Greenbanded Gobies - 3rd spawn - Chicago breeders?!

[mwp]

First, I want to "reissue" my offer that if anyone in the Chicago area is an accomplished marine breeder and wants to try to raise these larvae, let me know today (PM me!). I have this batch and well, the Apogon leptacanthus are still holding so THEY are going to be my priority over the goby babies.

Alrighty, today (2-7-06), around 11:30 (lights came on late around 11:00 AM) we had another hatching of Greenbanded Gobies! If you want to "catch up", here's three prior threads to review:

Pairing / Courtship in our Gobies:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=749279

First Spawn:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=758034

Second Spawn:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=765587

A quick recap. Our first two spawns hatched in the evening...this morning hatch was totally unexpected, and again, I noticed it when the Bangaii's were "feeding" yet I hadn't placed any food in the tank!

This 3rd spawn seems to be around 75-100 larvae...not sure how many were eaten. So, larger than the first spawn, probably a little smaller than the 2nd spawn. So far, since they started spawning on the 23rd...we're looking at an average 7 day window between each hatch! Man, I am so not looking forward to moving (and disturbing all our spawning fish!)

The new "record" to beat in larval survival here is 48 hours.

MP

 

[mwp]

So 48 hours have passed and we still have ONE larvae alive. A new "record" in the making, but not sure how much longer this guy will stick around. To lose over 99% in the first 48 hours is getting very frustrating. If these were clownfish or neon gobies, and you lost 99% in the first 48 hours, consistently, what would you most normally attribute that to?

 

[Kathy55g]

Bad eggs, or bad parental nutrition, or in my case, use of Chemi-Clean in the egg incubation tank.

Also in my case, air bubbles beating up the eggs too strongly. When this happened, the larvae were bent upon death, which was immediate. Piles and piles of crumpled clownfish larvae! I have paid my dues to the dead larvae master.

 

[mwp]

Interesting...chemi-clean caused problems?

In our case, the eggs are hatched out by the parents in the main tank...we're collecting the larvae (cupping out) immediately upon their appearance at the surface.

I must admit that at this point, with the wide variety and plethora of frozen and enriched diet, more or less what seems to be working for many breeders, I just don't see how I can blame either the parental diet. While I still concede that there could be something wrong, I can't see having 4 different species spawning regularly now would happen if the diet wasn't "there".

This is only the 3rd spawn, so they are young, and well, I guess that could play a role, perhaps stimulating hatching too late or maybe their bodies just aren't mature enough yet.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just a quick note. It's been a while since our 3rd hatch. Today (2-27-06) we had another hatch at 11:00 AM or so - 20 days since the last one. I suspect that we had at least 1 additional hatch in between that we never noticed.

In any case, due to the fact that we're moving sometime this week, I had to make the tough choice to just let the babies get eaten by the cardinalfish in the tank. If ANYONE in the Chicago area wants to try to raise these, again, I'm happy to fork over the larvae.

On another interesting note, the Apogon margaritophorus spawned yet again.

MP

 

[mwp]

Well, I'm literally in the midst of our moving the 2 tanks (and setting up 2 more - during the move I pulled all the live rock and utilized some of the water in a new tank. It figures...I poured a bunch of GBG larvae out of the bucket - they actually hatched in transit. So there's another hatch as of today. Just like the last batch, they've been left to fend for themselves.

MP

 

[mwp]

Wow, it's been almost a month since the last hatch, at least the last hatch I "noticed". I managed to scoop out 50 or so larvae today starting at around 10:30 am (30 minutes after the halide came on). Yahutch expressed an interest in trying to raise them (I'm focusing my efforts on A. leptacanthus) so hopefully Yahutch is ready and can meet me to take possesion of the little lurching silver slivers today

MP

 

[mwp]

Well, haven't yet heard back from Yahutch and overnight, the first night, all the GBG larvae kicked the bucket in one mass die off. Pretty much done screwin' around with specimen cups in the main tank..that 10 gallon is getting set up ASAP for the forthcoming A. leptacanthus larvae...and I'm sure another goby spawn will come up soon enough!

MP

 

[mwp]

They're not going with their former regularity, or maybe I"ve just missed the last few spawns. However, none of that matters at the moment - WE HAVE GBG BABIES again!.

The 10 gallon larval tank is set up, although last night it had a HUGE nitrite problem...no mandarins hatched because of it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=824111

I'm also expecting larval Apogon leptacanthus today...so maybe I'll be doing a bit of co-culturing.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=776659

One note about the GBG fry that I may have mentioned before - in addition to being positivey phototrophic they are also REALLY interested in the bright blue silicone airline tubing....makes removing them a piece of cake!

As always, I noticed this hatch when my fish started feeding on something at 10:25 AM today...I hadn't fed yet

MP

 

[imbuggin]

fry

fry

if you have another hatching I would like to try and raise a batch of the fry. I am currently doing so with some clowns. If you need live foods I have rotifers and brine clutures going here in the city.

 

[mwp]

Imbuggin - check your PMs

MP

 

[mwp]

So, I took a headcount of my collected larvae (shot a picture of them in the tupperware and FINALLY finished counting them all this evening). Is a clutch of 194 Green Banded Gobies BIG??? Round that to 200 easily, as a few got eaten before I noticed the spawn!

MP