Matt,your thread is a thriller,we´re all breathless waiting for new developments!
I didn´t feed back cause I have no experience with pelagic eggs,other than two Centropyge species.I once had a S.splendidus pair making their spawn rise every evening in a reef tank,but could never see any egg,may be there weren´t any
But I´d like to contribute somehow with your project,which is in the edge of the mostly unexplored territory of breeding ornamental pelagic spawners.I think mandarins are the right entrance gate to this territory,since they have been raised on some occasions.
I have two comments:
1-You must be sure that you get fertile eggs.If you have a dissection scope,put some eggs in a tall petri dish and check them for early development.Pelagic eggs are fast developers,so you will know.If they´re not fertile,you don´t have to break your head with:
2-Incubation technique-I saw the description of W.Mai´s apparatus in the German book,and can´t understand the meaning/function of the propeller.Are the eggs supposed to be sucked halfway downwards in the whirlpool without being actually hit?
Again,I don´t have experience with pelagic eggs,but there is a large experience in commercial food fish aquaculture where all the eggs are pelagic.They don´t do anything special to them,other than keeping them in large aerated tanks...
Good luck with your mandarins!
