Please help with Pseudochromis aldabraensis

[scott324]

Hello all,

I need some help... fast!!!

I have a pair of Pseudochromis aldabraensis (neon dottybacks). One dissapeared for a while and I went looking for it (him). well I found him living in a barnacle cluster. I had put PVC in there but he chose this instead. Well when I picked it up he swam out and a cluster of eggs also fell out. Now the male will not go back to the eggs (its been about 30 min since). Will he go back and tend to them. The female is trying to eat them now. Should I take them out and try something different or is this batch done for. I was just looking today for moes book on breeding the orchid dottyback, but since the male was MIA I didn't order it. Can anyone give me some info on breeding these guys. I have phyto growing and could probably get some rotifiers quickly. I checked the breeders registry for the neon but only found the orchid. Can I assume these will have similar requirements? I would really like to have these fish survive. Also how frequently can I expect them to spawn now. Any help anyone can give would be great. Thanks
scott

[Laura D]

I would go with the info that you found for the orchid. They are in the same genus, they can't be that different. I wish I had some personal experience to give you. Give it your best shot on these eggs, I am really impressed. Once fish start spawning, most of them seem to keep it up, so if you don't get fry this time, you will probably have a chance to try again.

And keep detailed notes of everything you do so you can share them with us!!!

Good Luck!!

:D

[FMarini]

Scott;
Yes the data for the orchid pseudos will work just fine.
Essentially you will want the male back w/ his eggs if you can. It has been show that egg masses that have a tending male have a higher hatch rate. (the male fans the egss which increases oxygenation), However in his absense fewer eggs will hatch.
You might want to segregate the female from this egg mass, as she is no help the situation.

Their first meal should be rotifers, and similar to clownfish need a high food density as they intially swim poorly. If you have green water then you should order rotifers. I have had success w/ rotifers from inlandaquatics.com or mountaincorals.com (which has a product called velvet green+rotifers. Its a 1gal bucket containing a mix of phytos+ rotifers). Either way rotifers are the first meal.
These fish should spawn more frequently once your past this ordeal. Good luck
frank