|
2-28/3-1-06 - Talk about a TON of larvae. I chased the brooding male around the tank today trying to catch him to strip the larvae. Well, after several missed attempts, he spit the egg mass which got caught in a frond of caulerpa. I gently netted it with the brine shrimp net (a regular net would just pass larvae right through it) - kept it submerged and VERY gently transferred the mass into a large specimen cup. There it sat. More or less CUP shaped, not really a round ball, but rather a shape that could be flat but was rolled up into a cup.
Well, I brought a rigid airline close to the mass to keep circulation going and the babies started shooting off the mass like popcorn! I got it on vid and will post it in the next day or two.
I'm going back to the mass to stimulate more "hatching" but hey, we already have AT LEAST 30-40 viable larvae and the egg mass is still very large - there are easily 200-300 larvae in there.
More soon!
MP
|