Apogon leptacanthus - Breeding Log - Page 5

FishGuttz · #**101** 09/19/2006, 02:09 PM

Wow, those pics are cool! How do you train them to sit still for so long? You'll definitely be successful with one of these gobies.

mwp · #**102** 09/19/2006, 02:12 PM

(Apogon = cardinalfish)

Actually, I put the larvae in a little tiny dish, then use a tiny pipette to take out ALL the extra water. Basically, the larvae is trapped, unable to swim or turn around, inside a tiny drop or two of water. Makes the picture process go REALLY quickly, and then just dip the dish in the tank and the larvae (hopefully) swims away unscathed.

Matt

FishGuttz · #**103** 09/19/2006, 02:29 PM

Ingenious.

Woops (cardinals) I guess I'm confused with your prolific breeding. The breeding process seems way different from Bangai cardinals. Are they actually related? Why so much harder to do?

-Doug

Luis A M · #**104** 09/19/2006, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Luis A M
or use a rotifer collector.I made mine with a Tetra foam filter,replacing the foam with a 200 mic mesh and discharging the outlet into a rot sieve. Hope that helps.

Isn´t that clear?.You need a pic?.The pull is gentle and larvae can´t go thru 200 mic.
Overpopulation of rots is very frequent with the greenwater technique.Not a problem with clowns as they´re moved to bbs so early.
You´ll find this collector handy.And you can use the collected rots somewhere else

Luis A M · #**105** 09/19/2006, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mwp
(Apogon = cardinalfish) Actually, I put the larvae in a little tiny dish, then use a tiny pipette to take out ALL the extra water. Basically, the larvae is trapped, unable to swim or turn around, inside a tiny drop or two of water. Makes the picture process go REALLY quickly, and then just dip the dish in the tank and the larvae (hopefully) swims away unscathed.

Matt

No kidding?That is exactly how I take pics of my larvae!

mwp · #**106** 09/19/2006, 02:54 PM

Doug, they're harder to do because unlike the Bangaiis, leptacanthus releases hundreds if not thousands of pelagic larvae, probably on par with most gobies in terms of size. Instead of incubating for 25+ days, it seems that a typical leptanthus incubation is 6-9 days.

Luis, I'm not worried about the larvae going THROUGH the 200 micron, but rather getting STUCK to the 200 micron!

Matt

mwp · #**107** 09/19/2006, 02:55 PM

BTW Doug, check out the first page of the thread and you'll see the parents

Matt

Luis A M · #**108** 09/19/2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mwp
Luis, I'm not worried about the larvae going THROUGH the 200 micron, but rather getting STUCK to the 200 micron!

Matt

No way,pull is gentle and you regulate the flow with the air valve.

mwp · #**109** 09/20/2006, 12:44 AM

Another round of shots, this is an Apogon leptacanthus larvae at 143 hours post release (basically 6 days, a new record if I remember right). I happened to collect a mandarin larvae simultaneously, so I figured what the heck and shot them both side-by-side. The mandarin larvae is approx. 82 hours post hatch.

FWIW, after lights out when I went to collect the Apogon larvae they were scattered throughout the tank at all water levels. I'm wondering if perhaps they're already taking on nocturnal tendencies!?

MP

Luis A M · #**110** 09/20/2006, 12:58 AM

Excellent picture!

Again the gut is filled with green stuff,which becomes reddish when approaching the cloaca.Interesting.

mwp · #**111** 09/20/2006, 11:04 AM

This morning I've set out again on a mission to keep the tank healthy - 1.75 gallons came out, along with just a couple larvae. 1 gallon of clean water + 1L of Nannochloropsis is now being slowly siphoned in.

Matt

mwp · #**112** 09/20/2006, 03:53 PM

9-20-06, 3:45 PM, we've had the next Apogon leptacanthus spawn

Just making a note of it...so far the larvae that remain are looking quite good...probably won't be in a position to harvest the next batch in a week.

Matt

mwp · #**113** 09/21/2006, 02:04 AM

Alrighty, I shot these at 1:00 AM, 168 hours post release, aka we've completed 7 days. FWIW, the larvae are getting easier to "see"...for a while there I thought I might only have a couple left, but now there's probably 30-50, maybe more. They're obviously feeding well at this point!

I'd love nothing more than to make it all the way with these...7 days and full bellies...I'm pretty pleased so far. The big question now (in my book) is how long should I keep them on rotifers / when should I start trying newly hatched brine?!

Matt

mwp · #**114** 09/21/2006, 02:19 AM

Thought you might like to see the difference in size...I pulled up the 0 hour 10X shot and put it next to the 10X shot from tonight (7 full days):

MP

jake levi · #**115** 09/21/2006, 06:46 AM

You the man Matt!

re rotifers vs bbs, when they will eat them, offer some, chances are part of them will start taking them, teaching the others, for awhile I'd guess both will be taken if offered. If it was me I'd start offering some bbs.

mwp · #**116** 09/21/2006, 12:53 PM

Well, I haven't seen any mandarin larvae today, but there still might be a few running around. I pulled out another 1.5 gallons, rescued four Apogon leptacanthus larvae, and am filling back in with 1 gallon clean water, 600 ML Tetraselmis and 700 ML T-Iso.

Matt

FishGuttz · #**117** 09/21/2006, 04:51 PM

50 to 7 days! Wow! You're a cardinal breeder! Those aren't exclamation points I'm using, they're cardinal larvae!

mwp · #**118** 09/22/2006, 01:34 AM

One last set of pics and then we'll have to wait until Sunday night (out of town fishing again...it's that time of year). Hopefully they'll make it in my absence...I'm planning on a good rotifer "filter down" + the addition of a lot of clean water and fresh phyto..hopefully enough to keep the tank cloudy for at least a day (the addiiton this morning is now almost completely cleared out).

So, Apogon leptacanthus larvae at 192 hours post release. The other larvae is a 131 hour post hatch Synchiropus splendidus (mandarin, the last one from that huge hatch).

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/AL_192_6.avi

FWIW,

MP

mwp · #**119** 09/22/2006, 08:43 AM

This morning I had a 'stroke of genius' and to make this story short, I set up 2 2L brine shrimp hatcheries as phytoplankton reserviors using a spare needle gang valve I had around. I added some aeration to keep the phyto in suspension, and currently it's dripping about once every 4 seconds. If things go right, the larval tank should get a mixed 1 gallon dosing of phytoplankton over the next couple days while I'm away, meaning no one should have to take care of them. My only real concern is the valves getting clogged with debris, stopping up the slow, steady supply of food.

We'll find out how it worked come Sunday!

Matt

Luis A M · #**120** 09/22/2006, 11:52 AM

Great pics!

We´re all holding the breath!Good luck with them!

For people like me who can´t find out how many days are 131 and 192 hrs without a calculator,I made the conversions:
The cardinal is 8 dah.
The mandarin is 5 1/2 dah.

FishGuttz · #**121** 09/22/2006, 12:44 PM

thanks for the conversion Luis!

mwp · #**122** 09/24/2006, 09:53 PM

FWIW, just got back and while the plankton dosing system basically "failed", we still have PLENTY of larvae and they some have grown truly significantly...they're starting to look laterally compressed!

I may post some updates and pics tonight...we'll see whether I fall asleep beforehand or not!

Matt

mwp · #**123** 09/25/2006, 12:10 AM

We're just shy of 11 days (263 hours post release), probably 30+ larvae running around. I sat down with one of the larger ones and shot some pix and vid under the QX5. Things are looking pretty darn good so far...I would be THRILLED to have a bunch of little dime sized Apogon leptacanthus running around in a couple month's time!

mwp · #**124** 09/25/2006, 12:11 AM

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanoreef/AL_263_9.avi - about 43 MB

Matt

mwp · #**125** 09/25/2006, 12:31 AM

One more for you all - a composite of the backlit 60X shots to get a good sized view of the entire larvae, + I sat down and applied the microscope's 60X scale. This particular larvae is basically 3.7 mm in length at 11 days post release.

FWIW,

MP