Mating up close

[Gonodactylus]

Mating in Odontodactylus scyllarus. This shot was taken just before the male inserted a gonopod into one of the female's gonopores The female's gonopores are visible just below the mid-point of the image. I was trying to shoot the male's insertion and ejaculation, but the pair slipped off the rock just prior to it happening.

This is the largest male O. scyllarus I have ever seen. At 165mm it ties the largest O. scyllarus reported in the literature. The female is just under 155mm.

Roy

 

[Martini5788]

How do you get them to mate in captivity?

 

[Gonodactylus]

I play them a recording of Bolero.

Roy

 

[Martini5788]

Mating up close

Hahaha. I forgot to add " without killing each other"

 

[Gonodactylus]

I can usually tell if and how courtship is progressing. The important thing is to separate them soon after copulation. One of the animals will usually turn aggressive.

Roy

 

[lawfuanda]

i play them a recording of bolero.

Roy

lol

 

[EI Gringo]

This is something I will potentially be attempting with 2 peacocks side by side divided and with a breeding hatch that I'll remove if I think they want to mate. This is promising information Roy. What exactly is your set up and can you describe the process of their courtship? Thanks

 

[Gonodactylus]

I don't have any one set up. The O. scyllarus are housed individually in relatively small tanks - 10 to 100 gal. I try to mate these females every molt cycle so that if they lay eggs they will be fertilized. If I'm just mating them and not photographing, I typically introduce the female into the males tank. I net the female, wait until she stops struggling, and hang the net containing the female in the top of the male's aquarium. This gives them a chance to detect each others odour. After a couple of minutes when things are calm, I gently turn over the net and allow the female to swin down to the substrate. Usually she will freeze when she hits the bottom, but occasionally she will swim rapidly around and crash into the male. This can result in a strike by one of they. If this happems just once, I let the introduction proceed. If more than one strike occurs, I remove which ever animal I can catch quickly. If there was little or no aggression, the male will typically approach the female, usually from the side or behind. Often he will hold this position for a minute or two, then move forward and make antennule contact. If she doesn't move, or backs up toward him, he will mount her using his 3-5 maxillipes to hold on to her. He then moves forward until his maxillipeds are grasping her carapace and begins scratching her carapace and rostrum with his first maxillipeds. After a few bouts of scratching, he will turn her on her side facing him. He will then start making positioning thrusts trying to get this gonopods into the vicinity of her gonopores. It they make contact, he will start rapid thrusting and ejaculate. This takes 5-15 seconds. The female usually breaks free at this point, but the pair stays in close contact. If the sperm transfer was not successful, the female will beging courting displaying a number of synch-jerks. The male may mount again or engage in a sort of dance that I call "cant" in which the pair move past one another facing in the opposite direction tipping their backs towards one another as they pass. Once the pass by one another, they may each jack-knife and make another pass. After mating, either the male or female is likely to break off the encounter by striking the other animal ofent the blow landing to the side of the body. When this happens, I remove one of the animals.

In general, I don't try to mate animals under about 4.5 to 5 inches and if I need to mate animals of different sizes, I make sure the male is larger. Usually the larger the pair the more slow-paced and gentile the mating. Animals nearing a molt are often aggressive and don't mate.


Roy

 

[Martini5788]

Have you had any luck with raising the young?

 

[Gonodactylus]

I would say that it is next to impossible to rear O. scyllarus to postlarvae. The eggs are relatively small and contain not much yolk. They hatch in about 3 weeks and stay with the mother in the burrow for a few more days before becoming photoposivie and swimming up into the plankton. We don't know how long they remain in the plankton, but given the size at which they settle, it is probably several months. Rearing them in the lab, the larvae would have to be maintained in individual containers (cannibalism) and fed at least daily - but we don't know what they eat. I have successfully reared gonodactylid larvae (G. chiragra), but they settle out at 9 mm after just a month in the plankton. Even then, the effort it took was extreme and success was less than 5% of the larvae I started with.

Roy

 

[EI Gringo]

Wonderful insight Roy, will take it on board. I was going to house the egg baring female into a separate and bare tank and remove her when the eggs hatch. I would then introduce a basic food like macro plankton amongst others, selcon the water for good measure and abduct approximately a dozen specimens by Turkey baster. I will custom build a divided tank of 5cm cubes for each individual and grow on whatever survives. This depends on if I can get a male and if I can get them to mate, but I think it's doable.