Breeding Journal, Species: Dunckerocampus baldwini

The one fry remaining from the January 8th hatch is growing like a weed now!  He/she is about 2.5 cm long now, and has probably grown about 0.75 cm in just the last week.
 
The male in Tank #1 has already absorbed a number of the eggs from the spawn just two days ago, but there is good news.  He has started taking food (frozen cyclops and also Moina salina) out of the water column!  I saw him eating cyclops three different times today, so I'm encouraged that soon, he'll be nourished enough to be able to hold a whole spawn to term.

I just wanted to update a day later that I'm VERY encouraged at the way the male in Tank #1 is eating now!  He eagerly eats frozen cyclops from the water column, just like the other fat, heathy relatives of his are doing.  He also enthusiastically snicks live Moina salina and Tigriopus from the water column.  I don't have high hopes for the brood of eggs he is carrying, but I am optimistic for the next brood, given the positive change in his eating habits.

Good. That's very, very good to hear.

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

Time for a photo update on the lone fry from the January 8th hatch.  Today is 37 Days Post Hatch:
 

Attached Image(s)

Excellent!

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

Nice! Looking good, man!

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

I'm am happy to see your continued successes with this species Jim!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

It's a pipefish! Congrats! "She's" looking great!

What, 23 days to go Jim??!?

Well, I called End of Settlement at January 28th, 2013 (being conservative here).  That would make 60DPS = March 29, 2013, which is 39 days from today.

Cool!  You can do it!

Are you guys designing a new icon yet? 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

The male in Tank #1 continues to eat well.  That pair spawned again on the morning of 17 February, about 6 days ago.  So far, he is still holding a very complete complement of eggs.  I see perhaps two eggs that have "disappeared" since that spawn.  Considering the slight increase in temperature I've implemented recently, I'm hoping for a hatch on Day 9 instead of Day 10, which will be Monday night if I am correct.  I don't want to jinx it, but I think I may actually get a decent hatch out of this male this time!
 
Meanwhile, the two fry, one born on 8 January and the other born on 6 February, are both doing well.  I have moved the younger one into the same fishbowl as the older one, where they both have ready access to an assortment of Tigriopus californicus, Apocyclops panamensis, Nitokra lacustris, and Moina salina.
 
The pair in Tank #2 still has not spawned since a very weak spawn on 5 February.  I'm pretty sure the issue there is the poor eating habits of the female in that tank.  The other two fish of indeterminate gender in Tank #3 are both eating well, but since I'm pretty sure they are of the same gender (whatever that is!) there has, of course, been no spawning.  I am still tempted to move some fish around between Tank #2 and Tank #3 to try to get a different, more healthy female paired with the healthy male in Tank #2.  The thing that keeps stopping me is that, frankly, once I move the fish around, I don't know that I will be able to reliably tell the different fish apart if things go awry, and I need to move fish back to where they were before.  Between the four fish in Tanks #2 and #3, the only one I can reliably identify is the poorly eating female in Tank #2, due to the asymmetrical bump on her abdomen.

Now, for a long overdue update.
 
First, all the good news.  The two fry from earlier hatches continue to do well.  The oldest, hatched Jan. 8th, is 4 cm now!  The other one is more like 3 cm.  I've been working on trying to coax the adult Redstripes onto mysis instead of the tiny cyclops they have been eating -- and it's working!  My method has been to only feed a mixture of frozen mysis and frozen enriched brine in the morning, and withhold the cyclops at first.  I've seen the female in Tank #2 starting to aggressively go after the mysis as of today.  My experience with pipes in general is that once they start to take mysis, the don't look back, and for some reason, they become much more aggressive "hunters" of this food. In other words, when they are eating the smaller cyclops, the have a more relaxed, "snick" .... wait ... "snick" ... wait ... "snick" attitude, but when they are eating mysis, it becomes "FOOD!!!!" ... CHASE IT! ... "SNICK!!!" ... "OMG LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT ONE - DON'T LET IT GET AWAY - SNICK!!!!"  This has been true of the Bluestripes, the one Banded I have, and now, the Redstripes, too.
 
The pair in Tank #1 had a good hatch last Monday, 25 February 2013.  I snagged 14 fry.  I was expecting more, but waited for almost an hour after I saw the last fry, and no more were forthcoming.  Nonetheless, the male had empty pouch flaps the next morning, and they had a weak spawn almost immediately.  The 14 fry have been eating well, and as of last night I had only lost one of them until.....
 
Now, the bad news.  Somehow, I managed to kill off all the fry from last Monday's hatch.  I awoke to a bunch of white-looking, dead fry on the bottom of their fishbowl.  The one thing out of the ordinary that happened last night was that I used some older live Isochrysis that was definitely past its prime to top off their phyto.  I guess it must have been beyond "plateau" phase, and in the beginning of "crash" phase, or something like that.  It also took out some of my older Bluestripes in growout.  Crap.  Oh, well, live and learn.  The progress getting the broodstock to eat has me encouraged.  I'll have another brood to work with soon.

I wonder if you could isolate the male into a breeder trap meant for livebearers. Something that would immediately separate the fry from the father. I considered trying to train a blue stripe male to sleep in one, though I never got past the pondering stage. I'm thinking something like this:
http://www.petmountain.co...tanks/aqua-nursery.jpg

Thanks for the suggestion, Tami, however, I'd be worried about 1) stressing the male as he bangs against the sides of the small enclosure trying to escape, and 2) these fry are so small, that I bet they could escape through the slits in the right-hand chamber.  But do please keep the ideas coming!

yeah, you'd have to glue mesh over the slits, or possibly even make a larger hole and cover that with mesh so the water pressure wouldn't be too strong.  As for the banging on the sides - the easy answer to that is black krylon fusion. Like I said, I've thought about this.

I wasn't kidding about the training part either. I was thinking if I made it like an overhang or dark cave, I might be able to convince a male to use it as a sleeping spot. Maybe drill a hole in the side or even just cut out one side, and use the suction of the baby chamber to pull them in.

But I've never tried it, just thought about it a lot. Many of my ideas sadly end up that way.  

Could you DIY a larger enclosure so that the male would have sufficient room to feel comfortable but that the fry can swim out of? Or perhaps make a larval snagger that has a larger holding area so that the fry could stay in it for several hours? It could be designed such that the inlet is on one side and the fry would enter and could transition to an area of their preferred flow.

Well, shoot.  You would think that I would be able to count to 9, now wouldn't you?
 
I missed a hatch last night because I somehow thought they were going to hatch tonight instead of last night.
 
One of the "spare" fish has had a tragic disaster.  His/her tail must have gotten sucked into the inlet on the HOB filter in their tank, because it was broken, and rotting by the time I noticed the problem.  I've separated the other "spare" fish by moving it into the 65 gallon tank.  As an aside, the 65 has a large banded pipefish (Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus), and I was a little worried about whether or not they were going to fight, but they appear to be hanging out, in the same general area, and pretty much ignoring each other.  Maybe an eventual hybrid pipefish (I can hear Matt cringing as he reads this)?
 
I'm trying to figure out what to do with the injured pipe.  It's pretty bad.  It is missing something like about 1 1/2" of tail.  Treat or euthanize?  I need to make my mind up quickly.  I'll also need to set up a separate tank if I'm going to treat, because I don't have enough Furan-2 to treat 40 gallons.  Crap.  And this on the same day that I lost my female Bluestripe to a similar accident in a completely different tank.  It has been a really, really bad day in my fish room today.
 

Sorry to hear your bad run Jim. I look forward to your continued successes. You have accomplished so much on the pipes.

What a bummer day.

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

These things happen.  I am sorry to hear it, but happy to report that you now have several reports approved!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Drum roll......    FANFARE!!!!!
 
While I never intended achieving "success" with this species to be an example of "it only takes one" -- well, here we are.
 
My oldest fry from the January 8th hatch is at 60 Days Post Settlement today!  It has been living together with a sibling from another hatch, at first in the same 2 gallon fishbowl, and for the last couple of weeks, in the same larger growout kreisel.  The two are quite gregarious -- they hang out very near each other almost all the time.  The Bluestripe fry are much less "friendly" that way.
 
The larger fry is about 4.25 cm or so now, and the smaller one is just slightly behind in size, being just shy of 4 cm.  They continue to thrive in the copepod soup I have them in, with a constant supply of Tigriopus, Nitokra and Apocyclops, plus additions of Acartia and Arctodiaptomus, plus some Moina salina from time to time, too. 
 
Here are some pictures taken this morning.  The first one was taken in the kreisel, with my Secchi stick in the background to serve as a metric ruler.  The water in the kreisel is a bit murky from the live phyto in it, though, so I scooped the 60DPS juvenile out with a 600ml beaker to get a better picture without having to shoot through so much greenish water for the second picture.
 



 
Meanwhile, after missing the hatch on the night of March 15th, the next batch of eggs was a very weak one, and there was basically nothing left to hatch on the night of the 24th.  The pair in Tank #1 continues to spawn every 9 days, but they also tend to alternate between large, healthy spawns, and small, weak spawns.  The spawn on March 25th was a nice, large, healthy spawn, so I'm looking forward to a decent hatch next Tuesday, April 2nd.

Attached Image(s)

Congrats!

Congratulations, Jim!

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

That is really sweet Jim. Congrats on your achievement and thanks for your dedication on this project.
It is REALLY awesome !!!

Anderson.

Awesome! 

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

What a beautiful acheivement!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Congrats! You're making me jealous!

Absolutely fantastic!!! Congrats Jim!

Congratulations Jim! Amazing work!

Thank you all for the words of praise and encouragement!

Well it looks like most of the eggs the male in Tank #1 was carrying, and were due to hatch tonight, hatched last night instead.  He still has a few dark, mature eggs this morning, plus a whole bunch of new, yellowish-white ones.  ARRRGGGHHH!  I may still get some fry out of this batch tonight, but it appears that he hatched early on me, and I missed most of them.

On the bright side, the parents are eating well, getting fatter, and obviously healthy, since they are spawning regularly.  I discovered the heater in Tank #2 had failed off -- not a big deal, since the room is warm enough, the temp was only down to about 74-75 F -- but I've replaced the failed heater, and have brought the temp back up to around 78 F, so maybe pair #2 will start spawning again.  They, too, have been eating well.

Meanwhile, as an aside, the lone redstripe in the 65 gallon gets along just fine with the lone banded pipe.  They more or less ignore each other.  There is absolutely no aggression between them.

Finally, after a long break, the pair in tank #1 spawned a nice, big batch of eggs this morning.  I think the lights from the Pseudochromis cyanotaenia larval tank has been keeping them up at night, and messing with their sleep / diurnal cycle.  I have been hatching and enriching a bunch of BBS for the P. cyanotaenia lately, so the excess get fed to the pipes.  I have noticed a definite correlation between the pipes getting fed Dan's Feed enriched BBS and spawning with the redstripes.  I'm going to have to just keep hatching, enriching, and feeding the BBS, it seems!

More anecdotal evidence of the value of the Dan's Feed enriched BBS.  The pair in Tank #2 spawned this morning, for the first time in about 2 1/2 months!  Woot!

The pair in Tank #2 have some companions -- two Yellow Coral Gobies (Gobiodon okinawae).  I am convinced that they eat they pipefish fry whenever they hatch.  I have never snagged any more than one or two of the fry from this tank, and this most recent hatch was no different.  I set the snagger for three straight nights, leaving it running all night each time, and didn't snag a single fry.  I had been feeding this pair very well, and he carried more than 90% of the eggs to term, but I still didn't get a single fry out of it.  To me, the only explanation is that these tiny little fish are fry-eating monsters!
 
Both pairs have spawned again within the last week.  I have a couple of fry from a hatch from tank #1 that are about two weeks old now, and have been in the "walk like an Egyptian" phase for about two days or so now.  The challenges I still face with these are (1) capturing a decent percentage of the fry when they hatch, and then (2) getting a decent survival rate out of those that I do catch.

I think I have made a significant discovery while working to photograph these fish in regards to sexing them.  It is well known that it is fairly easy to sex the Bluestripe Piepfish (Doryrhamphus excisus) by examining the snouts, and looking for extra "bumps" on the snouts of the males.  I have personally observed this phenomenon, and it is an accurate and easily detectable manifestation of sexual dimorphism in D. excisus.  Prior to last night, I had not previously observed such "bumps" in Dunckerocampus baldwini.
 
I was taking some photographs of my primary breeding pair of D. baldwini last night, and while examining the photos, I noticed the same type of "bumps" (more accurately described as white conical spikes or protrusions) on the snout of the pregnant male of the pair that are absent on the snout of the female, which I had never before noticed.  The phenomenon is more subtle with this species, but it is clearly visible, as shown in the two photographs displayed below.  I will try to get some similar images of the other breeding pair of these that I have, to confirm this sexual dimorphism.  Meanwhile, I just wanted to document it here:
 
Female without any snout bumps:

 
Male with clearly visible white conical snout bumps:

Attached Image(s)

OK, those images were shrunk down by the MBI site, and show less detail than I had hoped.  Here is another attempt:
 
Female no bumps:

 
Male with bumps:

Attached Image(s)

Very interesting! I know that janss have very small bumps on the males, though those are very very small. It would be hard to sex in a fish store, but possible. That would be really great for people interested in breeding. Now we have to see what other species have them. I will be looking.
 
I can't wait to see what you find with the other pairs.

I finally managed to get some decent pictures of the other pair.  Not only does the "bumps on the snout" part hold up, but now that I've gotten good pictures of the snouts of two different pairs, I'm noticing another sexual dimorphism:  The males have a yellow coloration along the lower portion of the snout that the females lack.  Here are some closeups of the snouts of the other pair, where you can clearly see both the bumps and the yellow stripe on the male that are lacking on the female:
 
Male:

 
Female:

 
 

Attached Image(s)

Those are Great shots!

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