Citron clown gobies spawning on my cleaner magnet!

[TripleT]

I've had them for about 4-5 months. They've been acting weird for about a month. Chasing each other, often breathing heavy, hiding more than usual.

A few weeks ago they both wound up with fin damage out of nowhere, one much more than the other. This repaired itself in about a week.

I started thinking these were two males developing aggression towards each other.

Then this morning I see them taking turns visiting the cleaner magnet in the corner of the tank. And now I see hundreds of eggs attached to the magnet!

I always hear talk of perculas or ocellaris spawning... have many people had these spawn in their tanks as well?

Should I even attempt to do anything with them, or just let them be fish food?

 

[kidkams]

i say go for it and give it a try personally i have no experience but i would be very interested in hearing any trial and errors and the experience of it

 

[reptileblvd]

i say go for it and give it a try personally i have no experience but i would be very interested in hearing any trial and errors and the experience of it

I agree, I would try to raise them. Chances are this will not be thier first group of eggs. Just swap the magnet for an identical magnet and I believe they will continue to leave the eggs there for easy removal. Good luck & please keep us posted.

 

[small alien]

It would seems the eggs would be easy to move if they're on the magnet. I don't have any idea if the adults need to care for the eggs or if you could just move the eggs. Cool!

 

[TripleT]

After they took over the magnet, I added a second so I could do some cleaning. Shortly after they decided to claim the second magnet as well...

 

[small alien]

Tell that goby to get off the couch and go for a walk. It's fat as h*!!.:eek1:

 

[TripleT]

Tell that goby to get off the couch and go for a walk. It's fat as h*!!.:eek1:

lol... he does look fat, but that's just his fin sticking out.

He's actually working quite hard, letting an anthias know that she shouldn't swim anywhere near those eggs.

 

[fote03]

any update? check out MOFIB there is tons of good info on there

 

[TripleT]

any update? check out MOFIB there is tons of good info on there

Never heard of MOFIB before. Looks like a good site to check out:

http://www.marinebreeder.org/

I put a small clay pot in the tank, since I wouldn't mind using my magnets to clean my tank.

But they'll have none of that... they love those magnets!

I haven't tried to raise any yet. If I did, not sure I could keep paying my mortgage, since it looks like a full time job.

What I haven't mentioned is I also have two occelaris, two cleaner shrimp, and two firefish that all seem to be laying eggs!

 

[kidkams]

What I haven't mentioned is I also have two occelaris, two cleaner shrimp, and two firefish that all seem to be laying eggs!

wow thats great what ever your doing you obviosly doing great what parameters do you keep your tank and how long have u had each pair

 

[acoff87]

always good to hear about happy fish, good luck. its always worth an attempt no matter how minimal

 

[TripleT]

wow thats great what ever your doing you obviosly doing great what parameters do you keep your tank and how long have u had each pair

The tank is a 75 FOWLR. Been running since '95.

The parameters are not fantastic, but I seem to consistently keep my nitrates under 15 ppm. And I recently added some chaeto to my sump to help with phosphates which were creeping up. I tend to overfeed.

I think nutrition and water changes are the two things having the most positive impact on my tank.

I've had most of these fish for 6-10 months now (before that, my tank had just a single nasty cinnamon clown, who died after 7 years or so).

 

[Elysia]

I love citrons. This species is one of the species profiled in the Matt Witten... (my brain isn't working tonight) book about breeding ornamental marine fish. Perhaps you can find a copy. If I wasn't so tired I'd go into the next room and tell you what it says. But I am super tired. Sorry.