Yellow head jawfish spawning

[taricha]

My fish are confused. They spawned at lights on yesterday. 11 days since last spawn.
Female went into male's tunnel with fat belly, bobbed halfway in/out of entrance a few times. Looked almost as though the male might have been pulling the female back in by the tail. Female came out without eggs in belly and male had them in his mouth.

4 days of feeding in the tube and on day 5, I gave it a shot.

Caught that fast chromis on first try.

In the lead-up to that the two jawfish didn't get that much food because I was only feeding the tube, so the male might have eaten the eggs on day 1.

But now the chromis is gone, there will be a lot less stress and territorial aggressive displays.

 

[farfromsea]

Impressive fish catching. Too bad about the eggs but there will be more and you get more time to prep the cultures


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[taricha]

So this morning, I saw this and realized I might have misjudged the male.

Tunnel entrance being totally sealed is one of the behaviors I've only seen them do when guarding eggs.

And this evening he appears...

...With eggs. I guess I just have to get used to the fact that when he sees me, he expects a meal, so he may go 20 minutes without appearing outside the tunnel with the eggs in his mouth.

 

[RIP Sebastian]

Such a durpy look on his face! If- or when- you're successful, do you think you'll sell any of them?

 

[taricha]

Such a durpy look on his face! If- or when- you're successful, do you think you'll sell any of them?

Yep. If I somehow manage that then I'd like to make some available. And guaranteed if any survive my care then they must be hardy individuals

 

[McPuff]

This is VERY cool! I have always liked yellow headed jawfish. Want to get one in my 300... or a pair. It seems that they will do ok even with other, faster feeders around. Do you target feed the adults? Or will they be able to come out and get mysis (e.g.) when I feed the tank? I've got some wrasses and tangs that are quick to feed. But nothing that is super aggressive.

 

[taricha]

This is VERY cool! I have always liked yellow headed jawfish. Want to get one in my 300... or a pair. It seems that they will do ok even with other, faster feeders around. Do you target feed the adults? Or will they be able to come out and get mysis (e.g.) when I feed the tank? I've got some wrasses and tangs that are quick to feed. But nothing that is super aggressive.

I'll talk about what happens in my tank, because other experiences vary. At first, I target fed right to their tunnel entrances. Now, I just feed their side of the tank. If other big fast movers are around, they will not go much further out of their tunnel than a body length. But if food flows within that target area, they'll snap it up. When no one is around they'll go almost a foot away from their tunnel.
They'll also stay up late and hunt in dark after others have gone to bed.
Some foods they had to learn and others they recognized immediately. Mysis and brine shrimp they took almost immediately.
One thing they react to in a totally different way than everything else - they can spot a swimming amphipod no other fish even notices and snag it from half a tank away. It's got to have been a big part of their diet in the wild - they are like anti-aircraft missiles for swimming amphipods.

 

[McPuff]

I'll talk about what happens in my tank, because other experiences vary. At first, I target fed right to their tunnel entrances. Now, I just feed their side of the tank. If other big fast movers are around, they will not go much further out of their tunnel than a body length. But if food flows within that target area, they'll snap it up. When no one is around they'll go almost a foot away from their tunnel.
They'll also stay up late and hunt in dark after others have gone to bed.
Some foods they had to learn and others they recognized immediately. Mysis and brine shrimp they took almost immediately.
One thing they react to in a totally different way than everything else - they can spot a swimming amphipod no other fish even notices and snag it from half a tank away. It's got to have been a big part of their diet in the wild - they are like anti-aircraft missiles for swimming amphipods.

Awesome! I was hoping for some info like this. Good thing I've already got a screen top as I'm gonna have to get one or two. :0)

 

[taricha]

Yesterday was day 5 by my count. Expecting hatch Friday (night?)
Got two small tanks set up for the fry with two different methods.
One tank is "easy" and one is "dense."

"Dense" is putting the fry into a parvocalanus culture tank, fed by cultured T-iso and Phycopure copepod blend. Chlor-am-x for ammonia control/water quality between water changes. Parvo pods will be maintained as close to 2-3 adults per mL as possible for max egg/nauplii production.

"Easy" tank is a Tisbe pod culture tank with rotifers added. Ammonia control/water quality by clumps of chaeto. Tank is fed RGcomplete, DTs, and any greenwater culture I have at the time. It's "easy" because of the larger range of food the Tisbe and Rots will accept, and relying on chaeto for water quality. This will not have near the same nutrition density so I'll try fewer fry.

If anyone can ballpark estimate a number of fry per gallon that's reasonable to attempt I'd be interested to hear.

 

[RIP Sebastian]

Good luck! Hope it goes well!

 

[taricha]

I need a better method for collecting. Or get luckier figuring out when the hatch will be.
No hatch at dawn yesterday (day 7), so I took the lights low manually for sunset last night. No sign of hatching followed for 45 minutes or so. So I took the tank all dark so I could be in place for manual lights-on dawn today (day 8).
Eggs gone before lights came on. Almost no sign of any hatch overnight except 2 dead fry on the water surface. Scoured the tank looking for a live fry - couldn't find sign of a single one.
My tank devours fish fry and leaves no trace. Issues of breeding in a reef tank.
I maybe could have upped the chance of a fry lasting the night if I had remembered to cut off the strong powerheads and leave only the minor flow running.
Ah well. Jawfish back to courting immediately. 20 second video of courtship activity.
https://youtu.be/r3iU1omu5IE

Male on the left initiates. Twirl around each other angled upwards, mouths open.
Spawning should happen in a day or two.
In actual spawning, the female would follow male into his tunnel, and lay eggs there for male to mouth brood.

 

[taricha]

New spawn 8:00 this morning:
Spawn Dates...
(first two night/morning?) 2/10-11, 2/20-21, 3/3 AM, 3/14 AM.
The last two have been 11 days since previous spawn and I actually witnessed spawning within an hour of lights on. The first two dates I assumed spawns happened at sunset because that's what others said, But the two spawns I actually witnessed were at dawn.

I got this one on video (the part not in the tunnel obviously) will upload later, after I have time to edit it down from the original 30 minutes.

 

[farfromsea]

I wonder if you can put some sort of mesh bag thing over their hole to catch the fry on/around the days they will release them?


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[farfromsea]

Any luck?


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[taricha]

Some luck, just not on fish front. I'm much better at growing phyto now, should be a long time before I have to buy any more stock. And the parvocalanus pods are easily stable now, too.
Male swallowed last batch (3/14 spawn) 3 or 4 days in. But is currently holding another batch. spawn dates:
(first two night/morning?) 2/10-11, 2/20-21, 3/3 AM, 3/14 AM, 3/25 AM (probably)

 

[farfromsea]

Nice! Looks like you should have another batch next week. Wonder why he swallowed them...


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[taricha]

Nice! Looks like you should have another batch next week. Wonder why he swallowed them...

Wish I knew. Would be better to know what I was doing wrong than wondering if it's amount of food, choice of diet, water chemistry, other environmental, or he just randomly keeps eating them.

 

[ginpang]

I don't think it has much to do with water chemistry...
probably more with practice.
The pair I had in the early 2000's took about 8 or 9 dry runs before reaching the full incubation.

The male I have now seems very experienced and holds eggs very well. Though unfortunately had his female jump out recently.

They also take breaks during the year. I think that has a link with photoperiod and temperature.




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[taricha]

I don't think it has much to do with water chemistry...
probably more with practice.
The pair I had in the early 2000's took about 8 or 9 dry runs before reaching the full incubation.

The male I have now seems very experienced and holds eggs very well. Though unfortunately had his female jump out recently.

They also take breaks during the year. I think that has a link with photoperiod and temperature.




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Yep. Wouldn't be so annoying if he hadn't carried the very first batch all the way to hatch.

 

[taricha]

Any ideas on male swallowing eggs?
More batches swallowed on day 2-3. The dude is so well-fed it looks like he couldn't possibly eat eggs, yet he does.
I've tried removing aggressive fish, feeding more, adding food variety, blocking sump light from entering tunnel. Stumped.
Frustrating because I have 3 types of phytoplankton and 5 cultures of pods all stable and ready to go, after lots of failure.
If I could manage to steal eggs somehow, what would be necessary? Small chamber with an aggressive bubbler, water changed frequently?