Breeding Log - Psuedoanthias bimaculatus

[Grunt]

I was watching my mandarins at the time. When this began to take place. I took over 800 pictures last night. Sorry they arent the best, too many to go through though.

So it began at 5:30 pm in the actinic hour. The male bimac is the largest and most colorful anthias in my tank. He runs the show. i have 4 P. dispar which have not deciphered whos male and who isnt.

So the male begin to do big U's under one particular fish. At first I thought he had a three letter word disease not allowed in my house (starts with I). So I watched intently.

Then I noticed the female bimac, her stomach was huge, like a marble.

Here is the behavior that I noted during this time period.

The female goes through the underpass in the right bommie. The male circles the right bommie, then circlces the left. He then rests on the brain. Weird fish I thought.

The U shaped swooping that he was doing was in the middle channel between the two bommies. The clarkii attempted to push them away from the area.

4 rituals like this, same thing everytime. Female retreats, he circles, lays on the brain. Then the two went to the surface together and splashed some. Next thing I know the other 4 anthias and the clarkii shoot to the top of the tank and begin eating stuff. It was like i had fed. I assume it was eggs.

6 more cycles commenced, female retreats, he circles, lays on brain. They surfaced again, splashed, and the feeding frenzy happened again. This time I was able to get quite alot. I took some pictures. I think they are eggs.

Other notable mentions- fed 4 times today -a mixture of frozen brine, cyclopeeze, formula one pellets, new marine pellets, selcon and garlic xtreme.

She also stayed with the other anthis when the male wasnt swooping around her. Also she has been staying at the backside of the right bommie near the sand, not sure what she is doing. The clarkii is attempting to push her away, she just comes back though.

So here we go....

Took 14 pictures out of a ton for now. I wish I could put a bunch of pictures together in a slide show to show the moments.

I'm going to work on that....

This is my tank in the actinic, I took this to show the bommies (rock piles)...tank is a Standard 90gal RR

So here is the male.

Here is the female.

Together.

 

[Grunt]

Two pictures from throughout the night of them flashing each other..

i can't show like 30 pictures to show the swooping so I drew it in some pictures to show the motion..

 

[Grunt]

This is the male when he was resting on or near the brain coral.

Those images are all seperate occasions.

Here is the moment of egg release and splashing.

And what I was able to collect in a hurry before stuff was eaten. I attempted to highlight the things that I collected.

Right now the eggs are in a 2.5gal tank with air being pumped into it. Its 13 hours since eggs dispersal. I haven't seen anything free swimming yet, still see clear globules floating around.

I'm attempting my best to document this information since I dont know of anyone who is working with anthias.

The first challenge for me is to find the proper first food.

 

[billsreef]

:thumbsup:

Keep those eggs in suspension. Some sort of homemade small kriesel tank or a MacDonald hatching jar would work best.

 

[Grunt]

I'm not sure if I properly aerated the eggs,or if they were even fertile. It's about 29 hours since they were laid. Still just moving in my tank, no visible fry.

I also don't know what day they would develop a mouth, so I'm not sure when first foods should be added.

I do not have a microscope of good quality to verify.

 

[Grunt]

I will be attempting the kriesel method for the next batch. I think temperature may be an issue. Fry tank was at 76C. Going to bump it to 80-82 for next batch.

 

[Grunt]

Eggs haven't hatched. I am thinking its a temperature issue or a water motion issue. Going to try the kriesel method next batch got some small bowls today. Mandarin eggs didnt hatch either.

Spawning took place at 6:05. I was trying to take better pictures of the event. I wasn't ready when they released, and all the other fish came in to eat. Pumps were all still on, eggs were everywhere in the tank.

Next time i will have to cut the pumps and collect quickly.

 

[billsreef]

Give the eggs some more time, if they haven't fungussed they might still be viable.

 

[Grunt]

They have been spawning everyday at around 4:30 to around 5:30. I was able to collect ONE egg today. Not much but I'm happy. As soon as they released it was like a dinner bell rang and all my other fish shot to the surface.

Its in my kriesel atm circulating. Will update if fry hatch. Or if I collect anymore eggs.

Other intresting note, the male was splashing alot more at the surface today, and doing tight circles around the female coaxing her near the surface. Otherwise the ballet was the same.