Breeding Journal, Species: Neopomacentrus cf. nemurus

 


General
Species:  Neopomacentrus cf. nemurus - N. nemurus is the best identification I've been able to get to date.  It is definitely a Neopomacentrus species, and I am pretty confident in my ID.  There are two other species that are similar.  Hoping to get a solid ID now that I have them spawning!
Social Structure:  every man for himself!  Suspected that I have 2 males and 1 female.
Size of Individuals: smallest is 1.75" at most, largest can't be over 2.25"
Age of Individuals:  unknown, wild caught.  Have had them for several months
Date added to Tank:  March 8th, 2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  20 gallon long
Substrate Details:  none
Filtration Details:  Hang on Tank protein skimmer and a large old "Penguin 300" power filter that contains no media.  Live rock is the main biological filtration.
Water Changes:  sporadic, generally 25% maybe every 2-3 weeks
Water Temperature:  around 80F
Lighting:  single tube stock strip light
Lighting Cycle:  varies, they are NOT on a timer
Other Tank Inhabitants:  2 juvenile Amphiprion allardi.  The larger juvenile runs the tank.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Everything, frozen, pellets, you name it.
Feeding Schedule:  At least 2 times per day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  assumed to be today, July 11th, 2010
Spawn Time of Day:  before 4:30 PM - I believe I caught the "aftermath"
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  N/A
Courtship Details:  From what I could see, it appears that the male exhibits a courtship coloration where tan bands show up on the face and flank.  It appears that the male attempts to "lead" a female to a spawning site, somewhat akin to how Dottybacks court.
Egg Size:  TINY.  TINY TINY TINY! (maybe 1mm X 1.5 mm?)
Egg Color:  Tan, but almost clear.
Egg Count:   Hundreds

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 
Hatch Time of Day: 
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description: 


Larval Tank Details
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Other Tank Decor: 
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Larval Feeding Details
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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: 
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Other Tank Decor: 
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Lighting: 
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Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
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Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information: 

 

Here's the proof so far:

Courtship Dress on the larger suspected male


The nest


Nest Tending by the suspected smaller male


Nest Tending by the suspected smaller male


Nest Tending by the suspected smaller male


Nest Tending by the suspected smaller male


I believe this is the larger male


This is definitely the larger, dominant damsel in the tank, and presumeably a male.


Again, the suspected largest male in the tank, I think...

I believe this is a picture of the suspected female


More nest tending by the smaller suspected male


closeup

Also, listing these as Neopomacentrus cf. nemurus because I couldn't be 100% on the identification (they came in a shipment of assorted damsels).  I asked Scott Michael, who in turn asked Dr. Allen, who said:  "The Neopomacentrus is either N. azysron (Pacific) or N. sororius (Indian Ocean), depending on location."  Of course, I don't have a collecting location on these at all, so it's really hard to say.  I went with N. nemerus due to the fact that it comes from the Philippines, a likely source for cheap, assorted damselfish (in addition to looking the closest to that species in Scott Micheal's book).  Thus, the jury is still out on an ID in my book.

And of course, video!

Courtship (the largest male, making overtures to the female, presumeably after she spawned with the smaller male, which admittedly is wierd / unexpected)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFKsKd26Rbo

This second one is longer, with a bit of nest tending and a bit of courtship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_I1vZFzVJI

This is getting interesting.

Here is the nest shot last night, 7-12.



You can see the eyes starting to develop already...

Now, here is the nest shot tonight (7-13).



Is it just me, or does that look like a new, fresh, and different nest?  Could it be these guys spawn and hatch every 48 hours?! Or maybe the photo from tonight is just not quite in focus?

Hmm... the area on the lower left of the rock "looks" like more eggs but, as you said, it might just be a focus thing. Hard to tell in the pic. Pretty cool though!

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

So backtracking...I've been shooting daily egg pictures.  It is clear that multiple spawns are present, that is to say that the suspected only female is able to produce eggs faster than they hatch.  As a matter of record, the eggs that were eyed up at 2:00 AM on the early wee morning of the 16th (photographed late in the evening on the 15th) had hatched by the afternoon of the 16th (I had not had time to check them between the 2:00 AM and about 5:00 PM time today.

I'll get caught up with the pictures / possible video later tonight if I can!

So, backing up.  Starting with photos shot on 7-14.  First up, a better look at "courtship dress"..the largest "presumably male" damsel making overtures at the smallest (most likely female) damsel in the group of 3.





And now, on to eggs.

Here is the nest as photographed in the evening (i.e. 10 PM) on 7-14-2010



And the same nest on 7-15-2010





And now, shot late on 7-16-2010, after a presumed (but not witnessed) hatch.





Note the few strangling eggs that appear unhatched and viable...

So...just to do the math.  Assuming that the eggs in the front were all from the afternoon of 7-11-2010, that means they hatched somewhere wee early to afternoon on the 7-16-2010.  So roughly a 5 night count to hatch (night of 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) with a hatch sometime on the 16th.  I'm going to have to keep watching this nest carefully.  As far as I can tell, the next eggs appeared on the 13th, which would make them due to hatch at sometime before 5 PM or so on the 18th (Sunday, either very early i..e after 'lights out' or perhaps they hatch morning????).

Anyone have any good ideas for trapping some larvae off this next hatch?  Do I whip out the 'ole larval snagger  yet keep the tank running?

Great pics!

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

*sniff*

snagger....

why disturb the ecosystem with pumps off and rock moving?  come on man, I thought you were the liberal....

Pelagically yours,
~J      

oh and Matt

thats one hot Clutch of eggs!!  Even with the reduction in capture from the snagger you outta do well... holy heck look how healthy and huge the nest is!!

Pelagically yours,
~J      

I realized tonight that they lay on something that is EASILY removable.  NO SNAGGER needed

No time to pull the pictures and get 'em up tonight, but I pulled the remaining eggs, and placed them in a 15 gallon "black round tub" that I filled with 5 gallons of tank water, a 25 watt heater, and an airstone for artificial hatching.  If nothing else, I should be able to get pictures of larvae tomorrow, and sign off on "2 out of 4"...

So here is the next before lights out on 7-17-2010



Same nest on the night of 7-18-10, before being pulled for artificial hatching:



Pulled for hatching in my BRT!



Replaced their nest with a hopefully suitable alternative...



This morning, I checked, I DO hvae a hatch in the BRT.  Added almost 40 drops of Roti Green, sieved almost 3 gallons of rotifers first through 120 and collected in 23 (got almost nothing?), added what I got, plus a little bit of the 120 as well.  May not have had enough rotifers to start this batch.  Will try to get a picture of the newly hatched babies...

Matt,

  Did you notice any parental involvement with the nest?  Great photos too.  Thanks!

The "male" does tend the eggs occasionally.  Female does nothing.

So...NEW ASSETS!

Video of larvae, I'm calling it "4 hours post hatch" since I really have no clue...so it's really 4 hours since I woke up   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpp5rCobtck

Here's pix!

10X





60X









200x

Cool stuff Matt!  Do you know if anyone has done this species before?

Funny you mention that Mike.  I literally JUST FOUND an article in a Journal that is suggestive that IF I have my ID right, someone else *may* have already done this species.

http://www.idosi.org/wjas/wjas5%284%29/13.pdf

I was initially very excited.  HOWEVER, if I read this article correctly, it is SOLELY about getting the species of damselfish to SPAWN (aka. "Breed" in their terminology).  I found NO reference on egg collection or larval rearing of any kind.  You know, a paper like that is almost USELESS...it ISN'T that hard to get fish to spawn most of the time!

Of course, if I go with Dr. Allen's ID, then these can't be N. nemerus either.  So it looks like either way, if I rear it, it may be another first.

Yeah!  I didn't get that much out of that article

Still alive last night, when I added 20 drops of Roti Green and harvested 2 gallons of rotifers, collected with a 23 micron sieve to save all the "little ones".

checked several times today and cannot find any evidence of remaining larvae in the BRT.  So it could be that my first run is already over.  We'll see...