Apogon margaritophorus - FISH PORN!

[mwp]

DID IT! GOT IT ON VIDEO! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm freakin' exhausted and it looks like the spawn I caught was a total BOTCH job on their part. More thoughts soon and I'll post the vids here first as a THANKS for all the GREAT HELP! So watch this thread...I'll get them UP ASAP and will post Quicktimes for ya Frank

The one thing I'll mention right now is that it DIDN'T happen quickly this time around. It looked like the female had a very hard time passing her egg mass. It also looked like the male literally ate them straight from her ovipositor....the nips he took from the mass are definitely NOT in his mouth but in his stomach! That's a record time for the shortest cardinalfish brood ever!!!

Well, this should all be very interesting. SOON, very soon!

Matt

 

[mwp]

Quicktime vids are being uploaded as I type this....they should be online by this evening!

Matt

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, here are the vid links - they're quicktime format, straight out of the camera. In a nutshell, I started shooting video at 10:19 PM last night. A lot of heavy courtship, circling and vibrating between the female and male #2. Shortly before 12:00, the ovipositor appeared on the female A. margaritophorus and soon thereafter, eggs started to appear.

Knowing how quickly they've done it in the past, I expected it to take almost no time once things finally got underway. However, by 12:25 AM this morning there were still eggs hanging from her belly, and all three "chunks" off the egg mass that the male took from her belly were EATEN IMMEDIATELY. I'm going to chalk it up to WAY too much distrubance in and out of the tank.

So, here ya go - 10 videos of an UNSUCCESSFUL spawning of Apogon margaritophorus . The total file size, should you download all 10, is around 149 MB and they make up around 10 minutes in length.

Courtship & "False runs"? - 1-16-06 - 10:28 PM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0461good.MOV

Ovipositor is down - 1-16-06 - 11:52 PM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0499gg.MOV

Male takes a small chunk of white eggs from the female's abdomen - 1-17-06 - 12:03 AM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0506firstbite.MOV

Male takes another chunk of eggs - 1-17-06 - 12:06 AM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0509secondbite.MOV

Female's dorsal seems to "pump" as she tries to push out the eggs - 1-17-06 - 12:09 AM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0511push.MOV

Something brings out the snails, perhaps the male released sperm? - 1-17-06 - 12:10 AM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0513snailspush.MOV

Three vids of the female with her ever-growing large egg mass:
1-17-06 - 12:18 AM, 12:19 AM and 12:21 AM respectively.
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0518bigeggs.MOV
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0519bigeggs2.MOV
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0521bigeggs3.MOV

The male takes another chunk of eggs from the female's abdomen and devours them immediately (compare his size now to his girth at the start of this video series) - 1-17-06 - 12:22 AM
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN0522bite3.MOV

There ya go!

MP

 

[LotR Clown]

I watched the first vid with the male taking the eggs from the female. I didn't see any type of fertilization. Could this be why he's eating them? Cool vids btw.

 

[mwp]

I honestly can't say for sure if or at what point there was fertilization. I suspect it happens very quickly...kinda like a small "puff" and that's it. For that matter, if the sperm is "clear" in the water we'd never see it anyways....

I agree, it's something I've thought about....

Matt

 

[sagitariuscbc]

i share in your excitement!
i love the women's voice in the back ground in one of the clips. "you've been in their face all night!" or something like that. LOL

i currently have a male Apogon cyanosoma with eggs in it's mouth. i want to learn as much as possible and give it a go on raising them up.

shawn!~)

 

[mwp]

LOL, I thought I editted out all the audio That's Renee...she's not quite as enthused about the BREEDING...she just likes her pair of Onxy Percs and the firefish. She can't STAND my Apogon leptacanthus (they're way too plain).

Yeah, the only tough part I'm coming up against so far is getting them to hold to term, so I've built some egg tumblers like we'd use for incubating the eggs of moothbrooding cichlids...next spawn I can I'm gonna get those eggs and get them in the tumbler.

If your cyanosoma hold, it sounds like you'll have to start with Rotifers for a week or two before BBS is an option....I haven't gotten that far yet so I can't tell ya!

Matt