Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) Breeding Log!
- Thread starter mwp
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mwp
In Memoriam
Well, it's almost been 6 days now...about 5 days 11 hours since the eggs were laid. I was only able to find the one remaining larvae in the kriesel, and only after turning up the air to get things really moving in there - I suspect this batch is coming to an end. I don't know, take a look at this shot from 9:55 PM - he looks kinda skinny but ALSO the body shape has really changed. HMMMMMMMMM.
What do you guys think?
MP
What do you guys think?
MP
Houdini has "disappeared" but he also looked like the ONE that was really getting fat and healthy. Hopefully he's finding what he needs out there in the vast expanse of a 10 gallon aquarium!
mwp
In Memoriam
5-10-06 - 12:30 AM - so get this...things were looking pretty uneventful this evening until I turned the lights out 5 minutes ago. INSTANTLY the male's fins were flaired...after a minute the female raised her's up too. The male is dancing around the surface of the tank, pushing his face out of the water (I suspect that in a larger, deeper tank this would be even cooler to watch). Haven't seen this part of courtship before...curious to see how it goes...on the last 2 spawns I observed there was a lot of rising well prior to lights going out...haven't seen an actual rise yet, just the male doing a lot of dancing and the female showing some interest.
MP
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mwp
In Memoriam
12:38, the male's crazy ZOOMING around the water column has subsided. It sure looks to me like this male was rising up to see if there were any willing females in the "area"...not sure how this compares to actual courtship in the wild. The female has already assumed her nocturnal coloration, so no spawn tonight. It has to happen soon though 
MP
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mwp
In Memoriam
It's now 12:15 PM on the 10th...can't find any of the larval mandarins anymore. Well, at least the tank is ready for eggs (going to just use the kriesel next time around) and in the meantime, maybe the baby leptacanthus can clean out the rotifers
I'm still going to add phyto on the odd chance that Houdini is still in there...
MP
I'm still going to add phyto on the odd chance that Houdini is still in there...
MP
mwp
In Memoriam
OK, 1:11 AM...that means I've spent around 16 minutes collecting eggs. I don't know if we have a particularly productive pair, but I think it's pretty safe to say that we have WELL OVER 200 eggs. If I had to guess I'd say closer to 250-300 which is more than the highest numbers recorded in the Synchiropus larvae article I've been referring to. Maybe down the line I'll actually collect an entire spawn and count it, just for giggles.
I *think* I got some neat vid...heck I even had the "camera rolling" when they spawned. Anyway, I'm going to adjust the Kriesel's flow back up, then go through everything I shot and see what I have. Maybe I'll post something before I go to bed, or maybe you'll just all have to wait. 1.5 days and this next batch starts feeding, and Houdini could still very well be running around our 10 gallon, somewhere...
MP
I *think* I got some neat vid...heck I even had the "camera rolling" when they spawned. Anyway, I'm going to adjust the Kriesel's flow back up, then go through everything I shot and see what I have. Maybe I'll post something before I go to bed, or maybe you'll just all have to wait. 1.5 days and this next batch starts feeding, and Houdini could still very well be running around our 10 gallon, somewhere...
MP
mwp
In Memoriam
Well, while I'm waiting the 20 minutes + to download the images from my camera (I'm working on the SLOW computer this evening) I thought I might post up some new developments.
First, this time around I took extra care to harvest every last egg that was spawned. While MOST were at the surface, there were still many that had been tossed and turned down into the water column...these guys would slowly rise and I'd find myself going "where the heck are these eggs coming from?" A big clump hovering 4" below the surface tipped me off.
I'm starting to think that the small footprint of our tank (being a 24 gallon nanocube) is beneficial. The actual spawning event occurs with the fish rapidly fluttering their pectoral fins. I actually got to see the egg release up close and personal this time, as it happened at the front left corner of the tank. What I saw in the dim (I mean DIM) light was a stream of "stuff" coming out from the ventral areas of the fish, being shot slightly downwards into the water column. Moments later, eggs were EVERYWHERE covering the entire surface of the tank. Having the smaller surface area to work with at least concentrates them for collection, meaning you're going to find more of the eggs. So, maybe something like a tall cylinder would be ideal for the mandarins too, at least when it comes to a spawning container. 35 hex maybe...how tall are those?
Our pair seems to be getting "better" at this whole thing. This time around, the actually started their spawning rises towards the bottom of the tank, about 4 inches off the sand bottom on top of a piece of live rock. They'd kinda rocket towards the surface, hit it and then splash...looked very similar to when they spawn. However, they still spawned on their "horizontal" swim at the surface...that's 4 spawns now in our pair that break Mai's rule, at least with regards to his observations of S. picturatus. I'm not saying that Mai's observations were inaccurate, but it is inaccurate to draw the assumption that the fish WILL NOT SPAWN if they hit the water's surface.
Man, those pictures and vids are STILL downloading...ho hum.
Wish us IMPROVED LUCK this time around. The 10 gallon is looking more like a rotifer culture these days, but maybe that's not all bad???
And BTW, if you hadn't caught it, I'm already scheming up our next Synchiropus project - Red Scooter Blennies. We have a stunning little female so far...plenty of time to nail down the mandarins first.
MP
First, this time around I took extra care to harvest every last egg that was spawned. While MOST were at the surface, there were still many that had been tossed and turned down into the water column...these guys would slowly rise and I'd find myself going "where the heck are these eggs coming from?" A big clump hovering 4" below the surface tipped me off.
I'm starting to think that the small footprint of our tank (being a 24 gallon nanocube) is beneficial. The actual spawning event occurs with the fish rapidly fluttering their pectoral fins. I actually got to see the egg release up close and personal this time, as it happened at the front left corner of the tank. What I saw in the dim (I mean DIM) light was a stream of "stuff" coming out from the ventral areas of the fish, being shot slightly downwards into the water column. Moments later, eggs were EVERYWHERE covering the entire surface of the tank. Having the smaller surface area to work with at least concentrates them for collection, meaning you're going to find more of the eggs. So, maybe something like a tall cylinder would be ideal for the mandarins too, at least when it comes to a spawning container. 35 hex maybe...how tall are those?
Our pair seems to be getting "better" at this whole thing. This time around, the actually started their spawning rises towards the bottom of the tank, about 4 inches off the sand bottom on top of a piece of live rock. They'd kinda rocket towards the surface, hit it and then splash...looked very similar to when they spawn. However, they still spawned on their "horizontal" swim at the surface...that's 4 spawns now in our pair that break Mai's rule, at least with regards to his observations of S. picturatus. I'm not saying that Mai's observations were inaccurate, but it is inaccurate to draw the assumption that the fish WILL NOT SPAWN if they hit the water's surface.
Man, those pictures and vids are STILL downloading...ho hum.
Wish us IMPROVED LUCK this time around. The 10 gallon is looking more like a rotifer culture these days, but maybe that's not all bad???
And BTW, if you hadn't caught it, I'm already scheming up our next Synchiropus project - Red Scooter Blennies. We have a stunning little female so far...plenty of time to nail down the mandarins first.
MP
mwp
In Memoriam
OK, so this just ROCKS. Video of the spawning rise illuminated ONLY by 1 LED Moonlight! You have to have your contrast and brightness set to the MAX on your monitor in order to view this quicktime .mov and see what's going on. Basically, you can at first see the head of a mandarin by one of our gorgonians....about 1/2 way through they start to rise, they hit the surface and "explode". It's not the actual spawn though...that one didn't turn out (at least as far as I can see). The ONLY way the actual spawn looks any different in our tank is that they hang at the surface, horizontally, spew out the eggs and milt and then explode....in other words they just stay at the surface longer.
If anyone out there can EDIT a quicktime movie, I suspect this would look even better if the levels were altered and it was simply brightened up...it sure looks like the data is there. I THOUGHT I still had Premier installed on one of my computers, but alas, I do not! Anyone who feels like giving it a shot, by all means, do! I can even post it back on my server for you and post the link up here. If that works, maybe I should provide you with the black, nondescript vid of the actual spawn!
Without further delay, here's the link (8 mb, quicktime)
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN2435_splash2_best.MOV
MP
If anyone out there can EDIT a quicktime movie, I suspect this would look even better if the levels were altered and it was simply brightened up...it sure looks like the data is there. I THOUGHT I still had Premier installed on one of my computers, but alas, I do not! Anyone who feels like giving it a shot, by all means, do! I can even post it back on my server for you and post the link up here. If that works, maybe I should provide you with the black, nondescript vid of the actual spawn!
Without further delay, here's the link (8 mb, quicktime)
http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN2435_splash2_best.MOV
MP
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