Someone please buy these

[DragonFish]

Someone please buy these, breed them then give me one!

http://www.fragglereef.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1029

 

[mwp]

It's a really good price too considering our LFS's sell them for $199 to $399 each!

Matt

 

[spk]

Ok,

So does anyone know what the breeding requirements of these are?

Steve

 

[mwp]

Well, you need a pair of course. Look up the related gobies..i.e. those "Zebra Gobies" (Ptereleotris zebra) are in the same family and have been bred. Here's a couple of links that came up with Google.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v055n03/p0309-p0321.pdf

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68892&view=previous&sid=6c91edc2468dc3a71c3af54f95a66dde

I don't think anyone's done firefish yet, which is not all that surprising since I have a pair of regular old Firefish and *maybe* they're spawning...they're in excellent health and one of the two never strays from the bolt-hole. I've never seen eggs or larvae though.

Matt

 

[spk]

Matt,

Thanks for this. I finally managed to get it onto my laptop. Will have a good read on the flight home tomorrow.

Steve

 

[spawner]

I've seen those often on wholesale lists, that price is very high for an internet shop. That would be close to retail price; you be better off paying 250-300 bucks for a pair in a shop where you can see the fish.

 

[Kathy55g]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7833785#post7833785 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mwp
Well, you need a pair of course. Look up the related gobies..i.e. those "Zebra Gobies" (Ptereleotris zebra) are in the same family and have been bred. Here's a couple of links that came up with Google.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v055n03/p0309-p0321.pdf

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68892&view=previous&sid=6c91edc2468dc3a71c3af54f95a66dde

I don't think anyone's done firefish yet, which is not all that surprising since I have a pair of regular old Firefish and *maybe* they're spawning...they're in excellent health and one of the two never strays from the bolt-hole. I've never seen eggs or larvae though.

Matt

Um, the first one is about birds....

 

[spk]

Hey Kathy,

It took me forever to get it down. But if you go the the site without the PDF, then you can download it from there. If you do not manage to get it give me a PM with your email and I will send it to you.

the single sad thing is to find out if i can get these in Europe now and I can assume that the cost is going to be astronomical by comparison.

Any one fancy shipping for me to the UK?

Steve

 

[mwp]

http://www.breedersregistry.org/database/NEMDEC01.htm

 

[nutshells]

I bought a pair for $250 but i lost one. This guy actually jumped out of my nano tank and landed on the side of my canopy. Here are some pics

 

[spk]

Hmm,

Sorry for the loss. During my investigations so far, most of the document that I have read say they are good jumpers and that tanks should be covered.

I know that this is a bit late for you now, but perhaps if anyone else is reading this thread, they may spot this piece of news.

I have one question for anyone:

How do you tell the male and female apart?
Are they hermaphrodites (sp) ?

Any one who is breeding gobies currently, if you could jump in and let me know. Again the documentation that I have read so far points to "consecutive hermaphrodites", I gather this to meam that they start out one sex and then change as they mature. But any information on this would be wonderful.

Thanks

Steve

 

[mwp]

Nutshells, that sucks and I totally feel your pain; we lost a future breeder Synchiropus yesterday.

Steve, where have you found documentation on the firefish that points to them being "consecutive" (sequential?) hermaphrodites?

I paired mine by painstakingly observing the interactions in a group of 5 for an hour at the LFS...no obvious pair was apparent, I had to see who chased who, who displayed to who etc.

Now, my Greenbanded Gobies were purchased as 2 separate fish and they just happened to spawn...I realize there's a 50% chance even if the sexes are fixed, but I've since heard that in that particular species the success rate at pairing them is high enough to suggest that they are hermaphrodites. From what I've heard in most Gobies it sounds more like they are fixed sex.

Matt

 

[spk]

Matt,

Gobies

This is the document that I read. When I did the research, it pointed me from FireFish, to DartFish and then on to Gobies. Not yet sure the links, but trying to understand the multitude of different opimions out there.

Steve

 

[mwp]

G. citrinus has been described as a consecutive hermaphrodite(5). (The same authors have listed several of the species discussed in this article as having not been successfully bred)

Not sure exactly what the pahrentheical information is meant to convey, but one way to read that comment is that the author of the article doubts the validity of the first bit of info as other info in the reference may not be correct either. Also, it's only one species that is suggested to be a hermaphrodite, and it's a species pretty distantly related to firefish.

I bet a lot of folks would love to find out that all our gobies are sequential hermaphrodites..it would make obtaining a pair much easier.

Matt

 

[ediaz]

I don't know if gobies, neon, okinawe, greenbanded are protagonic-t-r-a-n-s chatolic protestant.But really not interested in knowing.

Just place two or 3 in a tank and there are big chances of them pairing up, I had succes at pairing the ones mentioned 10 of 12 pairs i made, raising okinawe and multifasciata right now.



Ed

 

[mwp]

Ed, I'm wondering though, would this be the same with the various Firefish? I've seen some pretty beat up specimens when they're kept in groups...perhaps the big problem is that firefish can be pretty nasty towards each other when they're NOT a pair...

Matt

 

[ediaz]

other gobies can become nasty too, i had a particular pair i made of Okinawe, the big one beated the lights out of the small one and it alsmost die, I put it in a different tank, he recovered after a month and I added the bully to the beaten one, they laid their most recent clutch yesterday on the glass, yippi:-(


i don't have any experience with that genus so i would not know.

 

[mwp]

Interesting observation Ed. Kinda sounds like how I paired my percs. Basically, adding the "dominant" fish to the "subordinate" fish's "territory"...kinda takes the "bully" out of the "bully" 'cause it's not his turf.

Maybe I should try it again with my Ecsenius pair now that the smaller fish has had the run of the tank for a month or two.

I'd still say the best way to pair firefish, based on my humble one-time experience would be to watch a group and pick the pair based on behavior. It worked, granted I don't have any eggs or larvae to show for it!

Matt

 

[riptidesreef]

I had a pair of helfrichi's that were together for a year and NADA! I dont know much about their breeding habits and then one finally went down the overflow. We had a service in the honor of more money down the drain!

 

[aomont]

Hi Matt and all,
Took a look at Fishbase and got Green banded are protoginous and Nemateleotris are separate sexes... Not sure of the last ones as no one seems to breed them.
Anderson.