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  #76  
Old 01/16/2004, 10:05 AM
NFed16 NFed16 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Syracuse, NY
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Now you make me dig,... grumble grumble

Here's the link to the thread
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...ighlight=pairs

and here is the pic


-Nate
  #77  
Old 01/16/2004, 01:12 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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Thanks for the link. I posted a buch of pictures of our pairs on that thread but for some reason don't remember seeing that picture.

In that picture I am guessing that the female is the one in the foreground, based on the large belly. That's how our female looks when she is ready to spawn.

So now I guess I have no idea what the different colors mean. You would think that there has to be some reason for it.
  #78  
Old 01/16/2004, 05:19 PM
downdeep downdeep is offline
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maybe the color difference in sexes is only shown as juveniles. Is it possible that as they mature, they lose the color difference?
  #79  
Old 01/16/2004, 06:25 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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Quote:
Originally posted by downdeep
maybe the color difference in sexes is only shown as juveniles. Is it possible that as they mature, they lose the color difference?
Nope. See the picture of our spawning pair a page or two back. And they are bigger (seems to me) than the pair in the thread referenced above. I do know that they are also at least 6 years old.
  #80  
Old 01/21/2004, 10:01 AM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ladson S.C.
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Just snapped a few pictures last night, I love baby pictures.

For some reason it will not let me attach the picture, hmmm
  #81  
Old 01/21/2004, 10:07 AM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ladson S.C.
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Let me try it this way,


and



HA!

BTW they are also eating OSI spirulina flake. What fish doesn't like it? Our cats love it also!
  #82  
Old 01/21/2004, 10:53 AM
JHardman JHardman is offline
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Location: Phoenix AZ
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What is your survival rate like now?

You have to love pot bellied juveniles.
  #83  
Old 01/21/2004, 11:38 AM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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No longer loosing any runts out of the first batch. I don't think we have lost one for a couple weeks now. The smallest ones are hanging in there and growing, just staying smaller than the others.
  #84  
Old 01/21/2004, 11:44 AM
JHardman JHardman is offline
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Location: Phoenix AZ
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How do you guys like the Tronic heaters? I started using them about three or four months ago in my rearing and QT tanks and love them. I was using Ebo-Jaber heaters but they would swing so badly in that small of a volume or just start to climb in temp despite the setting. The Tronics seems to be very very stable with little or no swing.
  #85  
Old 01/21/2004, 12:40 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JHardman
I was using Ebo-Jaber(, visitherm, accuset, etc.) heaters but they would swing so badly in that small of a volume or just start to climb in temp despite the setting. The Tronics seems to be very very stable with little or no swing.
EXACTLY!!!

They are the only one we have found to keep a steady reliable temperature in a small volume (<10gallon) of water. It's all in how it operates, most other heaters use a bimetallic element that can be prone to sticking or other problems. Tronic heaters use an electronic temperature sensor which are about 100X more accurate and relible than a bimetallic element.

Definately worth the extra few bucks in cost.
  #86  
Old 01/21/2004, 01:04 PM
JHardman JHardman is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by oceanarus
Definately worth the extra few bucks in cost.
I have been getting them from www.bigalsonline.com or from the wholesaler when they are cheaper which is rare.
  #87  
Old 02/08/2004, 09:36 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Alright, I've got a new theory for the different colors of YWG.

It occured to me today that it could be based on how much time the fish spends in or out of the light.

My reasons for thinking this:

1) Our (proven) male spends ~99% of his time in thier cave, only coming out when the female lets him come out to eat and he is very much yellow-green.

2) Our (proven) female spends a large majority of her time (probably >75% of the 12 hour photo period) out side of the cave (begging for food ) and she is very grey-green.

3) I have been watching our babies that are almost 12 weeks old slowly changing in color from yellow-green to grey-brown over the last month or so. Right now there is not a single yellow-green one in the tank. They have a photo period of ~16 hr/day and no place in thier tank to get out of the light, only some small clear plastic tubes to cut down on aggression.

4) A little over a week ago I took a baby that was very much grey colored to put in my nano reef at work (yes this was authorized by Amy). This baby spends all of its time in a cave and only comes out to eat when food is put in the tank (2X day). In fact we couldn't find it for the first 5 days it was in there but finally spotted it coming out of its cave when food was put in. This baby is now almost completely yellow-green again.

So to prove/disprove this theory, I would appreciate it if all those that have a YWG could post what color theirs is and a guestimate as to the % of the photo period they spend outside a cave in the light. I am also going to put some sort of small caves in our growout tanks and see if the ones that hang out in the caves return to the yellow-green color. This is important as I am sure it is going to be easier to sell yellow ones than it will be to sell grey ones.
  #88  
Old 02/08/2004, 10:30 PM
Fredfish Fredfish is offline
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This isn't goby related but...

I ran a tronic heater for 2.5 years on my main tank. It is the only heater I have ever had that was set and forget. The low water shutoff works well too .

This will be my heater of choice for all future tanks.

Fred.
  #89  
Old 02/08/2004, 10:31 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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I posted a poll on the reef fishes forum that I would apreciate if y'all (that have a YWG) could cast your vote.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=315164

Oh and I forgot to mention this in the post above in my reasons for my theory:

5) I also think that this could be a natural protective function in nature. A YWG that is with out the protection of a cave where it can hide from danger can change in color to match the color of the general color of the substrate on the reef.

Last edited by oceanarus; 02/08/2004 at 10:45 PM.
  #90  
Old 03/05/2004, 10:46 AM
pszemol pszemol is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by oceanarus
Believe it or not, the hatchout was somewhat poor, only getting about 25% hatch. The hatchout is very tricky, nothing like the clownfish, it took us a couple times to figure out the trick to it, but even still, it is hard to get it right. A couple of times we were able to hatch >90% (1000-1500 of them) though we had no food for them, sad to watch them wither away. Anyway....
Well, may I ask you what is tricky about the hatchout? How one can manage to get > 90% to hatch?
Also, could you please give some description of the breeding tank setup?

Do not have any of these beautiful fish yet but still I am very curious.
Thanks!
  #91  
Old 03/05/2004, 11:30 AM
gkmartinez gkmartinez is offline
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my YWG
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-George Martinez
  #92  
Old 03/05/2004, 12:40 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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Quote:
How one can manage to get > 90% to hatch?
Boy I wish I knew! I know in a previous post I had estimated a couple of the hatchouts at >90% based on the number of fry swimming in the tank and also on how many eggs I thought would be in the nest. But recently I have looked at some very small pieces of the nest under a microscope and now I think the number of eggs in the nest is more like in the tens of thousands .

Quote:
Also, could you please give some description of the breeding tank setup?
20 gal long tank, plexiglass top, 2 sponge filters driven by airstones, two pieces of pvc pipe, and the plastic maze brain coral decor piece that is thier spawning cave (pictures are probably a page or two back and I think in my gallery).
  #93  
Old 03/05/2004, 01:43 PM
pszemol pszemol is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by oceanarus
Boy I wish I knew! I know in a previous post I had estimated a couple of the hatchouts at >90% based on the number of fry swimming in the tank and also on how many eggs I thought would be in the nest. But recently I have looked at some very small pieces of the nest under a microscope and now I think the number of eggs in the nest is more like in the tens of thousands .
WOW! That is impressive. I am sure you can flood the market with captive breed watchmen pretty soon. I can't wait - this fish is not expensive but very rare in my area.

Quote:
20 gal long tank, plexiglass top, 2 sponge filters driven by airstones, two pieces of pvc pipe, and the plastic maze brain coral decor piece that is thier spawning cave (pictures are probably a page or two back and I think in my gallery).
Geez, I am sorry, I ment rearing tank Please excuse my mistake. I read you mentioning "cloud of rotifers" - do you have water standing still there? With light on top? How are you keeping rotifers and fry concentrated in a "cloud"? What are the pollutant levels in your rearing tanks? How often do you change water? How do you clean the detritus? The answer to these questions will be helpful in my atempts to rise cleaner shrimps larvae. I tried before with no success. Maybe I can learn something from your experience. I have probably L-strain since the adults are not much smaller than artemia naupulii, but I noticed them gathering under the light when I turned off the circulation so I guess they are positively phototropic, like the artemia naupulii. I guess the watchman fry are very tiny. Are they phototropic as well?

BTW - where did you get S-strain of rotifers and what is the difference in size/behaviour between S- and L-strains? Are they the same spieces just sorted out by the size?
  #94  
Old 03/05/2004, 07:01 PM
Splach Splach is offline
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So I am guessing these guys must be about 4 months old now? How old do they have to be before we can start buying them off of you?
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  #95  
Old 03/06/2004, 12:29 AM
Fredfish Fredfish is offline
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Hmm. 10,000 eggs, > 90% hatch/survival...

How exactly are ya gonna house these as they get bigger?

How are the fry doing? Do you still have a large percentage surviving?

Fred.
  #96  
Old 03/07/2004, 11:47 AM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Wow, a lot of questions! Sorry about being so slow getting around to answering them.

Quote:
do you have water standing still there?
For the most part yes, all that is in the tank is a 50 Watt heater and an airstone driven sponge filter that is kept very low and gets turned up slowly over time.

Quote:
With light on top?
Yes, a 15 watt NO flourescent bulb.

Quote:
How are you keeping rotifers and fry concentrated in a "cloud"?
They are doing it on their own The rotifers tend to concentrate over the heater so I guess the temperature gradient is concentrating them. And I assume the fry are attracted to the rotifers.

Quote:
What are the pollutant levels in your rearing tanks? How often do you change water? How do you clean the detritus?
To be honest I don't know. I clean 20 to 23 baby tanks every day, I just don't do a whole lot of testing (I do enough testing on my reef tanks ). Cleaning their tank is easy for the first two weeks while the fry are in the water coulmn, but becomes very difficult when they start to hang out on the bottom. Just use a small diameter tube, like airline tube, and keep a finger over the other end to regulate/stop flow to keep from sucking one of them up.

Quote:
I guess the watchman fry are very tiny.
When they are first hatched, they are small enough for week old ocellaris fry to eat them.

Quote:
Are they phototropic as well?
It appers that way.

Quote:
where did you get S-strain of rotifers and what is the difference in size/behaviour between S- and L-strains? Are they the same spieces just sorted out by the size?
The current culture I have going now started out from cysts I got through some special contacts. PM me if you need some culture, I have provided and continue to offer to provide some free of charge (you pay shipping) to breeders. I believe there is a picture in my gallery that illustrates the size difference. They are actully different species, the L-strain is B. plicatilis and the S-strain is B. rotundaformis.

Quote:
How old do they have to be before we can start buying them off of you?
For the past couple of weeks I have been taking a few to the LFS's in our area. It seems that they are going to be good sellers even at the 1"-1.5" size. People love to have small cute fish for their nano-reefs. And they do change back to the normal yellow color when they get into a tank where they can burrow or hide out in a cave.
  #97  
Old 03/08/2004, 10:06 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
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Location: Ladson S.C.
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Just pulled the latest nest. This time I got a good picture. I clipped an extemely small portion of the nest (way less than 1%) and got a picture of it under the microscope. And actually what you see in the picture is about 1/3 of the piece I removed. This gives you an idea of just how many of them there are.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg im001344a.jpg (49.7 KB, 151 views)
  #98  
Old 03/08/2004, 10:12 PM
oceanarus oceanarus is offline
Dad, mom and nest of eggs
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ladson S.C.
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And here's another of a different part. For some reason I haven't figured out, some of the picture through the microscope come out with an orange color to it, oh well.

I can't descibe fully just how small the portion in these pictures are of the whole nest.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg im001347a.jpg (49.3 KB, 130 views)
  #99  
Old 05/10/2004, 11:01 PM
Dlckwood Dlckwood is offline
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Hey, I was just wondering if you have any shots of the eggs. I think I see eggs in my tank but they are under a rock and in the corner of the tank (so no pics). They are in like tenticle formation and they wave a little in the current. Could these be eggs?
DLCKWOOD
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  #100  
Old 05/11/2004, 08:46 AM
Gerard Alba Gerard Alba is offline
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Congrats...
 

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