Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish Dendrochirus brachypterus Spawning

[gpsmart]

I've had these guys for about 6 months and they have been producing infertile eggs for a while now. I've been checking the egg balls roughly weekly, when I remember, with no signs of fertility until today. A portion of the eggs seem to be developing normally. Pics were taken about 16 hours post fertilisation. I'm not expecting miracles since the first egg ball I collected turned the water into a milky mess on the first night. I believe this was probably due to the bacterial breakdown of the gelatinous mass holding the egg ball together. I've got a larger volume of water this time so let's see what happens.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Oh nice! Congratulations on getting viable eggs! What are you feeding the parents?

 

[gpsmart]

I've been catching glass shrimp and some small local fish. Whatever is available at the time. Female has been taking prawn pieces for a while now but the male has only just starting accepting non living foods. We have a couple of small readily available bait fish, white bait and blue sardines. They spit out the white bait. Next on the list to try is blue sardines.

 

[gpsmart]

Ok, so maybe I'm just a pessimist, but to my surprise this morning I was greeted by crystal clear water and hundreds of little prolarvae swimming around. Haven't seen these little guys since I raised mandarins about a decade ago.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Aww, that's adorable! Are you planning to raise them? What live foods/rearing setup if so?

 

[gpsmart]

Yeah, I'll give them a go. They are in a bare 8g tank. I'll keep them there for now. I will try to get some wild caught plankton but that can be a problem over here since the use of plankton nets is illegal. Our fisheries legislation is really strict and limiting. There are ways around it but it limits how much plankton can be caught. Other than that I will use L strain rotifers. Might try to source some smaller strains but they aren't readily available either. I have raised mandarins using L strain rotifers as a first food in the past so anything is possible.

 

[gpsmart]

Another day on and this is one of the prolarvae. Not much different from yesterday morning to my eyes but I'm sure plenty is going on there.

 

[gpsmart]

Not a good result this morning. It looks like the energy reserves ran out before they were ready for their first feed. They had started dying off yesterday but by this morning I couldn't see any swimming. Time to try to get more nutrition into the parents and try again later.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Aww that sucks. Have you tried feeding the parents squid? How are they taking the sardines?

 

[gpsmart]

Squid might be worth a try, I'll give it a go. The local tackle shop is out of sardines so haven't got them yet. The parents aren't great eaters but there is still hope but I doubt anything will happen quickly.

 

[gpsmart]

Baby steps but progress is progress. Batch 2 are still going on day 4 post spawn. Eye pigment developed in the last 24 hours which is further than the first batch made it. I've added a variety of the smallest food I can screen out of my cultures and I guess we will wait and see what happens.

Day 3

Day 4

 

[gpsmart]

Pics from day 5. Still developing well. Not sure if they are eating yet but if they aren't then, I would have thought, they will run out of energy reserves pretty soon.

 

[ichthyogeek]

This is great! What live foods have you tried with them?

 

[gpsmart]

I've basically screened all my live food cultures and wild plankton for anything small and added it to the tank. Hopefully there is something there that will keep them growing until they can take larger foods. One rotifer culture had something very small, shown in pic 2. Not sure what it is, possibly a ciliate, but it's tiny compared to the rotifers in the pic and they are in large numbers.

Day 6.

Food culture.

 

[gpsmart]

Day 7 and there are still some larvae swimming around. The pic gives a bit more detail of the mouth which appears to be functional. Size comparison to the copepod also in the pic. Obviously it can't eat pods that size but the pod appears to be reproducing and hopefully producing an appropriately sized food source.

 

[gpsmart]

I haven't been able to see any surviving larvae today. 7 days is better than the 2 days I got with the first batch. I will try to source a smaller food supply more suitable for the size of the larvae.

 

[mannyo]

Oh nice! Congratulations on getting viable eggs! What are you feeding the parents?

How long before they mature