Greenbanded Goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus, Gobidion etc..) Breeding Log

[Kathy55g]

Take a deep breath and enjoy not having to feed rotifers for a while.

If you want to get a cash flow going, get yourself a breeding pair of Ocellaris! 4 months to sale for most of the juveniles (except mine!) compared to 6 months or more for the perculas.

Mine are not big enough yet, because I have not fed them enough! When I did this previously, the survivors numbered less than 30. I never had so many fish(60, 150, 150, 300, 150? hatches) before, and I'm STILL learning what they need. I have 3 tanks worth , all different ages, and all the same size range... Sorry to OT.

Ocellaris have a better market, too. However in your neighborhood, JL may have covered it for Ocellaris. And despite having been at this for a year, I have not broken even yet. I do expect to soon, however.

Forgive my rant, I am not usually up this late...

 

[Kathy55g]

Key word from your previous post, Matt, is FOCUS.

By the way, the focus on your camera seems to have improved greatly. Really enjoy those pictures and videos through the scope!

 

[mwp]

Kathy, you're gonna love this latest vid!

This morning I kicked on the main lights at 9:30 and within moments noticed the bangaii cardinalfish feeding on something. There it was, the GBG hatch! This time around, I actually got video of the male spitting out a mouthful of larvae!

Quicktime Vid, approx 2 MB - http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/DSCN4635_GBG_hatch.MOV

I collected most of the larvae by scooping, but probably got another 1/3 of my total by siphoning. I dechlorinated and then drained the larval tank (it had been soaking with 10 ML of bleach) and refilled with with larvae and 4 gallons of water from the parental tank (last night the tank got a 2/3 water change as nitrates have gone out of control since I tried switching the Synchiropus onto prepared foods). Anyway, the water is *pretty* clean and there are at least 100+ GBG larvae.

Not sure what my next step is going to be just yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Matt

 

[mwp]

For those of you who don't want the Vid, here's a slowed down animated gif for ya

MP

 

[mwp]

Ok, so larval setup - 4 gallons broodstock water in a sterlized tank. To that, I added 1 L T-Iso, freshly harvested. I also harvested 50% of one of my SS-Strain Rotifer cultures...the one that's only doing "so so", and added those straight in. Probably less than 10,000 rotifers, probably more like just 2,000. I harvested 25% of the SS-Strain culture that's doing well, and that portion is currently sitting in 15 ML of water with 2 drops of Selcon...once the selcon is cleared out of the water those rotifers will go in.

And that's that for now!

Matt

 

[Kathy55g]

I DO love that latest Vid. Awesome!
K

 

[mwp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7998971#post7998971 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kathy55g
By the way, the focus on your camera seems to have improved greatly. Really enjoy those pictures and videos through the scope!

It's a little trick I figured out...the focus knob on the QX5 isn't all that accurate, but if you push up or down on the microscope's viewing surface you can "fine tune" the focus!

Matt

 

[mwp]

Well, as of 1:40 p the rotifers had cleared out most of the Selcon so "in they went"!

Matt

 

[mwp]

2:45 - I harvested a portion (maybe 20%) of an L-Strain / Mini Harp. Cope. co-culture for enrichment. One of my "ideas" last time was that I didn't introduce the L-Strain early enough...this time they'll have plenty of time to "build up", and more importantly, this should give the mini copepods time to populate the tank (I think they can only be beneficial!)...

Matt

 

[mwp]

L-Strain enrichment was clear, so those rots and copes have been added into the larval tank which is currently about 4.5 gallons full.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Yes, I'm up late, got stuck with a 2nd wind. So, I figured I might as well do some work. I haven't noticed any DOA's on the GBG larvae yet...nothing on the bottom. I've split off one of my SS-Rot cultures to start a third and in the process harvested another liter or so of SS-Strain for enrichment...they'll get fed in whenever I wake up tomorrow

So far, pretty good. I'm REALLY going to try to do a 25% water change EVERY DAY if I can this time around, at least for the first week...then I'm gone and larval care is out of my hands for a few days.

Matt

 

[mwp]

The enriched SS rotifers went in around 11:00 AM this morning. There are maybe 4-5 dead larvae this morning on the bottom. I'm doing a 1 gallon water change and adding a liter of freshly harvested Tetraselmis in the next hour or so.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just another update, late last night I strained approximately 1L of an L-Strain Rotifer culture and set it aside for Selcon enrichment...they were added into the larval tank 12 hours later. So far things look pretty good - I got some great late-night vids of the babies - maybe I'll post them tonight.

(came back just to add in that the larval tank also received an additional 1 gallon of clean water...it's not quite the same as a water change but pretty easy to do since I had the water on hand already!)

Matt

 

[mwp]

Some more updates - still looks like TONS of larvae running around but the greenwater is definitely getting cleared out now. Last night around 2:00 AM I removed 1 gallon of water from the tank by placing a flashlight at one end (with no other lights on) and then using an airline to siphon from the opposite end. I seived this gallon for it's rotifers which were enriched and fed in around 9:30 AM - somewhere in this process I managed to 'enrich' a GBG larvae..it didn't make it.

Anyway, I'll probably be removing another gallon today and then adding in a fresh gallon plus some phytoplankton...so far so good.

(quick edit, after looking at the tank following my post, I realized it's basically "clear", so 1 L of fresh T-Iso was added in).

Matt

 

[mwp]

Just keeping up on my records, especially if this batch turns out to be "the one" - I'm slowly dripping in 1 gallon of clean water (ended up not doing a water removal this afternoon) - it's at a slightly lower salinity, so over the next day or two I'll try to bring it down a bit to ease up the burden on those tiny fish bodies.

Matt

 

[mwp]

Tonight's update - 1 Liter of T-ISO was cleared out of the tank in roughly TWELVE HOURS! The rotifer population simply exploded.

I just finished draining out 1 gallon of tank water (so we're back around 4.5 or so), strained the rotifers out for enrichment with Selcon. One larvae again made it through my airline siphon tube, but I managed to catch him and get him back into the tank before enrichment

To tide the rotifers over and keep them nutritious, 10 basters of the 50/50 Tetraselmis/T-Iso mix (stored in the fridge) was added for the overnight "dim light" time period. My current plan is to remove another gallon of water tomorrow, replace with 1-2 gallons of clean water, and add in the enriched rotifers and generally just hope for the best.

One last observation - last night and now tonight the larvae have been "less responsive" to a single-point light source (flashlight over the tank with all other lights turned out)....they still come, but do not "crowd in" on it as much. It "looks" like I've lost a lot of larvae, but I haven't found ANY bodies...I think the larvae are just spreading out more.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

It's pretty much 2:30 PM - 2 more gallons came out earlier, the enriched rotifers went back in, and 2 clean gallons of water + 10 basters of the 'mandarin mix' phyto are being dripped back in now. Looks like I'm going to have some problems keeping the algae in the tank going forward!

Matt

 

[mwp]

This is perhaps the last update before I head to Colorado and leave the larvae in another reefer's care for 4-5 days. I just check the tank after feeding in the rotifers I enriched earlier this afternoon...we've had a big die off, I counted about 50 bodies on the bottom. The water is already crystal clear.

I'm going to siphon off the dead ones and probably add in 2-3 more gallons of clean water to diffuse whatever may have caused the problems. I'll have to add some algae too...not sure what yet...I'll post any maintenance but at the moment am somewhat perplexed by this sudden death...most likely the water change had SOMETHING to do with it.

Matt

 

[mwp]

OK, 3 new gallons of saltwater are going in. Add onto that 1 L of freshly harvested Tetraselmis and roughly 6 baster's worth of stored 'mandarin mix' phyto....the tank needs to be more "green", that I'm sure of. I checked the salinity/specific gravity before piping in the new water, it was at 1.021-1.022...the new water should bring it down to around 1.020.

Looking through my photo cultures, I'm going to have to be judicious in my harvesting tomorrow as most all of them were only done 4-5 days ago...some just don't look ready yet. I'm not sure I have anymore Tetraselmis really read, so tomorrow I think I'm going to put in some Nannochloris and while I'm gone they'll probably get fed a mix of T-Iso and Nannochloropsis.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[mwp]

Alrighty, last post before I take off and leave the goby babies in Graham's care. I added in 1 L of freshly harvested Nannochloropsis this afternoon. I made up a new batch of "mandarin mix" with a slightly altered makeup - 50% T-Iso, 25% Tetraselmis and 25% Nannochloropsus...this is what will go into the larval tank while I'm away at a rate of 10 basters per day IF the water is clear (so probably every day at this point). Hopefully we'll still have some larvae when I get back, and decapped brine eggs are on their way from DanU, which should be an excellent next step.

Last night, when looking at the larvae, I noticed there are a few that are definitely having "growth spurts"; the size range goes from the smallest to DOUBLE that size on the largest.

FWIW,

Matt