Breeding Log: Yellow Watchman Goby

[Travis L. Stevens]

I believe that NicoleC was having them breed more often. I'll have to re-read her thread though. I think mine are honeymooners. I think the male is bigger at the moment, but the female will eventually grow larger and begin to change colors. The smaller one of mine is so drab compared to the larger one. It's hard to tell in the pictures.

This one is pretty accurate in color, but their place in the tank doesn't lend a good proportion to their size.

 

[graveyardworm]

Here's my ywg pair, and their first egg batch. 1st pic the female is left, and male right.

2nd pic the ever watchful male making sure I'm not up to anything.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Awesome David. Thanks for posting that. So, the PVC that you have in there. Was that originally to hold your rocks up, or did you intentionally place it there for them?

 

[graveyardworm]

Yeah the PVC is there to support the rocks, but it was installed with the YWG's in mind figuring that they would dig under the LR. The YWG's have claimed two of them for nesting areas which they seem to alternate between.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

October 16, 2006 - December 4, 2006
Not much has really changed in the tank. They have stayed in the same home this whole time. Just last night, I added a clay pot cut in half near their back door that they occassionally frequent in hopes that they will at least lay there once so I know that they are producing eggs. Also, the female has darkened up slightly and is now more visibly different than the male. She has faint bands and around the edge of her lips is a fine line of grey. We'll see though.

 

[graveyardworm]

Interesting that this thread just popped up cause I just took some pics and was logging on to post. For whatever reason a clutch of ywg eggs is stuck to a little patch of caulerpa in the wide open. I think the flow from my new PH may have unstuck them from their normal location. They are also a strange color so pehaps they were getting ready to drop of and float anyway. Here's what they look like. The parents did seem a little concerned, and unsure of what to do.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Wow! That is a really cool picture. Thank you for sharing.

 

[graveyardworm]

I wanted to add that while I'm not sure if all ywg females are gray, it was over a month after mine had fully changed color before I saw eggs. Hopefully that helps provide some sort of timing for you as to when you might expect your first spawn.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Thanks David. I suspected that would be the case.

FWIW, I came home yesterday in hopes to find a clutch of eggs in their half-pot. Of course, they didn't lay any eggs, but it was worth hoping for. But, instead to my surprise, my Turbo Snail decided it was the world's best home. He took up the whole clay pot. I did notice that the female would occassionally come out the back door and sit on the pot a while. But, I didn't get to see anything come of this. I had been holding various critters for a friend, and he came to pick them all up. In order to do so, I had to move the clay pot. But, I put it right by the main entrance this time. Hopefully they will explore it since they can see it's empty when they first come out of their home. Before, the way it was set up, they could sit on it from the exit hole and never know that it was empty inside.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

April 16, 2007: MILESTONE ACHIEVED - FIRST SPAWNING
Okay, well, it's not confirmed. Sunday, April 15th at 10:00 pm, the female was showing hints of striping, her tummy was swollen, and her ovipositer was bulging. I knew right then that she was going to lay sometime VERY soon. On Monday, April 16th at 4:00 pm, I saw the female come out with a thin stomach, and the male wasn't to be seen. In the entire 8 more hours that I was home and before I went to sleep, I only saw the male come out once and it was very brief. I can only assume that they spawned because the female is very aggressive towards others that get close to the opening to her den. Man, have these guys grown since I first got them. Here are pictures of the female before the lights went out at about 10:00 pm last night

 

[graveyardworm]

Good news. No color change though. Are you going to attempt the first batch of fry? I've been trying to get some good shots of my pair, especially the female, she has developed some beautiful color.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Well, yesterday the male and female were hanging out in front of the tank most of the time. Either they are comfortable enough to leave the egg mass alone, they didn't spawn, or something happened to the eggs. Who knows. My female still has the same hinted stripes. I can't get a good picture of her from the side.

Graveyardworm: No, I won't be attempting to raise any batches for some time. I need to get my culture station back up and running from the move, and I want it culturing at full strength. I'll need to get a new rotifer culture, innoculate all my phyto again, and try to find a ciliate culture.

 

[l34nn3]

Hi.

I bought a YWG and didn't see it for 2 weeks and assumed it was dead and bought another. Now I have 2... I thought they were both the same sex as both are the same colour until I spotted 3 fry hiding in plain view behind my stickon ammoalert (no they weren't some sort of pod). I tried to scooping them with a net but it interested my clowns too much and they got eaten

A couple of questions - will my female change colour eventually and do you have any tips on raising the fry?

 

[graveyardworm]

The color of the YWG's isnt necessarily an indication of sex. My female which had gone from yellow to gray, has for some reason changed back to yellow.

Everything I read indicated the the fry are very difficult to raise. I havent even made a valid attempt due to a lack of time to raise appropriate foods which from others experience is copepods. To date I havent ound any hobbyist success with raising the fry to adulthood. One hobbyist came real close that I'm aware of, shegoes by NicoleC ( with or without a space before C ) I cant remember.