Sharing a pic

[catdoc]

I've had a breeding pair of maroons for quite a while, never raised any fry yet but would like to someday. In September, I bought a young pair of tank-bred banggai and added them to the system. I noticed 2 days ago that the male is holding! I'm so excited by the fact that I have 2 pair of breeding fish in this tank. It's a 125 reef display tank, also has a starry blenny, hippo tang (QT'ed 5 weeks, just added to the display 1 week ago), and royal gramma.

In this pic, you can see all four of the breeders. The maroons have a HUGOMONGOUS spawn behind the anemone in the picture. I don't know why the clowns tolerate the banggai so well, those are the only fish the female leaves alone.

 

[mwp]

What a HUGE pair of Maroons! Gorgeous! If I was in your situation, I'd add a mated pair of neon gobies and a few more Royal Gramma's

Matt

 

[ChurchBoy]

Awesome, hope things turn out great for you.

 

[catdoc]

Well, the male banggai is still holding his eggs but I'm keeping a close eye on him. The maroons have hatched out two spawns in the meantime.

My male banggai is spending a lot of time in the longspine urchin I have. If the babies stay in the urchin, do you think I'd have any luck target feeding them some artemia in the main tank or do they need a constant food source? I'd like to try raising some out but would like to just watch a spawn or two without stressing out the parents. I'm guessing there aren't too many eggs in there, it is the first spawn so I assume next time there'll be more?

I don't know for sure when the male started holding the eggs. I noticed it on Jan. 5th but in some pics I took on Dec 31 he was hiding out in the urchin in all of the shots. Of course, none of them are good enough to show me his mouth in focus. Is that normal behavior? For the pregnant male to hide in an urchin like that? I took the pics b/c it was a bit unusual but I didn't notice if he was eating or not at the time.

 

[David M]

If I was in your situation, I'd add a mated pair of neon gobies and a few more Royal Gramma's

Who are you kidding Matt, this is 125! You'd add at least 40-50 fish including 2-3 more clownfish pairs. :lol:

catdoc- IME yes the holding males are reclusive, mine stay in the caulerpa and plastic plants I have in there.