Frogfish Eggs!!

Along for the ride.

Good luck. Anglers are among my favorite fish and it would be awesome to see them birthed/hatched in captivity.
 
WAY cool! Do keep us updated, and if you can get pics at various stages of development, that would be super awesome.

Ill do my best this weekend, but the eggs are towards the back corner of the tank.
I dont want to move them, and this phone prolly dont have the ability for detailed pics like that..
I will try....

I dont want to get ahead of myself yet, but this IS kinda exciting, thanks for the encouragement everybody!!
 
It will be sweet if they are viable eggs which you sound like you're qualified to say they are.

I'd like to know how the female managed it.
 
So its been 10 days since I first saw the eggs...


On day 8, I woke up and the eggs were being gobbled by the purple lobster.
They looked dead.

I got my eye out for more of this kind of angler.
Ill find a male eventually, and ill do this.

Thanks for the interest.
(for the record, I think the eggs were good then died)
 
Alright so...

I just acquired what I hope to be a male marble mouth.
It is significantly smaller than the other, looks to be in great shape and was luring in the store.

I have no way to know if this is in fact a male, but the more I collect the better my chances get.

Not being able to keep them together is gonna slow this down also, but the one thing I got right now is time.
You all keep those fingers crossed for me!! :)

1st thing 1st tho, I gotta se how this bad boy eats.


In the bag, ill get better pics after acclimation
022612162627.jpg

022612162657.jpg
 
Look at this beauty!
Nice colors and spots, a bit skinny but it did eat 3 squid tentacles off tongs in the acclimation bucket!
Itsa nice fish
022612192320.jpg
 
If you think the female is able to lay viable eggs without the presence of a male, which is what you indicated previously, why introduce a male to the equation? You might just be asking for trouble.

I hope this works out for you, and for the record, I think you'll have much better luck having fertilized and viable eggs with a male present :)
 
Yeah hey thanks rectum, youve been more than helpful with your insesant negativity and sarcasm on my thread!
No need to be rude and call names. Pretty childish.

I was serious, btw, I wasnt being rude. If you feel the female is laying viable eggs, then why introduce a male? I'd want to keep everything the same and try for eggs again, because obviously your current setup is "doing it" enough for the female she feels comfortable bearing eggs.

Anyway, I will leave this thread alone. Good luck with your fish!
 
No need to be rude and call names. Pretty childish.

I was serious, btw, I wasnt being rude. If you feel the female is laying viable eggs, then why introduce a male? I'd want to keep everything the same and try for eggs again, because obviously your current setup is "doing it" enough for the female she feels comfortable bearing eggs.

Anyway, I will leave this thread alone. Good luck with your fish!


he has a very good point.....know of a captive bred boa constrictor that had 2 separate virgin births......given this has only happened with one or two individuals out of tens of thousands of boas kept and you think the eggs you frogfish produced were viable i would say it is definitely worth keeping your fish alon for awhile and see if she lays again....
 
K so if you really were tryin to be helpful, ill apologize.
The misspelling of your name was my phone spelling words as I type, I didnt proofread...

I have bred almost any kind of snake you could think of, including venemous, ive bred turtles and tortoises, ive bred lizards, and my favorite project was breeding frogs.

I know some animals can store sperm from previous matings, im not sure if this fish can....
Im not even sure(i dont think ANYBODY is) how these fish mate, my experience tells me that usually animals that have fully-functional offspring usually do internal fertilization.
But thesr are fish we are talkin about.....

The bottom line is that this project is moving forward, I have my mind set, and I WILL eventually be successful.

I am going to collect as many of this species as I can find, that way I will be sure ill have a prospective pair.
 
freshwater livebearers can store sperm for months, so it's not theoretically impossible maybe. In any case, I love these fish and glad to see yours is happy enough to lay eggs!
 
the snakes ive spoke of on this thread no sperm storage was involved the individuals were captive born females that had not been around a male since being separated from their siblings soon after birth......the examples ive given are a small handful of what truly appear to be and in several cases genetically proven to be virgin births from species not known for it.....

the process is parthenogenesis and has been documented in most groups of animals from fish and lower on the evolutionary family tree.....
 
Lophiocharon attach their eggs to the male. Check out this page from the frogfish files:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=613227&page=17

My female tried to eat the male after the eggs hatched. The newly hatched fry are benthic, cannabalistic, and, for the most part, able to fend for themselves. My tank was filled with live rock and a nice mysis population. It was enough for at least one of the young to 2 cm.

As far as frogfishes available in the trade, Histiophryne and Lophiocharon are the only genera I am aware of whose fry aren't pelagic and have to go through metamorphosis.
 
Lophiocharon attach their eggs to the male. Check out this page from the frogfish files:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=613227&page=17

My female tried to eat the male after the eggs hatched. The newly hatched fry are benthic, cannabalistic, and, for the most part, able to fend for themselves. My tank was filled with live rock and a nice mysis population. It was enough for at least one of the young to 2 cm.

As far as frogfishes available in the trade, Histiophryne and Lophiocharon are the only genera I am aware of whose fry aren't pelagic and have to go through metamorphosis.

I think iv read about your experience during my research.
Thanks for joining in!

Have you witnessed mating, does Lophiocharon do external or internal fertilization?
Other than an egg mass, how can I tell the difference between a male or female?

Please and thankyou very much!
Im going to go read your link now.
maybe it will answer my questions, however ive read anything I could find about it and dont remember seeing those specifics.
 
You might try and contact rjarnold about this. She hasn't been on the boards in a while but might be lurking. While I think her current work is on Uranoscopids, she coauthored the publication of Histiophryne psychadelica and the most recent phylogeny of Antennariidae. She might have some insights.

I think that most if not all of Antennariidae are external fertilizers. I wouldn't think that Lophiocharon would have evolved internal fertilization. I have had many females of both Lophiocharon and Histiophryne just eject an infertile egg mass while the only fertile eggs I have experienced were attached to a male (Lophiocharon) or held in the caudal fin (Histiophryne).

I am not able to sex Lophiocharon by visual cues. In my pairs of the genus Antennarius, the males are almost always a little smaller than their mates. But all of my Lophiocharons were about the same size.

That is about all I can tell you
 
Thanks uberfugu.
I pretty much figure there really is no difference in sexes, other than some size.

At least the new one is eatin good, ill fatten it up and see.....

Like I said, I am gonna try to collect a few more as I find them.
Im currently designing a new lophiocharon breeding and holding area.
 
Back
Top