Breeding Journal, Species: [Cryptocentrus Cinctus]

 


General
Species:  Cryptocentrus Cinctus
Social Structure:  Mated Pair
Size of Individuals:  Female is 2 1/2".  Male 2" .
Age of Individuals:  Female aquired at 1", and male aquired at 1 1/2". 
Date added to Tank:  Female aquired June 2009 and added to 180 gal Reef tank Mar 2010.  Male aquired in Sep 2010 and paired with female 180 gal Reef in Oct 2010.

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  180 Gal (24x24x72)
Substrate Details:  4" sand bed mixture of very fine and coarse.
Filtration Details: Sump with filter box and refugium growing chaetomorpha. Needlewheel Skimmer. 
Water Changes:  15-18 gal biweekly
Water Temperature:  78F
Lighting:  Metal Halide G12/ T5 combination light.
Lighting Cycle:  Daylight 14 hours.
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Paracanthurus Hepatus, Holacanthus Bermudensis, Solerensis, Lyretail Anthias, Pair of Amphipiron Percula, Firefish, Spotted Mandarin, Kole Tang, 6 Green Chromis, 2 Mated Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, dwarf hermits, Mexican Turbo, Astrea snails. 

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Spectrum pellets, Dried Algae sheets, Frozen Mysis and Brine, Kelp Flakes, Spirulina Flake/discs, Cyclopeeze Flake

 

 

 

Feeding Schedule: 3 times daily or more 

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  First found egg sack on 12/11/2010.
Spawn Time of Day:  After tank lights out. 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  Next egg sack found on 12/22/2010. 
3rd spawn 15 days later 1/6/2011. 
1/21/2011. Spawn occurred in same area as before, LR cave (den), before dawn.  Both parents remained in the den for the morning after the spawn.
2/6/2011.

Courtship Details: The pair stay near each other when out of the den for feeding.  After spawning the male stays inside the den and swims in a circle around the eggs.  The female continues to venture out of the den for feeding, but the male stays inside the cave. After hatching, both fish return to their usual posts outside the den looking for food.
Egg Size:  The egg sack is about as big around as a nickle.
Egg Color:  Bright yellow on first day of spawn, changing to olive green with silver dots before hatch.
Egg Count:  Several hundred.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  12/26 partial hatch.

1/11 complete hatch - several hundred.
Hatch Time of Day: 1-2 hours after lights out. 
# Days after Spawn:  Egg sack hatched partially from 4 days after spawn until 5th day when sack disappeared.

Complete hatch from second spawn on day 5.
Larvae Description:  Larvae is transparent except for the silver eyes and stomach.  Long and thin. Approx 1/16 - 1/8" long.  The larvae are strongly attracted to light, and are vigorous swimmers.  They are able to swim and change direction well enough to avoid capture by net as well as by weak suction of turkey baster and larvael snagger. 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  78F
Size of Larval Tank:  2 gal
Substrate Details: a scattering of small live rock rubble 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details:  no filter. LRR, chaeto algae clump, airline.
Lighting:  Flourescent NO.
Lighting Cycle: 14 hrs. 
Water Changes:  none. evaporation is a problem. must add ro water every couple of days to keep salinity stable. 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Tank has a few live copepods, but these are likely still too large.  Feeding frozen rotifers, Oyster eggs, Hikari First Foods powder.  Non-live food does not seem to be working and the larvae are disappearing.  All larva perished from first batch, maybe due to ammonia.  Next hatch tried allowing the 4-5 captured larvae to eat only copepods in the tank, added no dead food.  This too was unsuccessful.  
Feeding Schedule:  several times per day

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
Miscellaneous Information(NO PHOTOS OR VIDEO):

 

We would prefer to allow the parents to tend the eggs until hatch, then collect the larvae, but so far it's been very difficult to determine the time and day after spawn the hatch occurrs.  We've collected only about 5-6 larvae which may have been early hatchers, and lost the rest to the overflow.  They do not seem to be hatching as clowns do after lights out, but perhaps just before dawn?  As the spawn seems to be every 14 days we will hope to have plenty of retries....

 

 

You will be required to provide photographic or video 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. PHOTOS AND VIDEO S MUST BE PLACED IN ADDITIONAL POSTS, NEVER IN THE FIRST POST IN A JOURNAL.

Pictures of my male YWG tending the eggs in the den, and female YWG out of the den at feeding time.

Attached Image(s)

Today is 15 days from last spawn.  My female is very full looking, but no eggs yet.  The pair are out of the den, staying close to the entrance looking for food.

Attached Image(s)

I found the eggs inside the Goby den this morning before lights on at 5:30am.  The pair must have spawned sometime between lights out last night and this morning. The female is out and looking for food today, but the male is staying near the eggs.  This is the 3rd spawn we've seen. Time since last spawn is 15 days.

any chance of getting egg shots on this one?  Very glad to see the spawn timing documented!!

Pelagically yours,
~J      

I did not get any more pics of eggs (other than the ones I posted above with male tending them).  I used a flash to get the pictures after first spawn, and had to take about 50 shots to get a couple of good ones of the eggs, but it seems to have disturbed the parents, and never saw a complete hatch that time, so I refrained from taking any pictures this time around in case it caused premature hatch.  Even so, they did move the egg sack to the other side of the cave on this next spawn. 

 

 The second batch hatched on 1/11/2011, 5 days after spawn.  This time we turned all lights off on the tank early, and about 1-2 hours later were able to see the complete hatch.  There were many hundreds of larvae this time, and unfortunately not easily captured.  We used a homemade larvael snagger box which worked great for larvael shrimp, but found that the suction was not nearly strong enough for the baby gobies which are very strong and fast swimmers even though so tiny.  I was able to get only around 10 after about an hour, so gave up for the night and restarted the overflow pumps and koralias.  By morning they had all disappeared.  I had thought before this that they would have been sucked into the overflow, but not so sure now, seeing how well they swim.  Perhaps they were an early morning snack for anthias, solar, angel or other oportunist.....  Planning on using a larger pump in the snagger next time.

he he do keep us updated on this one, the snagger "power" considerations are something that I've battled on several occassions though I use a homemade unit utilizing pvc and a bottle rather than a box type design.  Every so often I get frustrated and just siphon and scoop!

Pelagically yours,
~J      

Closeup of YWG eggs from the first spawn of 12/22, picture taken 1 day after spawn.  The color is bright yellow, with just a few silver spots.

Attached Image(s)

Picture below of larva one day after hatch of 1/11/2011.  They were captured with a turkey baster. 

 

Attached Image(s)

Congrats to you, Bluedot - looking great!

Michelle  
 

Thanks Michelle!  It was very hard to get a pic of these guys.   

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths 

Have read that the larvae will eat microscopic ciliates as first food, so have prepared the larvae tank with copepods, live rock rubble, chaeto.  Tried this with 4-5 larvae from second hatch, but all but one gone after 3 days.
 
Evaporation has caused salinity to go to 1.029 sg....  I havent checked it in a while. Perhaps another reason why they didn't survive.

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths 

Nice video!

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

Sweet! 

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

Jim (read husband/equipment and all things mechanical side of the partnership) changed the snagger design a bit this time and hoping for better suction and better results.  The pump section now has 200 gph mini pump, and the filter area just using a piece of coarse 'bio filter' type pad .  Also changed the height of the output side to be higher than input side.

 

Predicting the hatch to be on 1/26 this time about 9pm.  My plan is all lights out at 8pm, and turn off all pumps/fans.  Snagger will already be in place earlier in the day and small light placed above the snagger.

Following along closely. I have spawn from these fish too.

Good info at MOFIB site, link below, confirming that the YWG larvae are attracted to light after hatch.

 

http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=2778&start=0

Hatch occurred an hour or so after lights out as with the last 2 hatches.  The capture effort was another failure as the little lights I had placed above the snagger box went out somehow before the hatch and I didn't notice.  The larvae were scattered all around the tank.  The pump did seem to pull them in better this time, but still only retrieved a few.  We will be working on a new capture device for next time. 

Tagging along.  Nice journal.

Cool. Love watchmans 

 

All the best with them

 

Chris

Thanks Sissy and Chris for the encouragement.  I wonder if anyone has a better idea for a larval trap?  The scooping method didnt work at all for these larva as they swim away too fast and my tank has a lot of rock and too deep.  It seems like we need something that could be submersed all the way and sit closer to the bottom of the tank, near the rock cave where the eggs hatch.   

Very interested in this as we have a pair that have spawned several times yet we did not know what to do. I hope to learn from you and others here to give this a try.

Spawn occurred before dawn on 2/6/2011, 16 days from last time.  We have a new homemade gadget for capturing the fry that we will put into the tank on 2/10 .   

Any news?
 

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