Greenbanded Goby (Elacatinus multifasciatus, Gobidion etc..) Breeding Log - Page 4

aomont · #76 08/14/2006, 01:37 AM

At which day you added L rotifers Matt ?
Anderson.

mwp · #77 08/14/2006, 09:06 AM

I was looking through all the notes and can't believe it, but I think I forgot to add a note about ADDING the L-Strain. I made mention of it aon 8-7-06, so I maybe it was either 8-8 or 8-9, 7 or 8 days of age?

This morning I've added the last of the phyto I harvested yesterday, 7 basters of the T-Iso/Tetraselmis mix. It's amazing how 2 liters of phytoplankton can just get consumed in 12 hours

Matt

mwp · #78 08/14/2006, 11:20 PM

Here's the quick update...those baby GBGs are still hard to find and count and I'd say over the last 2-3 days they are congregating more loosely. 10 basters of newly harvested phyto, all 4 types in equal portions, were added to the "crystal clear" water at 11:15 PM this evening.

Matt

mwp · #79 08/15/2006, 12:12 AM

So I'm pretty confident in saying we're down to the last 8-10 larvae on the GBG's, and it's 13.5 days. I pulled one out to give him a look; it seems some of these larvae are getting their mouths stuck open (or something is seriously wrong with the water and they're "gasping"). Anyway, I pulled out one of the larger larvae, put him under the microscope, shot for 2 minutes and by the end of it he was already dying...added him back into the tank and his little body just sank to the bottom.

So this little guy gave up his life so we could see how the group is developing. It's a big change, and I think the pictures justify the loss to get a lot of information on the larval development. Perhaps on future batches I'll "fill in the blanks" as I can. I think I'll wait until at least 20 days before I shoot again.

Here ya go!

Matt

mwp · #80 08/15/2006, 12:25 AM

I followed up the photographs with a water test...pH 8.2, Ammonia 0.5 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 0 ppm. I have my ideas where the ammonia could have come from...basically ANYWHERE, but I'm thinking maybe the phytoplankton (if it wasn't sufficiently mature for harvest)?

The larvae that are alive aren't showing any outwards signs of distress, but as a prophalatic I added in 10 drops of PRIME to bind up that ammonia...just to be safe until I can start another round of water removal and slow refilling. I'd really like to not lose anymore larvae from this batch, but I'd be OK with starting over. Granted, if I get lucky I'll have some Apogon leptacanthus larvae to throw in there as well as the next hatch.

FWIW,

Matt

mwp · #81 08/15/2006, 01:22 AM

Well, I can't believe I either didn't notice this before or simply didn't remember - Frank Baench has his whole GBG protocol outlined on his website! - http://www.rcthawaii.com/research/5.htm

Anyway, I've set up the first brine shrimp hatcher with 1/4 tsp eggs...we'll see how they go! I'm off to bed!

Matt

mwp · #82 08/15/2006, 10:24 AM

Well, somehow the air feed stopped running last night..that's always fun. I added in 8 basters of mixed phytoplankton this morning. It seems that the larvae are still OK. Gotta replace that air pump I guess!

Matt

mwp · #83 08/15/2006, 10:58 PM

Things are just looking so-so. 10 more basters of phyto were added...the brine hasn't hatched yet, but should be hatched in a couple more hours...they're going straight in while still nauplii.

FWIW,

Matt

mwp · #84 08/16/2006, 12:15 AM

More and more work for an increasingly smaller batch of fry! I'm going to say there are 6, maybe 7 alive this evening. I've removed 6 gallons of the water, and will slowly add 3 freshly mixed gallons back in over the next hour or two. The tank is definitely acting more like a rotifer culture at this point; my only real recourse might be to start straining the tank water to remove rotifers as the larvae get switched over to baby brine (and ultimately cyclopeze). There are still 2 mandarin larvae sharing their tank now.

Matt

mwp · #85 08/16/2006, 02:09 AM

Just more followup on the GBG's - most of the newly mixed water was added, followed by 8 basters of phytoplankton mix (that was the last of it AGAIN!). The Brine Shrimp started hatching, so I did an early collection and got the nauplii into the tank. Of the 6 or so remaining larvae most have shown little interest but I did see one take a shot and miss, followed by a successful "hit" that ultimately resulted in the nauplii being spit out. With that observation, I suspect maybe the nauplii are still a bit larger for the larvae.

I'm leaving the lights on, but raising them by about 16" so the larvae can feed overnight if they want to..we'll see what's going on tomorrow!

Matt

mwp · #86 08/16/2006, 11:11 AM

Well, I couldn't find more than 3 of the larvae this morning, but those that I did find did NOT look like they were feeding on the brine nauplii, yet the population of nauplii definitely looks "reduced". The rest of them hatched out overnight and are being added to the tank...here's to hoping for the best.

Matt

Kathy55g · #87 08/16/2006, 12:22 PM

Don't forget to rinse them first! Brine shrimp hatching water is nasty!

Luis A M · #88 08/16/2006, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kathy55g
Don't forget to rinse them first! Brine shrimp hatching water is nasty!

And teeming with Vibrio!

mwp · #89 08/16/2006, 03:22 PM

And then there were 3...

I don't know guys, but it looks like this batch is coming to an end. What suggestions for improvement on the next batch do you all have? It seems over the last 7 days or so the losses just started "adding up"...a few here, a few there and suddenly there's none left to die

Matt

mwp · #90 08/17/2006, 12:37 AM

OK, so I have to take back my count, because a couple of hours ago I was able to find 5. They still don't appear to be feeding on the nauplii, so for now I'm just going to continue adding phytoplankton, and will try the nauplii again in a couple days. (edit - BTW 8 basters of Nannochloropsis just went into the tank, I'm burning through almost 2 liters of phytoplankton a day now).

Matt

Kathy55g · #91 08/17/2006, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Luis A M
And teeming with Vibrio!

Really? I didn't know that! Even if you decapsulate in bleach?

Luis A M · #92 08/17/2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kathy55g
Really? I didn't know that! Even if you decapsulate in bleach?

Sure,like a rich culture medium

I haven´t tried decap yet.Currently trying to find out if Vibrio come in the water or from the cysts.

mwp · #93 08/17/2006, 02:09 PM

Just another update on the GBG's, I added in the last of the Nannochloropsis (5 basters), another gallon of fresh water (Tank now has about 7.5 gallons in it) and a dosing of Reef Plus (can't hurt!). I can again only find 3 of the GBG larvae, and haven't been able to locate any mandarin larvae at this point.

FWIW,

Matt

mwp · #94 08/18/2006, 12:59 AM

The tank was completely crystal clear this evening, so I added in 12 basters of phytomix, heavy on the T-Iso and Tetraselmis, lighter on the Nannochloris and just a touch of Nannochloropsis (I'm in the process of restarting these cultures...they're getting "old" and "non responsive" to harvests).

I can still find 2 larvae for sure, but they're hanging out in the one corner that's nearly impossible to see...I wouldn't be surprised to find more larvae there.

I'm expecting our next hatch soon, probably tomorrow morning, but then I leave for another fly fishing trip! SOOOOO...the current plan is to remove 7.5 gallons or so of the tank water (it's basically full at this point), bring it back up with 5 gallons of mixed water (I mixed it earlier today), add in the babies, add in 1 liter of T-Iso, I liter of Tetraselmis, and MAYBE 1 Liter of Nannochloris, and leave them be until Sunday Evening - Renee will get this weekend off and if my "experiment" doesn't work, well, there should be a hatch the weekend after this one anyway...and hey, I still have two larvae who are now 16.5 days old!

Matt

mwp · #95 08/18/2006, 10:47 AM

8-18-06 - we have a hatch! - unfortunately I BLEW IT! The hatch must have happened earlier on between my last post and 10:00 AM when the main lights came on. Shortly after, I noticed the female bangaii hanging out by the goby's den - she made the telltale feeding movement and I knew there were baby gobies around. I turned off the pumps and looked into the goby cave - all I saw were empty egg shells!

I've captured only 5 or 6 GBG larvae this morning, which means I'm late! Maybe the hatch occurred when the actinics came on at 9:00 AM? Maybe earlier? I want to say I delayed the lights coming on with my last "good" collection of a hatch, so I will have to remember to try that again.

Well, the one thing I can say for sure is that I'm going to be building a larval collector - my only real concerns are going to be it's effectiveness with all the current in the tank. I also think the cardinalfish, especially the bangaii's, may come to learn of this being a "food source"...i.e. it may only be effective for a few times before they figure out that at night, when there's this "extra" light, baby fish are going to swarm near it.

My only other option is to stay UP on the nights of an expected hatch, but that ain't gonna fly!

Matt

mwp · #96 08/18/2006, 02:11 PM

This morning I could only find ONE of our 2 week+ old GBG larvae - I tried to catch it and somehow lost it in the tank and haven't seen it since (wanted to show a side-by-side comparison between the older larvae and the newly hatched ones).

Anyways, 10 basters of mandarin mix (T-Iso and Tetraselmis) went into the 10 gallon tank along with the 5-6 larvae I caught...they're going to fend for themselves this weekend.

Matt

mwp · #97 08/18/2006, 02:31 PM

One last note, important for timing the next hatch - sometime between 11:00 AM and 2:15 PM the GBG's spawned again..little tiny orangeish tan eggs are in the cave again. I think that gives me 6 days to build a larval collector! Well, I'm off to fish!

Matt

Kathy55g · #98 08/18/2006, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mwp
8-18-06 - we have a hatch!
Well, the one thing I can say for sure is that I'm going to be building a larval collector - my only real concerns are going to be it's effectiveness with all the current in the tank. I also think the cardinalfish, especially the bangaii's, may come to learn of this being a "food source"...i.e. it may only be effective for a few times before they figure out that at night, when there's this "extra" light, baby fish are going to swarm near it.

My only other option is to stay UP on the nights of an expected hatch, but that ain't gonna fly!

Matt

I've used a larval collector with shrimps and firefish and coral beauty in the tank with the hatching clownfish eggs, and they never went near the larvae in the light.

mwp · #99 08/20/2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

I've used a larval collector with shrimps and firefish and coral beauty in the tank with the hatching clownfish eggs, and they never went near the larvae in the light.

But the firefish and coral beauty aren't nocturnal, and depending on the shrimp species, they may not be either!

So I'm back, at least 2 larvae from the recent hatch running around in the tank, the tank was CRYSTAL CLEAR. 4 basters of Nanno + 4 basters of T-Iso/Tetraselmis mix went in, and that's it for now!

Matt

mwp · #**100** 08/22/2006, 12:19 AM

All the babies were gone on the morning of the 20th...in other words they didn't last long! I drained the tank this evening and did not find any larvae, so the last observed OLDER larvae in the tank was at 17 days....not too shabby but hardly what I was hoping for.

The tank is going to probably dry overnight. I haven't decided whether I'm going to sterilize with bleach or maybe just soak in freshwater for a day, or both. In any case, I'm going to have to start over.

The other big task that faces me is building a larval collector before the next hatch should occur (later this week).

I need to get SOMETHING raised past settlement AND to a saleable size in the next few months...come 2007 Renee will be NOT WORKING while undergoing student teaching for her masters program, so I'm really hoping I can generate some income from the fish, at least enough to help pay for themselves if not actually make cash. I may even need to let go of some pairs that aren't producing like they should be. In any case, out of ALL the fish that are currently spawning, the GBG's hold the most promise for success and $$$, so they're not going anywhere for the time being and they're going to continue to be one of my main focuses unless something else (like the true percs) get in the game. Not giving up on the mandarins, just needing to focus on success more than "fun" at the moment!

FWIW,

Matt