Ruby Red Dragonet Breeding Journal
- Thread starter kizanne
- Start date
kizanne
Member
FLAG on the play... My hubby dumped my egg cup into the waste bucket that had coralRX dip in it. I sucked out the eggs I could see. Took that opportunity to take a picture. But not sure what the coralRX will do to the eggs, plus the manhandling. Here's a picture at 18 hours. I tried to make a video but couldn't find it on my computer after at 18 hours the eggs have twitchy larva inside.
kizanne
Member
Things move quick around here.... The Rubies heard about my accident so they SPAWNED again for me tonight. Happy Mother's Day to me. LOL. Still need my algae to recover. At least my disks arrived today so I can start some.
Clock 1 1.5 hph
Clock 2 spawn
goal get to 48 hph (double last time).
Clock 1 1.5 hph
Clock 2 spawn
goal get to 48 hph (double last time).
kizanne
Member
Ok well.... to be more confusing after I rescued my 1st batch back to a cup in the parent tank, when I was collecting the new spawn I noticed some larva... hmmmm.... then I discovered my 1st batch cup had tipped over. So I wasn't sure did I have new eggs? The microscope confirmed they were new eggs but now both batches are all mixed together and in the larva tank with a small amount of crashed T-iso and some parvo copepods and some tisbe pods. I think I'll be adding some psuedo pods later today
On the upside I'm at 15 hph and my larva seem alot more active then they did last time. I didn't see a mouth last time but I'm wondering if I missed it and they starved?
I have my disks that I'm sterilizing water now to put on the disk to innoculate a culture with but if they can hold out till Wednesday on my old T-iso, I have some liquid tetra coming in the mail. I have one larva in a microscope slide/box but all the others are in a small tank (1/2 gallon w/only 1/4 gallon water right now) so won't be any pictures of these I don't think. I don't have many larva in there so I can't take any out to take pictures. I am going to try to put some T-iso in the microscope box and maybe some psuedo's and keep taking picture there but I doubt they will survive the evaporation/replacement changes that will happen.
On the upside I'm at 15 hph and my larva seem alot more active then they did last time. I didn't see a mouth last time but I'm wondering if I missed it and they starved?
I have my disks that I'm sterilizing water now to put on the disk to innoculate a culture with but if they can hold out till Wednesday on my old T-iso, I have some liquid tetra coming in the mail. I have one larva in a microscope slide/box but all the others are in a small tank (1/2 gallon w/only 1/4 gallon water right now) so won't be any pictures of these I don't think. I don't have many larva in there so I can't take any out to take pictures. I am going to try to put some T-iso in the microscope box and maybe some psuedo's and keep taking picture there but I doubt they will survive the evaporation/replacement changes that will happen.
kizanne
Member
So I gotta make this quick because I have work to do.
1st larva tank is contaminated with rotifers but there is one 'fat' larva swimming around at 25 hours so that is a break through cause the 1st one from the last batch to make it to 24 hours was larthargic. Not sure how to keep it fed with rotifers in there because the rotifers are definately too big.
So my Ruby Reds heard it was Mother's Day and that I had a rotifer problem so the decided to SPAWN AGAIN. I have two long chains of eggs so I think maybe both girls got into the action tonight. So I have to go try to set something up for these eggs that doesn't contain rotifers and I'm running out of my crashed T-Iso. Like I said got work to do and that doesn't count my annual evaluation is tomorrow and I have a job interview tomorrow and my daughters birthday is Thursday........ So you know they'll spawn tomorrow for me too. LOL. I did catch two of them slurping brine shrimp so that make me feel good. they have a good supply of copepods and amphipods in the tank but I'm glad to know they can top off if need with frozen.
1st larva tank is contaminated with rotifers but there is one 'fat' larva swimming around at 25 hours so that is a break through cause the 1st one from the last batch to make it to 24 hours was larthargic. Not sure how to keep it fed with rotifers in there because the rotifers are definately too big.
So my Ruby Reds heard it was Mother's Day and that I had a rotifer problem so the decided to SPAWN AGAIN. I have two long chains of eggs so I think maybe both girls got into the action tonight. So I have to go try to set something up for these eggs that doesn't contain rotifers and I'm running out of my crashed T-Iso. Like I said got work to do and that doesn't count my annual evaluation is tomorrow and I have a job interview tomorrow and my daughters birthday is Thursday........ So you know they'll spawn tomorrow for me too. LOL. I did catch two of them slurping brine shrimp so that make me feel good. they have a good supply of copepods and amphipods in the tank but I'm glad to know they can top off if need with frozen.
RichJohnston83
New member
so cool! wish I could get stuff to breed in my tanks!!
kizanne
Member
You can! You just have to be willing to sacrifice other stuff. If I'm still standing tomorrow afternoon after no sleep, my evaluation, my interview and trying to buy my daughter a car for her birthday, I'll post a picture of this Ruby Red tank. What you'll see is hair algae. You'll see frags and a few live rocks but when I noticed the amphipods and copepods (mostly amphipods) were breeding quite well in the hair algae I started managing it instead of trying to eradicate it. The tank is managed for maximum natural food production for the ruby reds. most of the other stuff like frags actually seem to like the constant supply of food but I have lost a few to the stuff as well. I'll be moving the frags out when I get a chance. I also overfeed my tanks. Even though they have copepod clouds in the tank and amphipods, I still 2 times daily add either frozen brine or garlic/selco soaked nano pellets. When I feed I usually leave the pump off as long as possible or a couple hours. In the morning it is about 30 minutes as I get ready for work and at night it is off from 6 to 9 or 10pm (when I check the surface for eggs before turning it back on). This gives them lots of time to eat before the pump moves it around. As a side benefit, I seem to be breeding small starfish as well. I do a 10% to 15% water change each week while I siphon out some of the hair algae. Dragonets just don't chase their food down so they need to be able to hunt and peck. I had read somewhere probably Paul B or Matt Wittenrich said you meet their needs like enough food, light, space and they will be driven to reproduce. So far the dragonettes (both ruby reds and mandarins) seem to do that. Clown fish don't seem to particular either. My cardinals and gobies both get gravid as well. My male cardinal still eats the eggs right now and I lost my goby pair to ich, but they are producing eggs and fertilizing.
Raising the young is where it gets tricky but buy a book and try it out. It is really quite fun and who knows maybe you'll be breeding the next fish everyone says can't be done or is having trouble like yellow tangs.
I really hope more people work on raising fish as our hobby could sorely use some more aqua-cultured sources with more variety and availability.
kizanne
Member
so Spawn #3 was 5/10. Hatch was 5/11 late. I have larva still this morning and several seem to be quite spry. So I'm going to say they are 36 hph. I have them in a tetra, iso mix with copepods. The algae is weak from crashed cultures but I have new algae currently in the works but will need 3-4 more days for the fertilizer to be gone.
hotelbravo
Active member
Ive been reading every update and following along with this project can we get a picture of your setup?
frothhelmet
New member
This is really interesting that you are keeping a male with 2 females. How is the aggression between the two females - would you recommend doing this again? Also, do these dragonets stay small - like around 1.5 inches - or do they grow to 3" like other dragonets? Thanks
kizanne
Member
Well I still have one larva (I think that is it but it is hard to see in the green water and some of the copepods with eggs are almost as large as the larva). 60 hours post hatch
Frothhelmet - I have read that they can form harems, I bought them as a trio though the guy did not claim bonded or anything like that and I didn't know for sure I had a boy and/or girl in there. So when I put them in the tank I watched them. They dominant girl will sometimes show some aggression to the other but none of it seems that serious. At the time I just wanted them to live and that is my tank with clouds of copepods so in they went. Literature says they get about 3 inches but lots of literature also says mandarins are 2.5 inches and I've see a few males much larger so I'm not sure with good health and feedings where they will top out. Right now they are much smaller than my mandarins and breeding so of age I would guess.
Frothhelmet - I have read that they can form harems, I bought them as a trio though the guy did not claim bonded or anything like that and I didn't know for sure I had a boy and/or girl in there. So when I put them in the tank I watched them. They dominant girl will sometimes show some aggression to the other but none of it seems that serious. At the time I just wanted them to live and that is my tank with clouds of copepods so in they went. Literature says they get about 3 inches but lots of literature also says mandarins are 2.5 inches and I've see a few males much larger so I'm not sure with good health and feedings where they will top out. Right now they are much smaller than my mandarins and breeding so of age I would guess.
kizanne
Member
I saw two larva alive this evening. Some tetra came in the mail today so I was able to add some fresh algae to the rearing cup. Just for the record. The two larva are in a old jelly jar probably an 8 oz jar. I choose it because it is a wide mouth, short cup so it is got more air flow and was easier to look into. It has good copepod population but many look too big. I hope the babies are small enough. 72 hours post hatch. Mandarins seem to have a starvation day or 3-4 days so if I make it to another 24 hours that will really be something.
