Eggs?

[andywg]

After having recently moved the (believed) Lophiocharon trisignatus to its own tank it seems to have lost its appetite. I today realised the salinity had crept up and have since corrected it. However I (or more, my wife) also discovered this:

The whole bundle is about 40-50mm across, with each individual orb being about 2-3mm, at a guess. I am unsure whether they could be eggs as I only have one Lophiocharon sp and I understood that L. trisignatus attached the eggs to the body of the male. Is this perhaps an example of a "dry spawn"?

I certainly don't expect young, but part of me wants to cycle a sponge filter in the reef and remove the cluster, but considering how the frogfish is guarding the cluster, I am somewhat loathe to do so.

In other news, the porcupinefish has quite the appetite:

The Bubble Tip is starting to get its bubble shape on the tentacles (which reminds both my wife and I of a bundle of small condoms at the moment)

And at least one or two of the tentacles have split at the tip (pretty much in the centre of the picture):

 

[Lynden]

You must be one happy frog owner. Not sure what to suggest here. I'm sure you know that fish will occasionally spawn alone, I had a blood parrot do so a while back. If anything it indicates how happy the little dude (dudette?) is. Well done.

 

[andywg]

You must be one happy frog owner. Not sure what to suggest here. I'm sure you know that fish will occasionally spawn alone, I had a blood parrot do so a while back. If anything it indicates how happy the little dude (dudette?) is. Well done.

I doubt (s)he was that happy; the salinity was up around 40-41ppt...

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, that's high. Strange though I often hear reports of people saying that in order to induce spawning behavior, certain elements of chemistry need to be altered. Things such as increasing pH, playing with salinity, altering temperature, or other changes have often lead to spawning events. Just offerin some food for thought. Clearly a healthy frog if it's spawning though

 

[CFC]

Interesting.

 

[andywg]

The mass has been confirmed by Uberfugu as an egg mass (and as he has raised a fry to a size where it can be fed, I guess he would know). The mass has disappeared now, so I'm not sure what has happened, whether the parent has just consumed them, or moved them. None of them looked to great.

It does mean I may well have to keep an eye out for any more Lophiocharon trisignatus in the future.

Shame one of the other frogs wasn't so happy after the move, came home to find the most recent A. maculatus dead. The tank was slightly warm (at 31) but all other params are more than low enough (as I am testing and dosing the system to get some better coral growth).

I can only assume that frogfish really don't like being moved, especially A. maculatus.

 

[SkiFletch]

That stinks Andy . Somethin tells me you'll find another one eventually though