Finally Trying to Spawn Black Cap Basslets

[monicaswizzle]

Almost two years ago I posted that I wanted to try spawning black cap basslets. Have had a few setbacks since, but today I added the "second" fish to the tank and so far so good. Here is the short version.

SETBACKS--I had been keeping a "male" black cap basslet in my 50 gallon sump in hopes of someday adding a female and seeing if they would spawn. I lost that fish over a year ago when I moved everything to a new setup. Then I had what I believed to be a "female" that had been in the sump for more than 6 months when I took a vacation and came back to find the siphon had stopped on the display tank and the entire sump was drained and the remaining water (along with my female bcb) "cooked" by an exposed heater.

TODAY--In July (08) I added a new "female" to the sump. She has been living there along with more than 100 pounds of live rock ever since. Today I added a "male" just after feeding her heavily at 5pm. I am guessing the sex on these fish based on reading (somewhere, can't find it now) that the females are a bit more blunt and "cigar shaped" while the males are longer and thinner, more like a torpedo. The difference is pretty subtle and, since they are reputed to be pretty territorial, fairly critical. I figured over 100 pounds of live rock would allow them to hide if things got bad and maybe give me time to move one to the display. So far, that hasn't been necessary.

I placed the "male" in a clear specimen box while acclimating him slowly to the sump tank water. I thought it was a good sign when the "female" came out of her favorite cave and begin to swim slowly beneath the box, turning "onto her side" in the way many fish do when displaying for a prospective mate.

About an hour later I added the male to the tank and he immediately swam to the return pump and hid under one corner of it. The female came out of her cave several minutes later and swam around the tank a number of times as if "looking" for the new fish. Eventually she swam up close to the return pump, he came out of his hiding place and they had a very rapid and brief interaction which was hard to see, but ended with him returning to his hiding place and seeming to have a light spot on his jaw that might have been a bite or abrasion. "Oh oh--maybe I got the sex wrong on someone" was my first thought.

Not to worry. She kept swimming around the return pump and would turn on her side in a way that I believe indicates no threat/submission/sexual interest. Eventually she swam directly into the area he was hiding in and he came out and then he "hovered" a few inches below the surface of the water, more or less in the same spot, and she swam back and forth about an inch or two below him. Much of the time she was almost on her side (about 75-degrees from her normal posture) and a few times she swam with her head down in a way that I also believe can be a submission signal. A couple of times she seemed to nip in the direction of his mid-section in a way that I associate with female cichlids that are nipping at a male's egg spots. After about an hour of this she started trying to "lead" him back to her favorite cave. She would display beneath him and then dart off to the cave. When he didn't follow she would come back, do some more display behavior and then head to the cave again. Fascinating to watch and makes me fairly sure that I may have two different genders. (Maybe even guessed right as to which is which.)

He never followed her all the way back to the cave, but he did show some interest and would sometimes swim down to her level and they would circle a bit.

Then the tank lights went out and I can't really see what is happening. (I planned it so they wouldn't have a lot of "daylight" on the first day. If thing went badly I wanted them to get a chance to "sleep on it" before the next round.) With just the room light on I can see an occasional fish swim in the area near the return pump, so I assume he is still calling that his home for now.

A LONG way from a successful spawn and rearing larvae and young fish to adult size, but a pretty nice start.

Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow when I turn off the pumps and drop in some food. (She knows the signal. When the pumps cut out she always is out and ready to eat.) I hope I don't see a lot of fighting, but time will tell.

Thanks for reading!

PS--I do have a copy of the article in which C-Quest (Bill Addison) talked about their semi success with spawning the bcb. They lost a lot of fish to fighting, but they only used 15 gallon tanks with one brick as cover. I have the luxury of 50 gallons with 120 or so pounds of live rock, so I may not get a spawn, but I am not as worried about fatalities. If anyone knows of other attempts to spawn bcb I would love to hear about it!

 

[monicaswizzle]

The Love Diet

The Love Diet

This morning when the lights came back on the male was swimming around near the return pump and the female was no where to be seen--most likely in her favorite cave where she usually stays until meal time. Before I could get the food however, she was out and about, swimming near him in slow circles with her ventral side always facing him. I added some flake food to the water and it slowly floated to the bottom like so much trash. No interest at all. (In the food, that is.) I added a nice tidbit of shrimp with the same result. On the second piece of meat (silver side this time) she took a break from courtship to grab the morsel. She ate about 7 bits of shrimp and fish during which time she only allowed two more to hit the sand and she never once returned to her cave. (Most meal times she rushes out to grab the food and then immediately returns to the safety of the cave between bites.) He never showed the least bit of interest in any of the food. I am not sure if it was because the food was unfamiliar (he should learn from her behavior pretty quick), or if it was because he had other things to think about.

Time for work--Sigh!

 

[oscarsdad608]

Good luck, I used to have a bcb and it was one of my favorites of all time. Try to get some pitures if you can.

 

[monicaswizzle]

Thanks Oscarsdad. They are great fish! I do have a few somewhat fuzzy pictures, but they are pretty high resolution so I need to crop them and maybe resize them prior to posting. Maybe sometime this weekend.

Tonight's update--

When I came home from work tonight neither fish was visible at first. A short time later the male came out from the favorite cave of the female. She followed shortly thereafter. They were clearly interested in one another and the mood stayed fairly peaceful despite an occasional rush and feint that was usually initiated by the female.

When it came time to feed them both ate flakes and bits of meat. They still had a tendency to "get distracted" and allow food to reach the DSB (at which point it is no longer "food"--I have never seen a bcb eat food that is resting on the bottom), but they ate about 90% of what I put in the tank, which is almost as good as the female used to do when she was the only fish feeding. The male was actually less skittish than she is (she has always tended to grab food items and then retreat into the rocks), so he ate a bit more than she did.

With proper diet and maybe a bit of fooling around with my lunar lights (did the trick on my common clowns), I hope to get them to actually spawn.

Night all.

 

[tedmc2]

Any updates?

 

[monicaswizzle]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14325271#post14325271 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tedmc2
Any updates?

Thanks for asking. The two fish seem to be settling in to a rather "ho hum" coexistence in the tank. The "female" continues to spend 90% or more of her time in one particular cave (actually, cave-complex--I know where she enters and exits, but I don't know where she goes while inside since the whole tank is a huge pile of softball size liverock). The male is more variable, but has selected one part of the tank as his "home base" and is there about 50% of the time, wanders the tank the remainder. I rarely see them interact much other than at feeding time. (Of course, with work and all, that is when I watch the tank the most.) At feeding time it is always a hoot, but the pattern is unpredictable. Sometimes they "race" one another for the food and, despite her extra caution, she usually gets more than 1/2 because I feed right next to the entrance to her cave. At other times they do interesting bits of "taking turns" on who gets which pieces of food. He will swim dramatically towards a piece with her in hot pursuit and then veer off at the last moment so that she gets the food. Very odd and lots of fun. They do a bit of rushing and nipping at one another around meal time that sometimes looks to be just good natured competition for a pretty abundant resource (I pretty much feed them bits of fish, shrimp, clam until they show less interest--plus a few doses of flake for good measure.) At other times the nipping and rushing has a bit more of the "love" look to it. They definitely are companionable, but not really a "pair" the way my clownfish are. But I have never seen any fish pair quite as hard and fast as my clowns do.

So, I am still hopeful of a spawn. If the heavy feeding doesn't trigger things I will need to see if I can find some other trigger. I did put some lunar lights on this tank, which had caused my clowns to "go crazy" and spawn almost immediately. Not any noticeable effect on the bcb. In fact, they are almost never out of the rockwork and visible at night. It does occur to me that as a deeper water fish they may find "moon light" a little strange.

Wait and see. I am so busy at work right now that I actually hope they don't spawn until I would have more time to enjoy it and try to raise the fry. I did get a heavy spawn in the tank, which I posted about on this site, but I am pretty sure the fry are shrimp. I am doing a half-assed job of trying to rear some of those fry just for the experience and fun of it, but since I am STILL waiting for my order of supplies from Florida Aqua Farms (love their products, but they only ship when they get around to it--IME) I am reduced to feeding dry dead foods and will probably just pollute the rearing tank without keeping any fry alive. Glad they are shrimp and not bcb!

I will FOR SURE let the forum know if anything new happens.

PS--Sorry to say, all my pictures from the first time I introduced the second fish to the tank are too blurry for posting. I guess I need to use a much faster shutter speed and a lower resolution picture mode. You can tell what is "going on" in the full, high resolution shots that I have on my pc, but when I edit them down for posting they are really lame. Maybe I will practice taking shots of individual fish in motion so that I am ready next time there is any love dancing.

 

[monicaswizzle]

Some New Behavior Today

Some New Behavior Today

This morning when I started feeding only the female showed up at first. She took just a few flakes and then let the rest drift to the bottom while she swam to the far back corner of the tank. The male was there and they spent about 5 minutes circling one another in fairly tight (diameter +/- 4 inches) circles. Throughout the time he kept opening his mouth as wide as he could. It was really very impressive. I had no idea a bcb could open so wide. His lower jaw almost looked dislocated by the effort. She mostly just circled along with him while he did the jaw opening business. After a few minutes of that I put a few more flakes into the normal feeding area and they both swam over and had a more or less normal interaction at "breakfast".

Not sure if that was a territorial type of display or something "spawn/gender" related. I have never really seen fish behave quite that way before. There wasn't any rushing and "nipping", which would have been expected given the extent of mouth opening. A few times the female tilted a little bit out of normal "vertical" alignment, but she never really swam on her side in the way that gravid females sometimes do.

Maybe he just had a sore jaw and needed to "tell her all about it".

 

[Masoch]

Have you seen the male drag some algae into the den? I, unfortunately, lost my BCB due to my incompetence a year ago, but he was building a love shack. He would spend big chunks of his day trying to lure a lady friend by dragging some sprigs of caulerpa into his cave and constantly picking up mouthfuls of sand from the cave and spitting them out a few cm away.

I've also seen our royal gramma go through the same behaviour.

Apparently, this is normal behaviour in basslet courting, but I'm not sure if the behaviour is designed to attract a mate, something your fish have already done, or if it's an announcement that the male is ready to, well, get on with things.

Good luck -- black cap basslets are among my very, very favourite fish

 

[monicaswizzle]

Interesting comment Masoch. I haven't read anything about the "nest building" behavior of bcb or royal grammas. I haven't been able to find much written at all (web or otherwise) about bcb spawning. I will have to expand my search to read about the royals.

To answer your question though, I haven't seen any such behavior. The only macro algae in my tank is cheto. I have never added any caulerpa due to the potential for it to get overly abundant. Maybe I should put some in and see if he pays any attention to it.

Thanks for the interest!

 

[Masoch]

Here are a couple videos:

1
2

Both my RG and BCB exhibited this behaviour.

 

[monicaswizzle]

A Few More Setbacks--Update

A Few More Setbacks--Update

Thanks for posting the videos Masoch. I will have to take a look at them when I am at work with DSL capacity. Videos are killer on dial up.

Anyway, I figured it was time to post some updates since I still hope to get black cap basslets to spawn someday. It may have to be during my retirement, because things haven't gone so well since my last posting.

SETBACK #!--Display Tank Burst
A couple of weeks after my last post to this thread, my 90 gallon display tank burst open and poured about 3/4 of the water onto my floor. It definitely ranks as one of the most exciting Sunday mornings I ever have had! Fortunately, I was sitting at my computer with my back less than three feet away from the tank, so when I heard a large cracking sound and water gushing out onto the floor I had time to run around and try and catch some of the water in trash cans and buckets--anything I could grab. I didn't loose any corals, but I lost several fish from the stress of sitting around in buckets while I ran to town and purchased a new display tank and transferred my DSB and live rock and all to the new tank. Major major "bummer".

SETBACK #2--Male Black Cap Basslet "dies"
Seemingly related to the above event, my male black cap basslet has never been seen since and is definitely presumed dead at this point. I don't have the black caps in my 90 gallon display tank, but below it in a 50 gallon tank that is more than half full of softball size live rock and is connected to the display by a return pump and overflow set up. So, the 50 gallon wasn't directly affected by the self destruction of the display tank. At first I assumed that all the "excitement" in the room had merely made the male black cap basslet very cautious and that he was hiding out in the LR and would return to normal feeding in a week or so. The female did exactly that, but the male has never been seen since. The only thing I can assume is that either: a) he died for totally unrelated reasons at precisely that time (seems unlikely) or b) that when I removed the hoses from my overflow during replacing the of the display tank he had the amazing misfortune to be in exactly the right place to get crushed or pinned by the slight shifting of the LR pieces that were holding the hose ends. Either way it seems a very odd coincidence, but for whatever reason he is GONE.

SETBACK #3--New "male" is a "female".
So, after a full month of never seeing the male again, DFS had a black cap in Diver's Den that looked "male" to me (slightly longer, thinner in profile than the females). So I purchased it and after 2 weeks of QT, added it to the 50 gallon tank. Interactions between this new fish and my existing female are VERY different than between the existing female and the now AWOL male. So much so, that I am pretty sure I now have two females in the tank. They have never done any of the display and circling behavior that was very common between the previous pair. They mostly completely ignore one another and when they do interact, while never violent, it is more about fighting for food or chasing one another out of the "territory".

So, now I believe I have two females that are relatively peacefully co-existing in a tank with so many small LR caves that I am not too worried about any real aggression. I am keeping my eye out for another likely "male". It will be interesting to see what happens when I find one and add it to the tank. I am a little worried that the interactions between the current two females might become more aggressive if I am successful in selecting a male to add, but I am hopeful that they might do ok as a small "harem" and maybe, just maybe, I could actually get them to spawn.

I will let you know.

 

["Umm fish?"]

You said that you were having trouble finding anything written. Matt's devoted an entire section to basslets and two pages to blackcaps in this:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Illu...7718/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248888937&sr=8-1

He says that the larvae are large enough to start on rots and that BBS starts around day 10. Meta is supposed to be tough on them, so enrich the foods really well.

He does say that the family are gonochoristic, so if you have two females you won't get a pair.

Good luck with them!

 

[monicaswizzle]

Thanks Andy. I do have a copy of Matthew Wittenrich's book. I don't believe I had read it when I first commented on the slim amount of information available. I still haven't found very many references to people attempting to breed this species, much less success all the way through to healthy juveniles. I hope someday I might have the pleasure. In the meantime they are great to watch even if they never spawn.

 

["Umm fish?"]

Fair enough.

 

[oceanarus]

I am glad to see someone working with this fish. This is a really cool family of fish. And I also don't know of attemps by people to breed them. Please keep us posted on your fish !

Amy Drehmel

 

[jdhuyvetter]

I had a "pair" of royal grammas build a nest in an empty T. maxima shell. Mine used hair algae instead of caulerpa. This was over 10 years ago. Never tried a "pair" since. Also, never saw eggs. Just repeated nesting.

 

[oceanarus]

Over 10 years ago is pretty sweet. I don't think many people can say that !!!! Well Martin Moe can. Did you start with a group or just two royal grammas ?

Amy

 

[jdhuyvetter]

Actually, in retrospect, this would have been either 1990 or 1991 (I graduated college in 1992) I worked in a pet shop and once a week I went to the wholesaler and hand picked all of the fish. I started with two very small grammas. They were in a 29 gallon tank. I had two standard flourescent (double bulbs) over the tank. Wild gulf rock, a huge elegance and a small tan leather. I still have the rock and the leather!

 

[jdhuyvetter]

Oh yeah, Moe's book was the in store "bible" for our saltwater tanks.

 

[oceanarus]

I was 17 and had an Oscar in 91. That is really cool jdhuyvetter !!! And good for you on the leather too. It is nice to hear about things being well kept that long. And thank you for the details. It has me really thinking more about getting these guys. Blk caps are worth more but I favor the royal grammas. They are such icons for saltwater tanks.

Amy