I want to start breeding clowns and sell them back to my lfs to get credits so I can get better equipment and be the small fraction of the hobby that helps take the dependence off our natural reefs, so what would be the easiest clown to breed? Where can I go or what book out there has really good info for me to read?

Amphiprion occellaris and Amphiprion clarkii are probably the easiers, but most of the Amphiprion genus are similair.

one tip, dont get into this with the intention of making money, it takes almost a year before the fish are at a marketable size, that a lot of time and tanks to handle if you want a steady income from it..

that said, the best place to start is with a book called Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson

in short, its incredibly frustrating, and incredibly rewarding at the same time.. :) (like everything else we do)

Oh no I dont want to make a living breeding clownfish, I just want to use what ever money I get or through trading, to aquire better equipment for a bigger and better tank. My wife cant say no to equipment that I worked hard at getting. I have another question, what makes more money; coral fragging or breeding fish?

I do pretty good selling and trading corals. however I'm not sure whats cheaper to start lol. I guess coral fragging would be because you probably already have a lot of stuff in your house you can use but if you are like me you want this bucket, those snips, and the fact that corals cost more when you buy the first one. Best thing to do is learn all you can and get all your equipment and then go to a frag swap and buy frags to grow. They will be a lot cheaper The thing about coral fragging is they grow faster and you can manipulate them a little to help growth. with fish you can't really play Marvin Gay and hope for the best. lol :) I would say take a stab at soft corals and see what happens.

FYI, you will probably be selling and trading frags more than rocks full of zoo's or something for 40-60 dollars. You will be selling frags about the size of golf balls for around 15-20 dollars every 2 months or so. Hope that helps lol :)

One of my buddies in my club here told me at the last meeting that he is making about $200-300 a month from his frags. He has a fish room, multiple tanks and lots of types of corals so its not like me with one tank. :)

lol thanks guys for the info, wow 200-300, yea I dont I will be that involved just something to do on the side to try and help the coral reefs. Sorry if that sounds corny but thats the way I feel. I am very afraid for the future of our trade.

That is exactly why I am involved with ProjectDIBS.

Is that website up and running yet?

Sure is! I've been a member there for several months and am in the Pocillopora Breeders Challenge. Project DIBS (http://www.ProjectDIBS.com) Check it out. :)

WOW that site is great. Thats what I am talking about. I hope it catches on and people get into it. With so much to be concerned with in the world, just talking about how the worlds reefs are being destroyed is just not going to cut it. We need to bring education and and make a physical effort to save the reef. The problem is convincing the rest of the marine hobby that the marine life they are purchasing might not be harvested correctly and that they should be buying tank raised species. Anyway I am rambaling. There is a lot out there that I would like to learn about.

Consider signing up as a breeder. Right now we are a drop in the ocean but I think that it is going to be grassroots people like us that will make the difference.

I am going to as soon as I move to my new condo, I am starting true perc breeding. Nothing big to start just a mated pair. I will be starting in about 2 months. Right now I am doing the prelimanary research. Actually what confuses me is are fish part of this program?

No, just inverts.

ahh thats what I thought, sorry for the stupid question.

Questions are never a problem as far as I am concerned. :)

So to register with DIBS I have to have an established propagation tank right?Right now I am in the planning phases of my frag tank.

You can register as a member of DIBS at any time. You could also start breeding some of the inverts in your display tank.

Great! Well I just tore down my 29gal. display tank for the move to my new condo. I am actually going with a propagation tank. Down in my new finished basement there is this huge utility room that I can start putting propagation tanks into. I am starting off slow and puttig what very little money I get back into buying new corals and then better lighting, and more tanks. Dont worry I am under no illusion how slowly this plan will unfold. God know my lfs won't give me much for a frag of zoanthids. I asked what corals are selling really well and what they really want to buy, and he said FROGSPAWN!! He said he has to much xenia, I guess people are just giving xenia frags to them.