Retiremrnt home for clowns

[melsteve]

Hi Ihave posted in thpast that of 7 prs I had 3 spawning well things eem to have come to a halt and and I cannot work out why. I went away for 3 weeks and had some one looking after system and fish were only getting fed once a day and ones that were laying stopped but I expected this and thought be able to get them going again easy enough but its now nearly 3 months
I have 6prs in a recerculating system that contains 15 tanks that are 2x18x18 I have Gsm and normal maroons Perca Occsx2 and Tomato. The system holds around 1500litres and is housed in a fish room .Water is skimmed heavily with skimmer rated for twice system capacity Bio tower and no UV fish are fed 2-3 times a day depending on my work load they get flake in the morning and mix of brine mysis bloodmarine green with seco added at night spread over about half an hour .
Water changes are around 200 litre a week when tanks are vacumed Temp is stable at 27c and drops maybe 1 degree on water change Salinty and ph never move some fish have been in this system nearly 15 months and there has not been a death in the system apart from one jumper.
The prs are breeding prs and breeding prior to buying except tomato clown (jumper) which I have paired up to another one but wether they breed or not dont know
Any thoughts suggestions on how to get them moving or back doing it
Regard Steve

[JHardman]

Hi Steve

Something has changed that you have not found yet.

Here is a plan of attack...

1) Change the food, feed three times a day regardless of the time of day, get three to saturation feedings in with fatty foods. As little as (3) hours between feedings if need be.

2) Check the lighting. If I remember right, you have them in a separate building with sky lights (?). Look for things that would let stray light into the room.

3) If you do not have a nest within a month of changing the food/feeding time to show them winter and bring them back to spring/summer. Over the course of a month or so, drop the temp by 3°-6° and reduce the photo period to under 12 hours. Stay there for a month, then over the course of a month move back to your regular temp and photo period.

4) Start simulating plankton blooms with BBS twice a day, once just after lights on, and one about an hour before lights out.

[melsteve]

Hi thanks reply the room is light proof so to speak and only light is from from globes but I am going to add a night light and do as you have suggested with regard to feeding and photoperiod reduction and see how it goes.
Regards Steve