Need Feedback: Working to breed Antenneta Lionfish

[Mendes]

The only Lionfish known to be breed in captivity is the shortfin according to my knowledge.

A friend just got accepted to Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia for the Marine Biology Course. We are officially going to try to breed Antenneta Lionfish's. Our studies will be documented bi-weekly, with complete conditions.

The setup is something like this.

260Gal Custom Built tank
6x Antenneta Lionfish
Misc Shrimp and Snails
200lbs of LR
5" of LS

35Gal Custom Built tank
used souly as a brine shrimp hatchery

53 Gal Custom Tank
QT Purposes Only

53Gal Sump Tank

I will be using a complete RO/DI setup

My tanks will almost be filled with live rock as the lionfish are cave dwellers. i will also be giving them little to no light.

Any tips or feedback will be greatly appreciated.

 

[bound_for_obx]

When do you start?
Keep us posted!
Best Wishes!

 

[BillyZ]

you're going to feed them more than brine shrimp I hope?

 

[Mendes]

Construction begins next week on the tanks.

Already me and my partner have decided to make a few changes. The main tank will now be 529 Gallons instead of the previously planned 260 gallons. meaning all my other tanks now must be larger.

The main tank is 529 Gallons (94"x36"x36")

The spare tanks are going to be different sizes also. The QT Tank will be 53 gallons still, the brine shrimp hatchery will be smaller (22 Gallons). But i will be using a much bigger sump tank now.

The tank preperation is going to be very intensive as per my partners research we will be making the tank very "cave like". there will be man made caves throughout the whole tank.

The fish are going to get little to no light also which is going to be hard on the LR and LS.

We have a projected date of Oct 1, 2004 to put the fish in.

The diet will be misc shrimp and crustations (no dead food)

 

[Mendes]

We are doing some research now to find if we can almost flood the sump tanks with 6" of LS and 300+lbs of LR as the sump tank can get sufficient light and just use that to run the main tank.

Lionfish are used to living in very dark conditions and this is one of the reason we assume breeding has been unsuccessful

 

[bound_for_obx]

How is your project going?