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Greenbanded Goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus, Gobidion etc..) Breeding Log
Well, I'm still "cleaning up the threads" and trying to keep my various project organized! I figured with all the activity I've had and what's currently going on, it might be time to consolidate the Greenbanded Gobies!
Our pair, photographed when they "weren't" a pair, a couple days after introduction...for the most part we rarely see them now! First, here's the old threads: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=749279 http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=758034 http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=765587 http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=770984 ___________________________ Elactinus multifasciatus - I've also seen this species named as Gobiosoma multifasciatus and Tigrigobius tifasciatus Common Names: Greenbanded Goby Quick synopsis of tank/care/diet etc.. Current conditions as of 5-14-06 Tank - 24 galllon Nano Cube, Finnex 150 watt HQI 14K Metal Halide with 2 X 18 PC Actinic and upgraded mooonlighting. Filtration is basically stock with the addition of an air stone and purigen. Co-Inhabitants - 1m/1f Pterapogon kaudernii, 2m/1f Apogon margaritophorus, 1m/1f Greenbanded Gobies (I've seen too many different scientific names to know which one to use anymore!), 2 Nemateleotris magnifica (suspected pair of Firefish). This tank is set up as a reef, MOST organisms in this tank are cultured from frags etc...captive raised fish whenever possible. This tank was not started with any live rock- the reef is constructed of "Lace" rock and Tufa. Diet - Frozen Foods include: SF Bay Enriched Brine, SF Bay Spirulina Enriched Brine, Hikari Enriched Brine, Hikari Mysis, Cyclopeze, Formula 1, PE Mysis, Hikari Plankton. Occasional Live Foods Include: Live Brine Shrimp, adult and nauplii. I periodically soak frozen foods with SELCON. Tank Care & Conditions - pH typically 8.2. Temps in upper 70's. Specific Gravity around 1.024 usually. Water changes are 3 gallons, weekly or as needed. All organic levels are usually very low to nonexistent (i.e. < 1 ppm Nitrate, 0 on the rest) although following our recent move (March '06), this tank has experienced elevated nitrate levels at times (i.e. 50 PPM). Calcium levels while probably not relevant hover between 350 and 400. ____________________ Next up, a recap of events to the present... MP Last edited by mwp; 05/14/2006 at 01:16 AM. |
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12-15-05 - We purchased 2 Captive Bred GBG's and added them to the cardinafish tank. For a while they did nothing but chase each other around and fight. Lots of face-to-face confrontation. I suspected we had 2 males.
1-12-06 - I noticed a change in behavior and posted about it, including video. Quote:
It's worth mentioning at this point that a few people have proposed that, based on their experiences with this species, it *may* very well be hermaphroditic, which would definitely allow for any two young fish to pair up if given enough time and space. Granted, we had a 50/50 shot at getting a pair anyway...just food for thought on anyone considering this species. 1-23-06 - Mysteriously, BABIES appear in the adult's tank. Quote:
Quicktime Format, around 2.8 mb, 10 seconds. http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/nanore...2-06_larvae.MOV Quote:
Last edited by mwp; 05/14/2006 at 01:18 AM. |
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1-23-06 We'd lost 50% of the larvae, but another 10 larvae showed up in the tank that night, so not everything had hatched out the first time around.
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1-24-06 - Only 6 larvae remained alive. Within the next 24 hours they were dead as well. |
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1-31-6 - SPAWN #2!
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2-7-06 - SPAWN #3
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2-27-06 - Spawn #4 - totally ignored this hatch, read below:
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3-12-06 - Spawn #5 - another one goes without any care:
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4-7-06 - Spawn #6 - still having to "pass" on raising the GBG's as other fish are taking priority - interestingly I either missed somehatches OR the fish stopped spawning for a while following the move:
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5-12-06 - SPAWN #7! Well, it just happened and as I'm recapping all my prior experience I have baby GBG's in a larval tank...here's the recap for the current spawn:
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That night, we had a spawn of mandarins, so the kriesel was set back up in the tank. I had also taken a picture of the larvae I collected and in the evening counted them up: Quote:
A fair amount of the "GBG" larvae somehow made their way into the kriesel...I know I've had losses but with the "discoloration" of the tank from the algae it's making it hard to see how we're doing. So that's where we're at...24 hours. I honestly can't say things look much better than any prior spawn...we'll have to wait and see I guess. Going forward, I intend to keep any and all happenings with the GBGs current and posted to this thread. Enjoy! MP |
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5-14-06 - We're well into day #3 this time around...we've broke that 48 hour barrier but hey, I know others have made it this far...by tomorrow night maybe we'll really be onto something. The number of larvae is really difficult to estimate at this point because the water is green, the tank sides are covered and well...There's one here and there but I haven't found any big cluster (I may use a light this evening to concentrate them and see how many we actually have going). AGAIN, we have some NITRITE in the water (about 0.5 PPM) so again I'm going to treat that with 1 ML Prime and 5 ML Stability. Man, this is annoying!
MP |
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5-15-06 - as of 10:00 PM tonight we still have some GBG larvae running around, and those that are in there look BIG and active...maybe we cracked the nut?
MP |
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INDEED Ed, INDEED!
5-16-06 - well I looked around the tank today and it took a LONG time to find larvae, but I did manage to find one still kicking...there may be more running around in there. Last night they got some Tetraselmis and today they got another liter of Isocrysis (T-Iso)...all teh same I'm pretty PO'd about the success rate consider we started with almost 200. I'm really thinking that S-Strain rotifers are going to be the only way in the long term...STILL only have L-Strain. MP |
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Well, after testing on 5-17, AGAIN, we have nitrites that are really HIGH (5 PPM) which probably killed off the few remaining larvae. I tore down the tank and REMOVED the sponge filter, then set it back up with established, strained tank water for a mandarin spawn. So this batch of GBG's is done, but we doubled our survival time from roughly 2 to 4 days, so the T-Iso seems to have helped! My next few hatches are probably going to go off to other breeders to try to raise -> I'm really, really focusing my efforts on raising up the mandarins for a bit.
MP |
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5-19-06 - well, 9:30 AM we had another hatch! imbuggin is gonna pick them up and try to raise them (already has had some success with clowns, so we'll see!). This batch is outta my hands in about an hour!
MP |
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6-3-06 - Well, Memorial Day weekend we were out of town - if we had a weekly hatch I wasn't here to see it.
Today I slept in this morning and woke up around 10:30 AM to find ANOTHER GBG hatch! It looks like a lot got eaten or otherwise maybe got sucked into the filtration...the hatch had long since ended by the time I made it to the tank and started scooping out fry. I'm gonna see if imbuggin wants to try them again - I'm busy with mandarin eggs! MP |
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Well, imbuggin is tied up, so this batch...hmm. Gonna keep trying to find a foster home, or maybe I"ll just have to go the specimin cup route with the SS rotifers and see if that works.
MP |
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Well, I'm out of time to try and find these guys a home, so they are back into the 1/2 gallon specime cup with an air feed (about 2 bubbles per second), 75 ML of T-Iso and a bunch of seived L-Strain Rotifers (passed through 120 to take out the bigguns and collected with 10 micron). Going to add some more algae before I leave for the day, maybe some Nannochloropsis. I also added in what I could from my likely crashed SS Strain Rotifer cultures...so *maybe* there are some in there, not sure.
Looks like the mandarins AND the GBGs will get another shot at living this week. MP |
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Added another 40 ML of T-Iso and 30 ML of Nannochloropsis (it was looking really clear in there already). Keep those fingers crossed.
MP |
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Well, the last larval attempt didn't get very far. I've been in and out of town a lot lately and may have missed a spawn or two.
Today (6-19-06) we MIGHT have had a hatch early on, perhaps when the actinics came on (before I was awake)...I noticed the cardinalfish feeding on something as usual but saw ONE mangled but still alive fish larvae in the tank. I turned off the pumps but nothing else showed up...so I think I "missed it". FWIW, MP |
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7-7-06 - FOUND A NEST! - well, for a while now I've been watching the GBGs, trying to figure out where they spawn etc. Well tonight, on a whim, I peaked into a crevice with a flashlight and SHAZAM there's the larger GBG (male?) and a bunch of eggs with eyes! VERY COOL! Likely that I'll be out of town when these hatch out, but I'm going to try to get some pics...won't look like much at first even if I succeed in getting focused in on them, but I'll do my very best!
MP |
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Best I could capture...man I had to contort myself in all sorts of strange positions to get even this poor quality shot!
FWIW, Matt |
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7-24-06 - well it seems that these guys are indeed still on a routine, yet it must be that hatches are occuring when I'm not around. I took a look earlier in the week and found another goby nest; I expected it to hatch this morning...nope. We were gone for the later half of the day, and when I returned I was somewhat relieved to find the babies still there with those silver eyes pearing out of their little vertical eggs. No hatch at light's out...hmm. The male appears to be sleeping, so I can only guess if/when they'll hatch. I really want to give these guys another go now that I have plentiful supplies of SS-Strain rotifers (and somewhat PO'd mandarins that aren't spawning as often as they did in months past). Harumph...I'm pondering creating some sort of larval collector....I just wonder how many can make it in there with all the cardinalfish lurking (they're typically the ones that notify me when a hatch has commenced by their "Feeding" activity when I haven't put any food into the tank recently!)
Any suggestions as always would be welcome. Matt |
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As a last ditch effort, I shut down all the pumps a moment ago and tried squirting the eggs with a pipette as suggested in one of the online goby breeding articles. It *should* have caused them to hatch IF they were ready. No hatch, and it seems I kinda ticked off the male a bit between the flashlight and the wierd thing sticking into his cave. OH WELL...hopefully they won't hatch out overnight and be gone come morning; I've actually delayed the lights timing so that I can be onhand for sunrise
Breeding Marine Fish is SOOOOOO frustrating sometimes! Matt |
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Just a quick update, I started sunrise this morning around 8:15 AM...by 9:10 there wasn't a hatch, the eggs still stuck in the little cave. Hopefully they'll wait until this evening to hatch out, after I'm home from work.
MP |
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