YWG pairing attempt - Page 5

NicoleC · #**101** 05/28/2004, 10:19 PM

Another update.

Over the past two weeks, and very dramatically in the past week, "she" (I think) has undergone a big color change. Lighting, behavior etc. has remained the same. Her yellow portions have grown pale and her dark stripes have become quite pronounced. Her bottom fins are turning gray/blue was well.

She is no longer growing fat and slimming up, so perhaps they were never breeding and she was just growing quickly. It always seemed unusual they would produce eggs so quickly. She has grown quite a bit. Provided, of course, I'm still right that's "she."

oceanarus · #**102** 05/28/2004, 11:01 PM

Verrrry interesting, starting to look like our spawning pair.

NicoleC · #**103** 05/29/2004, 10:26 AM

Is your male or female the darker one?

My darker one definately rules the roost. "She" is almost the size of the original goby now. She is much more bold, and "he" will be aggressive -- but only as back-up for her. If he's alone, he runs.

oceanarus · #**104** 05/31/2004, 07:15 AM

With our pair, the female is the darker one and is also more aggressive and bold.

NicoleC · #**105** 05/31/2004, 11:30 AM

Good to hear; the behavior was why I originally assumed the newer goby was the female.

She continues to grow paler with darker stripes, and they have been building up the sand around their front door. There is rubble available, but it looks like she prefers sand.

ozadars · #**106** 05/31/2004, 12:16 PM

they look like a happy couple. i wish i could buy one more yellow watchman but im sure my fish would not let it live

twLoaf · #**107** 05/31/2004, 03:33 PM

just tagging along...

Nice pics and story Nicole. Makes me think about getting a mate for my bicolor.

NicoleC · #**108** 05/31/2004, 06:20 PM

If you succed in mating your bicolor, let me know

Mine is big and fairly aggressive, and I only see small blennies for sale, so I'm afraid I'd end up with a dead fish.

YWGs are likely to shred fins, but not kill each other.

aquariumclown · #**109** 05/31/2004, 10:16 PM

Nicole,

I bet your blenny will pair up with mine since mine stays small. Too bad we won't have a chance to find out.

Leo

NicoleC · #**110** 06/25/2004, 01:09 PM

Another update, for anyone who may still be reading. In the past week, I have noticed some dramatic behavior changes.

While previously the female was the aggressive eater, she has been deliberately hanging back and letting the male get the choice pieces of food. He has put on some serious weight and is looking quite chunky with a fat tail.

The female (now christened "Courtney") was the aggressor and primary defender chasing the clowns when they got to near to their den and occassionally challenging me. She often posed for the camera displaying her extended fins in a challenge pose. Gobiwon (he) has been fairly shy and meek since she took charge of his life. Although I have caught her (and him) roaming the tank a bit when I have been away for a while, now she is getting very skittish and is clearly upset and disturbed when I am near the tank. The camera sends her dashing to her den. Several times in the past week, though, she has been bullying the male into coming out and protecting the den -- literally pushing him and pretending like she will nite him. He does not appear happy about this.

Last night I noticed her stomach was looking very round and fat. I couldn't get a pic because she saw the camera. The last time she looked like this, it was a precursor to a big growth spurt. She is looking near full-grown now and is the same size as the male, so this may be broody behavior, or else she is getting ready to outgrow him.

Since the last time I posted pics, she has lost all of the yellow and is now pale gray and blue-gray. I will post an updated pic shortly.

NicoleC · #**111** 06/29/2004, 08:57 PM

First spawn!

I'm having a dram of my best scotch to toast the proud parents. I can see the "bag" of eggs hanging from the ceiling of their den.

Several days ago, I saw that they were slowly expanding their den and making a 3rd (4th?) exit. But they must have been carrying their sand away from the den, because there was no tell-tale pile near the den. I think this is why I have been noticing them in different parts of the tank lately. The new space was in plain view -- albeit at an angle through the glass.

Last night they were a bit shy, and this morning hardly came out to eat. Both ate well -- if not as aggressively as usual -- tonight. When mama came out and was suddenly svelt, I decided to try to see if I could see any signs of eggs.

Unfortunately, what is clear to the nake eye defys the camera (at least my camera), so no pics. Provided I could get any anyway, because papa does not like me looking so closely and keeps a) wanting to run away and b) getting in front of the "bag" and staring defiantly at me. He is swinging the "bag" back and forth and wrapping himself around it protectively.

I say "bag", but it rellay resembles a wad of cheese cloth in bright yellow with pale blue spots. It's colored exactly like a normal YWG.

Here's preggers mama from pics yesterday. It looks like she swallowed a marble!

DensityMan · #**112** 06/29/2004, 11:30 PM

Congratulations!

I'm having a (really horrible) cigar in their/your honor...

CloWn SpaWn · #**113** 06/30/2004, 01:29 AM

thats a nice looking fish.

oceanarus · #**114** 06/30/2004, 02:27 PM

Congrats!

The eggs will hatch in ~4 days (depending on your temperature).

The fry are extremely tiny, about 1/4 the size of a newly hatched clownfish fry.

Good luck if you ever decide to try to raise them.

NicoleC · #**115** 06/30/2004, 02:51 PM

I keep laughing trying to picture them upside down getting the eggs up there! Mama didn't allow papa to come out and eat this morning, but she really pigged out. Laying eggs must be hard work. She looks awfully skinny now -- I got used to seeing her fat. Thoughts of cutting back on feeding a bit to help with that little cyano outbreak have certainly gone out the window!

I don't have the leisure time or space to tackle raising babies right now; and my electrical system probably couldn't handle a bunch of fry tanks unless I added a circuit. Maybe someday. Once they get settled into a regular schedule, I may offer the eggs to a local clownfish breeder to see if he wants to try his hand at YWG's.

dc · #**116** 06/30/2004, 03:00 PM

Wow, that fish has become striking!

I'm wondering if mine are the same sex or something as there has never been any color change at all?

aquariumclown · #**117** 06/30/2004, 03:12 PM

I'm going to be rearing my clowns pretty soon. Maybe when it's set up you can bring a batch over here :>

NicoleC · #**118** 06/30/2004, 03:14 PM

I don't know -- I figured it was some sort of hormonal change triggered by a suitable mate, but she was also going from adolescent to full adult at the same time.

Maybe yours are just buddies that hang out together -- no sign of eggs from them? Recently I got a PM from someone who had their YWG change to a gray stripped color after a week in QT alone. (It turns out it was probably stress related or just going pale at night.) I have also rarely seen bright yellow YWG's with the shiny blue fins.

Maybe there are variants of YWG's, like true perculas vs. onyx perculas that look different but are the same species.

NicoleC · #**119** 06/30/2004, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aquariumclown
I'm going to be rearing my clowns pretty soon. Maybe when it's set up you can bring a batch over here :>

Yeah, what's another couple hundred mouths to feed at that point?

aquariumclown · #**120** 06/30/2004, 03:20 PM

Only a couple hundred? That's it? My clowns are laying prolly around 1500 every 10 days at this point, each new batch is larger than the last. You should watch closely to see when your baby ywg hatch, it's important to know as to when to harvest the eggs which can be tricky.

dc · #**121** 06/30/2004, 03:21 PM

LOL, no telling. They moved to the back of the tank now. I know the first was 6 when I put in the second one, which was maybe an inch long. They are both the same size now, and the only way I can tell the difference is the older is missing a fin.

Hmmm can't figure out why my pic isn't posting?

http://images5.fotki.com/v56/photos/...atchman-vi.jpg

NicoleC · #**122** 06/30/2004, 03:39 PM

Leo, I have no idea how many eggs in a spawn. They aren't as easy to see as your fat maroon eggs are! Since it's their first they may not have even done it right... and she will of course blame him! Last night Gobiwon was extremely unhappy that I kept looking at his eggs. The look on his face was "please, please don't mess with the eggs or that crazy ----- will kill me!"

I didn't name her Courtney for nothing!

Beautiful pic, Debi! I have a hard time getting my colors to show up that intensely. His face looks so different than mine's do, almost like mine did back in the earlier posts in this thread.

aquariumclown · #**123** 06/30/2004, 04:22 PM

At lease yours don't lunge at you.

NicoleC · #**124** 07/04/2004, 01:16 PM

The eggs hatched last night between 9:30 (when I last saw them) and 11:30. Lights went out at 10:10, and there was no feeding frenzy going on at 11:30, not could I see anything swimming, so I assume they hatched just after dark.

I can see what might be larvae on the sponge in the overflow, but I'm not sure. It's about 100 beige dots. The tank smells strange today, but nothing looks stressed, so I will probably just do a water change tomorrow at the regular time. (One of my sand bed clams also died last night, and those dead clams STINK, so that may be the cause.)

Gobiwon was back out on the sand bed this morning. He looks pretty small compared to the female now, so she may have done some growing in the past few days. Gobiwon has definately lost weight -- but when I remember how thin and starved he was when I got him, I am not worried. He's being awfully shy, though. I hope he gets used to this fatherhood thing and relaxes in between spawns.

Courtney is looking a little bit thick in the belly, so I may know soon how frequent the spawns are going to be,

oceanarus · #**125** 07/04/2004, 08:19 PM

I wouldn't worry about the babies all hatching out in your tank. They should be some good food for all your corals. Before we got the correct food for feeding the babies we would take the nest from the breeding tank and put it in my reef tank on the day it was supposed to hatch so that the babies would feed the corals.