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

That's what I thought too. I posted on RC and a few other places but haven't heard anything back from anyone that has worked with them.

 

I did get this quote from my mentor: "Good luck...It will be cool to see them develop and actually get some good pics of them. The female pattern would have you selling out!" So I guess it's safe to say that I'm on the right path with my observations.

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"Making captive breeding easier."

Well I guess I should have pulled the eggs last night as I was thinking. They were gone this morning. At least I know when to pull them next time.

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"Making captive breeding easier."

BOOOOOO!

Ok, I got spawn #2 earlier this evening. Sometime between 4pm and 5:30pm. They weren't there at the 4pm feeding time but they were there when Adam stopped by after 5pm.

 

I still have the barrier in place but it's not sealed now so the fish can go back and forth. That seems to be working, I'm not seeing as much aggression. When we first saw the egg mas it was in the back corner of the male's side of the tank (like last time) and now it seems to be "tacked" to the far end of a PVC pipe. He did that last time too. This egg mass is larger than the first one. For size reference, the pipe is 2".

 





 

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"Making captive breeding easier."

I pulled the eggs this evening and put them in the glass funnel just like I do with the P. fridmani eggs. The egg mass is more like a net than a nice neat ball that the fridmani keep. The eggs are bigger than P. fridmani eggs, about 2-3mm. Larvae are about 4mm. They started hatching 5 minutes after I started tumbling them but they aren't all hatching as expected.

 

Here is the egg mass during transfer:





 

and after transfer:



 



 

Various post hatch shots:

 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

 

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

Cool, now get them past meta

I pulled a few unhatched eggs just to see if they were still alive...

 



 



 

And some cool action shots...

 

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"Making captive breeding easier."

Nice photos and videos, especially the ones under the scope.

Well, it seems like these guys needed just a bit longer to hatch, I was getting worried! After about 2hrs they are hatching like crazy! Literally thousands of them!

 



 



 



 



 



 

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

Action shots of a LOT of larvae!

 





 

This is after I removed hundreds:

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"Making captive breeding easier."

In the BRT:

 



 



 



 



 



 

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

Wow! Thats amazing Tal!  Best of luck with these guys!

Micro video, post-hatch:

 

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

Wow!

Wow!

As of today, day 5PH, I only have a couple hundred left. Mortality rate seems to be higher at this point than with P. fridmani... not what I was expecting. There are plenty of rotifers and I'm keeping up with the RotiGreen and CloramX. I'm wondering if the the water volume, 5G, was too small for that many larvae... 

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

I was wondering about water quality the other day when you told me how many larvae you had. I had suspected that the number of larvae I had from my Clarkii was a primary factor in the loss those batches.  Too many larvae in one place.
 

Chad Penney - MBI Council
Agis quod Adis

Amazing. I hope you still get some out of this batch.

They spawned again this evening. I didn't even notice the female getting particularly plump but I guess she was. I walked in the room to do something and caught the male fertilizing the eggs.

 

 





 

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

All of the larvae from the December 23 hatch are now gone. I was out of town last weekend so that didn't help. I had my tank sitter dose RotiGreen but probably not as well as if I'd been here to do it myself. Oh well. I'll have another batch to work with in a few days. 

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

Tanksitter?  Seriously?  Wow, I can't imagine what the qualifications for that job must be.    Good luck with your next hatch.

Yeah, there are sticky notes all over the room when I go out of town, which isn't very often.

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

Sounds like a pretty good method to me!  Do you go through an agency ?  A knowledgeable tank sitter would be a nice thing to have when we go out of town!

My mom is my tank sitter. She actually does a good job overall.

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

Sad news... I let the pair have some time together last night and woke up to find the female dead.

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

Ohh man  
 
What a jerk!

Oh that sucks Tal....know how you feel. 

sorry..

Thanks guys. I'm bummed that this pair spawned so soon after I got them but stopped after New Years when I was away. I plan on moving the male somewhere and using the tank for the new A. tricincuts pair that will be getting out of QT next week.

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