Breeding Project

[coral_addict]

Well I got my wrasses a week ago! They're in a 44 gallon Brute trash can/tank with PVC pipe, a thermometer, heater, filter, daylights and moonlights. One male and one female Mccosker's flasher wrasse, they look great and I have high hopes for a spawn! Next step is to set up cultures for phyto, rotifers, cilliates and copepods, and to set up a larval rearing tank for if and when they spawn

 

[sassAwrasse]

good luck. I'm interested to see your progress.

 

[coral_addict]

Thanks! I haven't been in to check on them this weekend, but Friday afternoon they were doing great. The male looks really healthy, and while I only have one female she looks good too (I wanted a harem, but one of the females died at the LFS). Anyhow, next time I go in I'm going to drop the temp to about 79 degrees F, and I'm working on getting more nutritious foods. I'd post pictures if I could figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer...

 

[sassAwrasse]

download the photobucket app. you can upload them from your phone to your photobucket account.

then access them on your computer.

 

[coral_addict]

I will try that, thanks.


The female wasn't eating when I checked on them today but the male was. Kinda worried because she hid the whole time, but it might have been because the moon lights had already kicked on two hours before I visited them. Hopefully she'll eat tomorrow

 

[coral_addict]

I can breathe again! The female ate like a champ. Only thing is she almost seems to be picking at the male. He's slightly smaller than she is, could this be a problem, does anyone know?

 

[quicktater]

So if I understand your strategy correctly you have them in a Brute trash can without an overflow and skimmer so you can collect the eggs right after they get fertilized?

 

[coral_addict]

Essentially yep. I don't have a skimmer because of the cost and the room available to me. But it's two small fish in a forty four gallon tank so that really shouldn't be an issue. They both ate today, the female ate one NLS pellet, trying to wean them onto the pellets so I can use an automatic feeder in addition to frozen foods. Hopefully ordering algae cultures to arrive in the next week or two. We now have a wall bubbler to aid circulation/oxygen levels in the tank and both fish seem to be more active. The female isn't hiding as much either which is a good sign, and the male is really colorful. I doubt they'll spawn until he's larger though, so hoping for quick growth!

 

[Ambition]

Your male should be clearly bigger than the female. A female that is bigger than the male may end in the female turning male. This is just something I've seen happen in several display tanks with various flasher and fairy wrasse species.

 

[coral_addict]

I know, I'm worried about that. I think the male has been growing pretty quickly though, and he's extremely colorful. So I'm hoping that he grows large enough that the female doesn't change. Other than that and a little aggression from the female they're both doing great: healthy, eating, and active

 

[coral_addict]

Bad news. Two days ago the male wouldn't eat, yesterday he ate but the female wouldn't, today they were both dead. We had just checked all the parameters and everything looked perfect, but just to make sure I took a water sample to the LFS and got it checked. Apparently our test kits weren't good enough. Nitrite was a beautiful pink shade at 1.6 ppm, and nitrate was magenta at around 100 ppm... Time to start over with better filtration, I suppose. I'm out of town for a week so I should get new fish sometime around June 25 or so.

 

[coral_addict]

Been a while since I posted. I boosted the filtration on the system, added some extra rock and bacteria, and got two new fish! These are Carpenter's wrasses, one male one female like last time, and the male is larger (last pair the female was slightly larger than the male). Both will eat brine shrimp and NLS pellets, they were together for about 4 weeks in the LFS while I waited for the tank to cycle. So far so good!