Someone's Been Busy...

[starrynightxxi]

large water change + cool water + marble-sized female =

and a much slimmer looking mama fish...

​

 

[Fella]

Awesome!

I imagine the young will need very small foods, do you have any on hand?

 

[nmonks]

Interesting. I'd assume it's the *male* guarding the eggs though... usually among gobies the male looks after the eggs. As for food, Fella is right, like any other goby, your problem is providing tiny live foods. Some green water from a pond is a good place to start. Baby brine shrimp will be too big.

Cheers, Neale

 

[starrynightxxi]

Yep, that's the male on the eggs and he's quite protective of them, though nowhere near as aggressive as I have been told he would be. I was told I would have to take the female out if they spawned because he would attack her, but this has not been the case at all. Perhaps because the tank is a 29 long, or maybe he's just inexperienced. I am keeping a close eye on things though, of course. I guess my "equation" could have been clearer, but the only picture with the female is the last one, and you can see the male is behind her on the eggs.

As for the babies, the tank's quite mature and has some live plants so I'm sure there's infusoria to be had, but it is a community tank and I did not set out to raise fry so it's survival of the fittest. Actually, that's very helpful, though, as the store I got this pair from has been having difficulty raising their fry and from what I remember, they feed BBS so maybe that's their problem. I'll have to run it by them. As for green water from a pond, I'd be wary of anything around here, I live out in a dying coal/steel town and the water's pretty frightening.

 

[CFC]

When i was breeding Morgurndas i raised the fry on Liquifry (made by Interpet i think?) for the first two weeks and then baby brine shrimp after that, within 4 weeks they should be able to manage chopped bloodworms and the like.

The parents will need to be removed (or the eggs) to another tank if you wish to raise them, the brood care only lasts until they hatch and as soon as they move the male will start eating them. It is best to seperate the parents with a divider after spawning because as soon as the fry are free swimming the male will harrass her to spawn again and often the female will die from multiple spawnings in a row.

The fry are very canabalistic so need to be graded out daily if you wish to raise any number of them, i found when left to nature i would only raise about 6 fish to adulthood from several hundred eggs.

 

[The-Wolf]

I recommend ifusoria by ZM systems
which they now call ZM Fry Food
they do post to the USA so ordering it shouldn't be a problem
http/www.zmsystems.co.uk/zmfryfood.htm

 

[starrynightxxi]

i'll pass the feeding info onto my lfs. I read about the brood care ending after hatching which should take what, three days? I forget now, I'll look that up again. I've been reading up in case this happened. I did not know about multiple consecutive breedings killing females, though I suppose I'm not surprised.

I know with some fish eggs, fertilized ones change color. will these, or do they remain clear?

 

[CFC]

Within a couple of days you should be able to see little black dots forming on the eggs (which i presume are the eyes) and within 4 days the eggs will start to wriggle, any eggs that change white are dead and should be removed using a pipet to stop them fungusing and polluting the other eggs. If i remember rightly the eggs take about 7 days to hatch at 26c.

 

[Feral123]

congrats. hope the fry grow up healthy

 

[starrynightxxi]

yup, had eyes as of yesterday. only 3 or 4 of the entire clutch turned white, and they were removed by means other than my own. Just gone, one day. Guess the male got rid of them on his own.

thanks for all the info. I'm not concerned about the survival rate, but it's still nice to know what to expect.