Yellow head jawfish spawning
- Thread starter taricha
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CoralsAddiction
Active member
That's great. Keep us posted.
These are the most informative accounts of success with this species - Opistognathus aurifrons - I've found so far.
Let me know if there are other good ones.
Martin Moe raised on wildcaught plankton - "I started them out on wild plankton, dissected a few in the first few days and found only small copepod napulii."
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1053375
Classroom hatching done at Southampton High School on Long Island.
http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=98002&mpage=1
"Today[Day 13] we started mixing in some Apocyclops panamensis nauplii to our daily feeding of 10 Parvocalanus crassirostris nauplii/mL."
the parvocalanus are fed by "1-L of Chaetoceros muelleri algae is added to the tank at a slow drip each day."
Lots of accounts of bad fathers swallowing the eggs around day 4 or so (they hatch at day 7-9).
My guys spawned in the display tank of a mixed reef. No special arrangements were made to promote their breeding... EXCEPT: my tank runs consistently hot - sometimes worryingly hot for the corals - because it gets morning sunlight through a window. (Sump lighting contributes as well). Tank is between 80-82F 90% of the time. Other accounts also ran their tanks at 80 &81F.
Let me know if there are other good ones.
Martin Moe raised on wildcaught plankton - "I started them out on wild plankton, dissected a few in the first few days and found only small copepod napulii."
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1053375
Classroom hatching done at Southampton High School on Long Island.
http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=98002&mpage=1
"Today[Day 13] we started mixing in some Apocyclops panamensis nauplii to our daily feeding of 10 Parvocalanus crassirostris nauplii/mL."
the parvocalanus are fed by "1-L of Chaetoceros muelleri algae is added to the tank at a slow drip each day."
Lots of accounts of bad fathers swallowing the eggs around day 4 or so (they hatch at day 7-9).
My guys spawned in the display tank of a mixed reef. No special arrangements were made to promote their breeding... EXCEPT: my tank runs consistently hot - sometimes worryingly hot for the corals - because it gets morning sunlight through a window. (Sump lighting contributes as well). Tank is between 80-82F 90% of the time. Other accounts also ran their tanks at 80 &81F.
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Was interested to see how male would behave at feeding time.
Before feeding, had his mouth full of eggs. Then when food went in tank, he came out and chowed down. When he finished eating, his mouth was empty.
I couldn't tell for sure if he had swallowed the eggs or had spit them out. I heard some of them will spit the eggs out, then eat and take them back up after. Looked closely for egg mass, because that would make collecting really easy close to hatch time. No luck.
A few minutes after eating he popped his head out of the burrow mouth full of eggs again.
So apparently he likes to stash the eggs in his tunnel while he eats. Good to know he's smart enough to get fed without eating eggs. Might have a chance of seeing some fry.
Before feeding, had his mouth full of eggs. Then when food went in tank, he came out and chowed down. When he finished eating, his mouth was empty.
I couldn't tell for sure if he had swallowed the eggs or had spit them out. I heard some of them will spit the eggs out, then eat and take them back up after. Looked closely for egg mass, because that would make collecting really easy close to hatch time. No luck.
A few minutes after eating he popped his head out of the burrow mouth full of eggs again.
So apparently he likes to stash the eggs in his tunnel while he eats. Good to know he's smart enough to get fed without eating eggs. Might have a chance of seeing some fry.
farfromsea
Active member
Very cool! And fascinating he eats while brooding unlike the banggai cardinals
Did you buy a mated pair or did you pair them yourself?
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Did you buy a mated pair or did you pair them yourself?
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Mated pair ordered from k&p aquatics (amazing job by them on everything) on 4/26 last year. This is their first spawning event in my tank.
I didn't know until the eggs which was which.
I saw a pic elsewhere that showed clear abdomen length/shape difference between male and female. I'll try to get my own pics to compare and see if it holds.
This kind from FL doesn't develop the two black spots under the chin on the male so other clues needed.
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farfromsea
Active member
I've been planning to order for them as well. Hopefully they get another pair. I just missed the last one in stock! I've read that a 14H photoperiod helps them spawn
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farfromsea
Active member
I like that analogy. Fitting the head in the abdomen lol. The female does have a quite smaller head. Makes sense for the egg storage!
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RIP Sebastian
New member
I love the first pic! Let us know how this works out.
Thanks. Here's one more from yesterday. (Day 3)
He seems really willing to stash the eggs in his tunnel, and come out to feed or just display, spit sand, adjust rocks, chase other fish away - whatever. He'll take eggs back in his mouth once every couple of minutes, but he's really not locked into holding them 24/7 if he'd rather do something else.
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farfromsea
Active member
So cool. So what are you going to do with the fry?
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RIP Sebastian
New member
Thanks. Here's one more from yesterday. (Day 3)
He seems really willing to stash the eggs in his tunnel, and come out to feed or just display, spit sand, adjust rocks, chase other fish away - whatever. He'll take eggs back in his mouth once every couple of minutes, but he's really not locked into holding them 24/7 if he'd rather do something else.
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Thanks for sharing! He looks like he took too big of a bite of mashed potatoes.
ginpang
New member
Thanks. Here's one more from yesterday. (Day 3)
He seems really willing to stash the eggs in his tunnel, and come out to feed or just display, spit sand, adjust rocks, chase other fish away - whatever. He'll take eggs back in his mouth once every couple of minutes, but he's really not locked into holding them 24/7 if he'd rather do something else.
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Mine does that stash -eat-reclaim thing too.
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CoralsAddiction
Active member
Thanks. Here's one more from yesterday. (Day 3)
He seems really willing to stash the eggs in his tunnel, and come out to feed or just display, spit sand, adjust rocks, chase other fish away - whatever. He'll take eggs back in his mouth once every couple of minutes, but he's really not locked into holding them 24/7 if he'd rather do something else.
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That's absolutely fantastic. You should try to raise a clutch just for the fun of it and see how it goes.
Primarily, I'm going to feed parvocalanus, themselves raised on a culture of isochrysis.
I'll also offer euplotes ciliates and rotifers in small amounts cultured on a mix of Iso and nanno. No evidence the fry take anything other than the parvocalanus nauplii but maybe the other items will serve a small enrichment purpose.
I got all the cultures in the mail today except rotifers haven't come yet, all looked good under the scope.
Here's a pic of eyes looking back at me from inside a fish's mouth.
farfromsea
Active member
Such cute tiny eyes. Is the rotifer cultivation setup pretty intense? Raising jawfish has interested me for quite some time but the setup seems daunting.
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I think the rotifer culture will not matter much. From what I can tell, success will depend entirely on the ability to culture parvocalanus copepods. (I killed my first culture split)
The fish seem only to accept their live nauplii, and the pods inturn only eat live algae - T-iso being considered the best.
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