Ron Popeil

find me! http://www.myspace.com/thebrainhuntsalone

is anyone from the northern territories heading south to salem or better still corvallis anytime soon? if so, contact me!

ill take him!

a big no no in a glass box (lots of a. malanopus with a. chrysopterus) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2259903099869459278&q=anemonefish&hl=en fascinating to watch, especially with my most favorite clownfish dominating, like here: (a. chrysopterus): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6268817212306789517&q=anemonefish&hl=en and for anyone who thinks they may have too much flow over their anemones (this is a mertens carpet anemone with another pair of chrysopterus clowns) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=703241888929020180&q=clownfish&hl=en so much to watch!

i have used radiums for the last 3 years. i thoroughly enjoy them and recommend them as much as i can. well done.

there have been people who have maintained haddoni carpet anemones in lower lighting long term. mertens and gigantaes are the real light loving carpets. however, youll probably find your blue coloration will hold better under more intense lighting, as the color essentially is the anemones way of defending itself....ie like skin tanning in humans. you may find the anemone leaving the sand and heading up on rocks, or stretching out to a greater extent. all symptoms of the anemone striving for more light absorption. i would definetely suggest going as bright as you can, and halides would only help your anemone do better long term.

i am a huge fan of refugiums. i have always had one on my systems, and i think they make a terrific difference in terms of water quality and stability. i also utilize a larger refugium than most. with my 60 cube and 45 cube running to my 75 refugium, i am allowed an excessive amount of feedings, infrequent water changes and a nice big tank to put extra things. my sand is not very deep in there. maybe just over two inches, at the very deepest. i have a large amount of excessive live rock in there. and about once a month or two i completely harvest all the of the four types of macroalgae that completely fills the tank. im trying to spawn my two pairs of clowns, and so i feed a tremendous amount of food. a ridiculous amount even. and i never have ammonia, nitrite or nitrate problems. fish will die, if i dont find the bodies, no ammonia spike. my anemones are massive, and expell a tremendous amount of waste as well. still, no problems with water quality. i use the tank to house stray fish. fish i dont want in my main display. fish and corals for babysitting. in a disaster, i can have it set up and ready to go as a lifeboat. refugiums are definetely worth their continued use. in my opinion.

the original topic was to bring out information in regards to hormonal stimulation of clownfish, ideally from marine biologists and then from fish breeders, and to open up a discussion of its use and practice, concerns, etc. the ultimate goal, however, was the potential application of hormones in the realm of hobbyist use. as far as i know, alot of the gains in our hobby have to be made by us: fragging and coral propogation, the breeding of fish such as bangaii cardinals, dottybacks, and clownfish, anemone propogation, captive bred seahorses, exploration with nutritional needs, and experimentation with equipment to create better systems for our inhabitants to thrive in. but why just for the wants of the hobbyist? because hobbyists like you and i are the ones responsibile the undue strain, and to seperate us from that as much as possible is a terrific goal to strive for, and this can only be achieved by captive propagation. i am by no means a scientist, but my natural curiousity to figure out the needs of my particular clownfish and yes their breeding practices shouldnt have to come only after ive aqcuired a degree. if fish farmers and hatcheries are using hormones to produce captive bred fish, what are the steps a hobbyist has to take in order experiment with it on less commonly seen species of fish, whether clownfish or otherwise? i apologize if i came across as bragging, i was hoping the majority of this discussion would be clear that its sole purpose is conservation of a delicate species and all species of clownfish, not a pompous show off of a new toy. of the 28 species of clownfish in existence, only six or so are ever continually available as captive bred. im working to improve that.

once i get my prop system up, im going to start with my rhodactis mushrooms...

thank you guys for your compliments. jansen, thats interesting that dale would have those. i suppose i should go talk with him a bit about what he has, if you get any more information from him, let me know... an interesting piece of information i was told of involved freshwater breeders. they would take the water from a tank of successfully breeding fish, and pour it into a nonbreeding pairs tank to stimulate them to breed, with successful results. on a centralized system this might be interesting to see if applicable to saltwater. reefboy, what sort of system are setting up?

just thought i would introduce some exciting new developments with anemone propogation. its been discussed alot lately over on the RC anemone and clownfish forum, but to my knowledge not actually put into practice until very recently. it all started with some lectures by anthony calfo, and his work with the method of literally cutting an anemone down the middle in order to acheive two perfectly healthy anemones. alot of people have said they were going to try it, and then nothing, but a prominant figure in the forum, phil (phender) decided to actually do it. taking information from calfo, he took his large and very healthy s. mertensii carpet anemone and diced it. the following link is to his fascinating thread. things to consider: his anemone was very healthy and had been for years. even after two rinses in buckets, the anemone still emitted enough slime to kill off all his fish he has plenty of experience with anemone husbandry and finally, the thread is still very recent, no definetive proof it works, even though calfo swears its a completely functional method of reproductive and propogation. enjoy! http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=921143

the reason i feel this would be an important endeavour to explore is not so we can have more clarki or ocellaris clowns, clown species that are typically easy to breed, hence their ease of availability. but species that, in my opinion, are far more attractive and exciting, such as a. chrysopterus or a. latezonatus; that are not necessarily rare in the wild but rare in the hobby essentially because of how poorly they ship after collection. ive heard reports that a. chrysopterus have a 60% loss rate at just the wholesalers, and after that a dismal rate of making it long term into someones aquarium. many wholesalers dont bother stocking this species of fish due to this, and this is the same for many species: allardi, nigripes, akindynos, bicinctus. so the difficulties there lay in first just receiving a healthy fish, then trying to acquire two healthy fish to make a pair, waiting for the pair to bond and then settle into nesting habits. with fish that are notorious for not making it past even the QT stage, just keeping them alive is the most important factor. then there are other species that collection sites limit or exclude the clownfish from rarely if ever making it to the market. these clowns are spectacular in their appearance and behavior as well: a. latezonatus, a. mccullochi, a. fuscocaudatus, a. chrysogaster and of course a. omanensis. many of these fish are only found in such remote locations that divers rarely if ever make the effort to collect fish from these areas, and as with the case of omanensis, a personal grant of approval from the sultan of oman is needed to collect his species of clownfish. so collection/shipping distance and transport mortality rates i feel are reasons that when the species ive listed are acquired, and healthy, its important to the hobby and for conservation reasons to do what we can to keep stable wild populations free from collection. so yes, in theory many clown pairs of any species should breed if given the appropriate environments. but just what an appropriate environment for a clownfish like a. ocellaris, a fish that for thousands of generations has been bred in standardized fashion in hatcheries and farms worldwide, hasnt been so apparent for fish such as a. chrysopterus. hence the many people that do successfully maintain this species of fish, even years after having a pair, still have yet to see a clutch of eggs. i think it would be great if all species of clownfish could be captive raised and wild populations left alone. so is there some impatience in me? yes. but there also is a drive to show off a collection of 28 species of fish i find absolutely stunning. and ultimately, a desire to figure out the most rapid ways to keep our greedy hands out of the reef, via captive breeding, before collection ruins what for many of us is our most favorite part of the world.

THANK GOODNESS ITS BACK!

A STING RAY BARB TO THE HEART!!! what a maniac.

so i know that fresh water fish farmers often, if not always, use injected hormones to stimulate or induce breeding in their fish. im assuming, fish biologists synthesized the chemicals the fish would naturally produce, increased the dosage and discovered that injecting the fish vastly increased the liklihood of breeding. now to cross over to clownfish, is something like this possible or already in application? in more detail, it would be fascinating to hear from anyone with experience with these sexual hormones in fish, particularly clownfish, and discuss why or why not this same process is possible in clownfish.... are there any studies i can read on sexual hormones in saltwater fish, or even their synthesis and replication? is this an area of little study? or is it too much like cheating that it robs the standard fish breeder the challenge of using environmental factors to induce breeding?

hey ryan, sorry about not getting back to you. ive been busy...and lazy. im definetely going to take you up, i just need....a water recepticle. a thin one that holds a decent amount of water. any ideas? im looking for something thats maybe 2 feet or so long and less than 12 inches wide. and waterproof. ill be contacting you soon ryan.

a random check at the new arrivals in the sponsors forum got me thinking about a drive to portland. saltwater fantaseas had blue stripe clowns listed, so i took the bait and made the drive. traffic was terrible on 205 so i snuck through portland. the drive was seemingly endless, but ultimately, very much worth it. patrick and lise were incredibly warm and welcoming, and the play area kept my son very entertained and occupied. the most extensive collection of wrasses ive ever seen and a vastly colorful sps tank....but the real purpose of the visit were the clowns. and i was blindsided by what patrick had brought in. a collected pair of vanuatu white tailed chrysopterus clowns along with the anemone they had been caught in. a purple heteractis crispa. the trio was amazing. exactly what i wanted in every way. patrick realized this, and helped me out with the sale. he proposed a very generous offer, and i now have the last and best parts of my collection because of it. thank you patrick and lise, very much. now, for some terrible pictures that do the three no justice! here are my two systems: chrysopterus on the left, nigripes on the right now, to just sit back and wait. eggs, and lots of them.

anyone have a 1.5 inch holesaw that i can borrow? i think i have a 1 inch bulkhead, and i need to cut through some acrylic to install it. let me know what youve got! 541.908.4552 thank you!

what about a species of peanut worm?

ill take him if you catch him....

im up in the portland area on a pretty regular basis, it wouldnt be too difficult for me to collect what needs to come south and bring it to at least corvallis...

ill want one. thanks!

how many members are keeping mantis shrimps? do you have any pictures of your set ups? ill have some pictures of my peacock mantis shrimp tank soon...

yes, Dr. Roy. he helped me with a proposed behavioral study on stomatopods and maze abilities, similar to mice and maze trials for a psychology class. very nice, and very well studied on his stomatopods. this is actually a video he made back in the 80s during a study on a mantis shrimps ability to figure out where food was in small plastic cubes. they had to break small glass panels on the different colored cubes to figure out which ones contained food....apparently they learned very quickly. and then something about one day he was walking by a store, saw that the rubik cube was the same size as the cubes in their trials, and made a short little video...which then was featured on some BBC program.

http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/caldwell/cube1.htm