Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis tonozukai (Tono's Dottyback, Orange Peel Dottyback)

General
Species:  Pseudochromis tonozukai (Tono's Dottyback, Orange Peel Dottyback)
Social Structure: M/F Pair
Size of Individuals:  3.5"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  11-04-10

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  10 Gallons
Substrate Details:  Fine layer of black sand
Filtration Details:  Plumbed into main broodstock system
Water Changes:  20% monthly
Water Temperature: 82°F      
Lighting: Shop light      
Lighting Cycle: 14hrs light, 10hrs dark      
Other Tank Inhabitants: Pair of A. percula      

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Mix of frozen foods: Ocean Nutrition- Formula 1, 2, Spirulina H2O Life Spirulina, 50/50 Plus and Marine Fusion. PE Mysis, Bloodworms, squid. Vita-Chem      
Feeding Schedule: 4X per day      

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 12-07-10         
Spawn Time of Day: Between 4 and 8pm         
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 12-19-10 (4-5:30pm)
Courtship Details: I didn't see it happen. The first time she was gravid on 11-25-10 the female hung out in her pipe and the male would try to enter from behind. Kinda rough... female has a ragged caudal fin from time to time.         
Egg Size: ~2-3mm         
Egg Color: Whitish/cream colored         
Egg Count: ~1000?

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 12-22-10 (From 12-19-10 spawn)         
Hatch Time of Day: Between 10pm and 1am          
# Days after Spawn: 3          
Larvae Description:  Clear, similar to P. fridmani but slightly larger. Eyes look gold or blue/green depending on lighting. Strongly attracted to light.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 82°F
Size of Larval Tank: 26x15x22 BRT          
Substrate Details: None          
Other Tank Decor:  None
Filtration Details: None          
Lighting: CF bulb with reflector          
Lighting Cycle: 24/7          
Water Changes: None yet          

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: Rotifers with RotiGreen          
Feeding Schedule: Constant, add more Rotigreen as needed to maintain greenwater. CloramX is also added at the same time as the RotiGreen to control ammonia.            

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information
This pair is coming from Kevin Kohen at Diver's Den. 

          



You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Here is the pic from DD:



Indonesian Tono's Dottyback male and female pair. 
Size: 3-1/2" -3-1/2"

Thanks to Kevin Kohen for permission to use the pic.  

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Looks good, I saw on facebook that you snagged these. Hopefully they'll be good breeders for ya.

Congrats, I can't wait to see pics!

I saw this on facebook also. Congrats Tal!

Doni Marie~

They arrived this morning. Awesome packing from Diver's Den! Here they are being acclimated:



 









 

They look a bit pale but that's just from the flash in the white bucket.

 

They look to be in great shape but I'm still going to GT them, just to be safe. Here they are in the QT:

 







 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

They look great! Have you been able to find out much about breeding them?

Thanks. They will spawn in a pipe like P. fridmani.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

That's good, you have experience with P. fridmani, don't you? Or is this a whole new adventure for you?

Yup, I've been doing P. fridmani for a while.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Good luck Tal.  I give it 120 days and you'll have them nailed down

Well, it seems like these guys don't get along in close quarters as I'd hope. The female was getting picked on so they have been separated for the rest of the QT period. 

 

I will probably end up putting them in my main tank so they have more room.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I've decided to house these guys in a 10G with a barrier until they're ready to spawn. Once I see that the female is gravid I'll remove the screen and see what happens. I used a larger plastic mesh held in place with suction cups.

 







 

The mesh is curved so it stays in place better and big enough so they can see each other. I gave the female the area in front so I can keep a better eye on her. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Male's side:





 

Female's side:



 

A better perspective of the barrier:

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Good luck! Evil dottybacks....

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

Well, I thought this was a pretty good set-up but apparently not. Today I caught the male in with the female. At first I wasn't sure how he got there but after further investigation I found that one of the suction cups had failed. 

The female's tail is a bit shredded, again. So much for my hopes that they would get used to each other and chill out. 

Now what do I do...? Let them battle it out... make a stronger barrier... or just toss them in the big tank?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Hmm.  Quality Marine reported that they found this species to be remarkably mild mannered when it came to pairing.  Of course, there's still a 50/50 tossup on which color is which sex...some say the orange is female, but in the natural world, most often it is the male that has the brighter colors, the same can be said for other dichromatic dottybacks.  Hopefully Tal you'll shed some hard light on that vaguery.
 
I suggest going back to the divider for now.  My Bitaneatus pair had a bit of a rough patch, so did my Flavivertex pair, but eventually they sorted it out.  I think getting them fatter and happier and settled in may help...you can then observe on some playdates to see how it goes.  Always nerveous...of course I lost a female P. cyanotaenia and a male P. coccinicauda to murders on "accidental" introductions like you had.
 
I just worry if you go with the big tank you'll never actually know if they're spawning, let alone have a good chance at getting larvae.  Spawnings in reef tanks are nice for the casual breeder, but if you're serious about propagation, dedicated setups are far more appropriate.

What's funny that I didn't mention is that right after I saw that the male was on the other side, I was feeding, he slipped back to his own side. Like I didn't notice, lol.

As far as sexing them, I'm just going by Iris' observations. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Ok, so I've been feeding the pair quite well and have managed to keep them apart. I've been noticing over the last 2 days that the female seems to be starting to look gravid. Might just be my imagination, my eyes or she's just getting fat... here are some pics. All taken at the same time.

 













 







 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Like I posted elsewhere...not yet.
 
Idea : put a clear viewing window into that divider.  When I had the P. cyanotaenia divided, the male could come up and display to the female, and would DO SO when they were ready.  Made it relatively easier to tell when things were good to go...

Hmmm... I'll see what I can come up with.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Yeah, she doesn't look gravid to me, either. Just better fed.

--Andy, the bucket man.
"Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886

She looks like she's not skipping any hamburgers at the drive thru
 
Couple more weeks and she'll be a bowling ball  (Which I'm pretty sure is good to have that much energy to make some eggs)!

Well guys, it looks like I may have been correct. (Unless someone fed her 3 times between noon and 6)

 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I removed the barrier and they seem to be exhibiting pre-spawn behavior. The female seems to be hanging out under the PVC pipes and the male is trying to lure her out. I'm trying to catch them on cam but I don't want to disturb them.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Nice!  And within two weeks no less.. damn you're good!

Sounds like you're MWP the 2nd to me!

Actually 3 weeks but still pretty good. Now let's hope they decide to spawn.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Ha! I wish! I have a ways to go. My P. fridmani were the first of all my pairs to spawn for me so maybe it's just a Pseudochromis thing.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Some vids:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sGsX8FODvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAg3s1S3J1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4zFAqlCMfc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnSJ1aN4bGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgR3zzDmiSc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjOOSKLr2RA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh1_offmaUI

 

Interesting stuff going on for sure... You can see the male taking mouthfuls of sand from a certain area and spitting it out. Cleaning behavior?

You can also see that the female is staying in the pipe on the lower left. The male is circling around and at times she backs out of the pipe as if to entice him in... quite the opposite from P. fridmani behavior where the male tries to lure the female into his "cave". We'll see what happens tomorrow.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

She was looking gravid again yesterday. Got home today to find eggs!







 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

WAY faster than I usually pull off..bravo!

 



 



 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Go Tal! That's an interesting location for the eggs...

Live and Learn

Being their first, recorded, spawn, I'm assuming that they're still working things out. I may provide some end-caps for the pvc in the future if the open-ended ones don't work out.

I haven't decided what I'll do with this initial spawn... I might pull them in the morning and incubate them manually, or I may let them work it out on their own.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

If you pull them now, you'll never know how good (or bad!) the parents might be.   Of course you may also have a much better chance at raising the offspring as well!

The eggs are still there but the male doesn't seem to be paying much attention to them. I'll keep an eye on them throughout the day.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

So has the poppa been paying attention or is it time for gramps to pull the eggs?

He's not taking as good of care of them as I'd like to see. The egg mass is more of a net now than a ball. They still look ok though.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Nice! I think it is safe to say, who is male and female now. This is two people with observations. Gotta get the info spread.