Tank Journal - Hillstream Temperate River

[fishprotector]

I have been doing some research and think that these gobies were mislabeled as Rhinogobius Candidianus. To me they look more like Rhinogobius Rubromaculatus. They seem to come from a similar environment, and have identical care requirements. It is the red spots on the body and the lack of facial markings which convinced me.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Congrats!

 

[fishprotector]

There are around 9 or 10 fry freely swimming around the tank. Their yolk sacs have been used up and I am feeding them a liquid fry food. They are see through, around 4-5mm long and very cute. The non hatched \ yet to hatch eggs seem to be doing fine and many are still twitching.

 

[Biulu]

Lovely! We want pictures!

 

[fishprotector]

Lovely! We want pictures!

I will try and get some when I finish work, but they are very very small so will have to see how my macro is lol. Hopefully some more will have hatched today!!

 

[fishprotector]

There are now between 35 and 40 free swimming fry and all but one of the surviving eggs have hatched.

Here are a few pictures before I did todays water change. They are tiny though (under 5mm) so the pics are not the best!!

 

[fishprotector]

I dont believe this, the male is moving the gravel and sand around digging another cave and the female looks like she is about to explode she is carry that many eggs

 

[fishprotector]

I have not captured this level of colour or style of behaviour in a picture before, so I had to post these (please excuse the algae). He is clearly showing off and the second one is like they are calling to each other. Shortly after this they were lip locking near the new cave. I left them to it in fear of disturbing them. Spectacular.

 

[fishprotector]

I did a water change tonight and can confirm that all of the eggs have now hatched. There are between 40 and 45 free swimming fry. Not bad out of a batch of 65 eggs. Hopefully the mortality rate will not be very high now they have hatched.

 

[fishprotector]

After a slapup meal of bloodworm last night, there is now no sign of either of the parent Gobies in the main tank. Wonder what they are upto ...

 

[fishprotector]

Well it looks like they have bred again. The female reappeared last night without her eggs and looking very slim. The male is no where to be seen. I have not checked the eggs and do not intend to look until I want to remove them. Incubation took between 10 and 13 days last time so I will probably remove them after the bank holiday. It was exactly two weeks to the day since they last bred. Exciting times.

 

[Biulu]

Wow! Congratulations! And some spectacular pictures of these gobies...

 

[fishprotector]

Not been on here for a while, but here is a quick update. The first batch of fry all passed away around the ten day period. Not really sure why. All water stats were fine. They only things that I can think of are that a) they need brackish conditions to grow or b) the water temperature was too high. The smallest spare heater I had was 100w and even on its lowest setting it was maintaining the water temp at around 23 - 24 degrees C which I think is too high for the little fellows. I now have a second batch of eggs (again around 65) which have been incubating for around 15 days and should be hatching today or tomorrow. They have all survived to the late stage this time with no signs of fungus or incorrect fertilisation. I thought that I would try to maintain a lower temperature before I messed around with salt, so I bought a small heater which seems to be maintaining it exactly at 20 degrees C. Time will tell hey ...

 

[LongS]

Interesting stuff. Are they in a house? maybe room temperature would be better?

 

[fishprotector]

Yes, they are in my front room upstairs. I tried room temperature when I first put these new eggs in, but it stabilised around 12 degrees which I thought would be too cold. Just got in from work and ten eggs have hatched.