Ptereleotris microlepis spawning.

[Luis A M]

Ptereleotris gobies,often called dart or torpedo fish,are peaceful gobies that hover in the water column feeding on zooplankton.
My pair of P.microlepis has spawned among some PVC pipes,producing a yellow mass of very small eggs.
It was very hard to find previous reports of the spawning or larval rearing of these gobies,despite of them being popular aquarium fish.One of the few references was a thread by Mr.Blue of 2005 here at RC: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=502759&highlight=ptereleotris+zebra

 

[billsreef]

:thumbsup:

 

[Beaun]

pictures?

 

[Luis A M]

pictures?

I owe them.I have to find my camera and lenses lost somewhere in the house.:sad2:
I found some newly hatched larvae and as expected they are very tiny.

 

[AGardner]

Any news with these guys??

 

[Luis A M]

Any news with these guys??

No,but we are in Summer vacation here
Will post any news.

 

[BADGUS]

Anything ever happen with the larvae?

 

[Luis A M]

I didn´t tried to raise those few.
Now they spawned again,a thumb sized yellow mass hanging from the roof of a cave.They were sharing their tank with a breeding pair of Onyx clowns (A.percula).
Two days after spawning the egg mass was gone and the large (8.5cm TL)female clown was found dead,without any signe of disease nor lesions.I wonder if both episodes were related.
Anyway the goby pair is now alone in their tank.

 

[jake levi]

good on ya Luis !

good on ya Luis !

Hi Luis

Good to see you are still here, I missed you all, will be resetting up this spring or summer.

Whats your main projects now?

 

[Luis A M]

Hi Jake!
Working mostly with damsels right now,trying to optimize the rearing %.

 

[jake levi]

Thats a ripe family to be exploring, good luck, hows your numbers so far??

 

[Luis A M]

Thats a ripe family to be exploring, good luck, hows your numbers so far??

Yes,and Chrysiptera is a good genus to start with them.Currently over 50 and hopefully improving:http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1887021

The gobies spawned again last evening.Interestingly,the egg mass is not extruded whole,as in Banggais,but they stick some eggs to the substrate and then keep adding more eggs until the mass is built.

 

[Luis A M]

I can´t see this pic of the spawn in the "preview post".Hope it works now:rolleye1:
Edit:it didn`t work.I pasted the "image"from photobucket.
Mods,you could move this to the feedback forum...
I can´t find what I am doing wrong.

 

[billsreef]

Luis, it looks like some part of the pictures file name is triggering the VB software's profanity filter.

 

[Luis A M]

Indeed,microlepis spawn!http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18546568&posted=1#post18546568
Censors must have a tough work with a breeding forum!:lol2:
Now I have to change the pics names.

 

[billsreef]

Spell check can give some interesting "corrections" to latin names also :lol:

 

[Luis A M]

Ok,here we go...
on the 3rd day the egg mass was found unattended.The spawn is mostly infertile,but some few tiny dots,possibly eyes could be seen:

Which is confirmed under higher magnification:

Unfortunately,egg ball/mass spawners can not remove the bad eggs,and when the brooding male finds that the spawn goes bad,by means of visual or olfactory clues,the whole mass is rejected,and the good ones get lost.

 

[billsreef]

Have you tried removing such an egg ball and hatching out in a tumbler with some methylene blue to ward off fungus?

 

[Luis A M]

Yes,I tried but none hatched.Same happens to me and others with other egg mass spawners,like gobies and dottibacks.I expect that the fertility % will increase with time.

 

[iziko]

Thanks for sharing!
What Microscope do you use?

Thanks again.