

 

[albano]

…Likely purchased from live aquaria back in the day.

Yeah, if you had fish from LA that lived, it had to be from ‘back in the day’ … don’t expect that to happen again!

 

[dwest]

Yeah, if you had fish from LA that lived, it had to be from ‘back in the day’ … don’t expect that to happen again!

It was my go to place for many years. But I’m hearing that’s no more. Sad.

 

[McPuff]

I have a pair of azure damsels that are almost certainly spawning as well. It's basically impossible for me to see inside their little cave territory though. Oh well... no babies will make it out alive. Would be cool though.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Out of curiosity, what specific species of yellow tail damsel do you have? (I've heard that common name applied to at least three different species, and I'm not familiar enough with damsels to know for sure which it is based on the pic at the start of the thread.)

 

[MoshJosh]

Out of curiosity, what specific species of yellow tail damsel do you have? (I've heard that common name applied to at least three different species, and I'm not familiar enough with damsels to know for sure which it is based on the pic at the start of the thread.)

I believe they are chrysiptera parasema.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I believe they are chrysiptera parasema.

The paper linked below (the only one I can find with the specifics of rearing C. parasema) has some good info that may help if you want to rear the young - as mentioned, live foods (enriched rotifers followed by enriched Artemia) are likely necessary:

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breteschethibault.free.fr

 

[MoshJosh]

The paper linked below (the only one I can find with the specifics of rearing C. parasema) has some good info that may help if you want to rear the young - as mentioned, live foods (enriched rotifers followed by enriched Artemia) are likely necessary:

Loading…

breteschethibault.free.fr

I have a brine hatchery that works well, and I have had success keeping the LBB alive for days at a time. . . never raised rotifers though. . .

 

[MoshJosh]

The paper linked below (the only one I can find with the specifics of rearing C. parasema) has some good info that may help if you want to rear the young - as mentioned, live foods (enriched rotifers followed by enriched Artemia) are likely necessary:

Loading…

breteschethibault.free.fr

First food in the article is PUFA? Poly unsaturated fatty acids???

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

First food in the article is PUFA? Poly unsaturated fatty acids???

No - the abstract is confusing. Here's the first food as quoted from the article:
"The first feeding involved rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) at an average dimension of 239 μm. The cultures were maintained using Chlorella spp. as phytoplankton at a temperature of 25 °C. The effect of an enriched high polyunsaturated fatty acid PUFA diet was tested. To enrich the rotifers, use was made of commercial SELCON Concentrate (American Marine, USA), an omega3-fatty-acid-enriching product emulsified with vitamin B12, in accordance with the instructions provided by the company (1.5 ml of SELCON for every 1 l of rotifers culture (300 rotifers/ml) at 25 °C, 8– 10 h before use). The second zooplankton strain, Artemia nauplii, was introduced from day 19. Specifically, a small, decapsulated, HUFA-enriched commercial strain was used (INVE Technologies, Belgium) at a concentration of 5 nauplii/ml."

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Had a customer years ago that raised several types of clownfish for fun. Each breeding pair had its own 75 gallon tank with air driven Under Gravel filtration. This type of set up allowed him to separate the larva to other grow out tanks. Had live rock and macro algae as well as correct symbiotic anemone in all the tanks as well. The salt creep made a mess but it worked for him. He sold his fish through many local fish stores.

 

[Peter Houde]

I caught all the little ones and left the pair in the tank. . . not sure what I will do now. . .

Either try to breed them or. . . aggressive only tank???

Little ones? Do you mean to say you caught the hatched larvae? I've had at least three pairs breed for many years (and incidentally, they're great tank mates completely undeserving of the reputation of other damsels), but as soon as they hatch - they're food!

 

[Peter Houde]

You'll need to feed live foods. Cardinal fish and some of the mouthbrooding gobies or blennies maybe but you'll have to do your research to see wht's the best way to raise them. There are supposedly some damsels that skip the larval stage that might be raised with prepared foods but it's been a couple decades since I remember reading anything about them.

Not true. When mine first started to breed and I had a position at the Smithsonian I consulted with someone who oversaw their reef. She bred them and gave me some of their own mix of dry food that she used. I don't remember what she said was in it. To be honest, I never gave it try because it required getting the larvae into their own tank so they wouldn't get eaten. So, I've just been satisfied knowng that my damsels are happy enough to breed, watching the eggs develop eyes and eventually hatch out. As soon as they do, there's another crop of eggs.

 

[Timfish]

Not true. When mine first started to breed and I had a position at the Smithsonian I consulted with someone who oversaw their reef. She bred them and gave me some of their own mix of dry food that she used. I don't remember what she said was in it. To be honest, I never gave it try because it required getting the larvae into their own tank so they wouldn't get eaten. So, I've just been satisfied knowng that my damsels are happy enough to breed, watching the eggs develop eyes and eventually hatch out. As soon as they do, there's another crop of eggs.

I stand corrected. You don't ahve any idea at all what was in it or a formula? Everything I've read is prepared foods either are to large Will polute a tank too quickly due to the large amount of food needed to get particles infront on larva that don't swim (even rotifers can cause issues and daily cleaning may be needed). Or because the larva are looking for something swimming they don't strike at particulate food.

 

[MoshJosh]

So I got one of the breeder boxes I mentioned. . . and the holes are too large and the fry will certainty escape/flow through them. . . I will probably need a hang on box or a separate tank. . . just worried about keeping a little nano rearing tank stable.

That said I did try to catch a few eggs using my little pipette thing. . . I got like 5. . .

I did observe an interesting behavior that I have only seen once before and that was in dwarf cichlids. I got some air in the egg cave and the larger (think the male) damsel took mouthfuls of air and spit it outside the cave. . . very cool to see.

 

[MoshJosh]

3rd spawn. . . I'm still not set up (no roti culture). . . but I was able to successfully collect some of the damsel eggs. . . and got them to hatch in the breeder box: (tiny grey white spec)

I do have phyto "live", and some other liquid foods I have been adding to the breeder box (best I can do without roti) and will try to get a culture set up. I do have some "apex pods" I could try to culture, but I assume those are too big?

 

[MoshJosh]

So, I have 2 rotifer cultures going, managed to harvest/catch a bunch of larva and move them to the breeder box. . . but think I was not feeding heavily enough.

By my guess I started with 25+ larva and as of this morning I can only see one. . .

I can dfinitly feed more/higher concentration in the future. . . just got to wait. . .