Breeding Journal, Species: Elacatinus Puncticulatus

General
Species:  Elacatinus Puncticulatus
Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals:  2'' and 1.5''
Age of Individuals:  Not known
Date added to Tank:  01/21/2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  17 Gallon
Substrate Details:  sand and gravel
Filtration Details:  centralised  filter, live rock and bioballs
Water Changes:  rarely
Water Temperature:  24-25
Lighting:  no lights above tank indirect fish house lighting only
Lighting Cycle:  14 on, 10 off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  3 blue streak cardinals, 1 mandarin

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  mysis, flake, lobster eggs
Feeding Schedule:  2-3 times day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Date and time uncertain but estimate is 2/17/2011
Spawn Time of Day:  unknown
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  2/26/2011, 3/6/2011 3/14/2011
Courtship Details:  Male would entice female into pipe and chase her around.
Egg Size:  approx 1mm long .5mm wide
Egg Color:  silvery just before hatch
Egg Count:  100ish

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  02/23/2011  3/4/2011
Hatch Time of Day:  8pm
# Days after Spawn:  Not definite but nest pulled on what was estimated as 6th night to hatch.
Larvae Description:  approx 2mm in length with large eyes


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  24-25
Size of Larval Tank: 10 gallon BRT 
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  none
Lighting:  Std 60 watt bulb and reflector 6" above tub.
Lighting Cycle:  24 hrs on.
Water Changes:  None, drip 1per second from 2nd day. 20 micron screen on overflow. linked to central filter.

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  pods, L strain rots
Feeding Schedule:  As required looking at density of fodd prey.

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  8th April 2011
Days after Hatch:  35
Date of Settlement End:  11th April2011
Description of Fry:  fuller bodied than larvae, well formed fins, eyes more in scale to the body, colouration starting on head.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  30c
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  10 gal
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  1 plastic plant 1 rock
Filtration Details:  1 foam filter
Lighting:  Ambient fish house light
Lighting Cycle:  14 on
Water Changes:  none
Size at Transfer:  18-20mm
Age at Transfer:  10weeks

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  400 micron pellets
Feeding Schedule:  once daily

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 
The post through to 60 days post hatch, is based on the spawn of 2/26/2011 which hatched on 4/3/2011.
My first 2 posts were from the first spawn 2/17/2011 and hatch 2/23/2011 which was unsuccessful.


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 fry at hatch.

Heres a video of one of the little guys on day of hatch. 
 

Nice video! Were you using a microscope or just the macro setting on a cam?

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

USB Scope.

Checked the broodstock tank today as the female looked thinner. This is what I found. Not a great picture as I only hand one hand and had to use auto focus.  You can clearly see a orangey patch of eggs. Much bigger than the last nest!
 

Will be pulling the latest batch of eggs from the broodstack tank tonight. They where laid last saturday night or Sunday morning 26/27th Feb.
 
Will post pics of larvae tomorrow. (hopefully)

Well pulled the eggs last night and managed to hatch around 2-300 in a small 2ltr Jug. About 20% of the batch did not hatch after an hour so I put them back in the broodstock tank. Havn't checked them yet to see if they are still viable.
I transferred my larvae to the BRT and added rots, pods and phyto.
Checked this morning and there are still plenty swimming around but are very difficult to see let alone count. One interesting thing I found today was a larvae with a bent tail. Is this common? Not sure if it was caused during transfer, or it is a birth defect.
 
Not a great pic but you can see the bend in the tail.

 
Just have to wait and see if they are ating now.
 
 

On observing the fry this evening, I noticed they were coming up to the surface and doing what I can only descibe as a 'dying fly'. It looks like they are attacking the plankton at the surface of the water? Has anyone else seen this bahaviour? It definately looks like feeeding as they immediatlely then dive back down into the water column. They are not rushing up at the water surface out of control, but seem to cruise upwards and attack.
 
Any thoughts?

Day 2 and there seems to be around 100 larvae still alive (guesstimate). It didn't seem that many until I added more phyto to the water and they suddenly rose to the top of the water column. Presumably the darker water caused them to rise up toward the light.
Added a further 1 litre of strained rotifers.
The pair have spawned again.

Day 3 and still lots of larvae. Only added phyto today, rots and pods are plentiful.

Day 4. Looks to be about 50 larvae swimming about. There is a notabble brighter silver spot in the middle which hopefully means they are getting enough to eat. Added another 1 ltr strained rots and some infusoria sized dry feed. Not sure if that will help but I will give it a go.
Added T.iso today as I had run out, been using nanno.
Can't post any pics my USB scope has stopped working. Will take it back and hopefully get a new one tomorrow.

Day 5. Same larvae numbers as yesterday. Didn't add any rots today numbers looked good. Added a bout 3 ml phyto, nanno and iso. Still drip feeding fresh water at i drop per second only because im a bit of a lazy ****and don't like water changes and want any success to be doable on a larger scale.
Returned USB scope to shop and got another one. It didn't work Ahhhh! Will try and get some pics using a macro lens tomorrow.

Day 6. Larval numbers appear to be about the same as yesterday. One interesting thing is that the larger of the larvae appear to have some red colouration on their heads almost coppery colour but only in certain light conditions.
No rots added today just phyto.
 
Got another scope today so here is a video. There are some rots and small brine shrimp in there for size comparison.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgn0WiNFxy0

Day 7. Had alot die off last night. The valve blocked and stopped dripping fresh water into the tank but not sure if this is the route cause. There was about 30 larvae on the bottom of the tub this morning.
Still 20 or 30 swimming about so I will see what tomorrow brings.
 
Hatched the next batch in a BRT. Looked to be 200+. Will see how many are swimming tomorrow before adding rots and phyto.

Day 9. Still around 20 larvae swimming around today. I upped the flow rate through the tub to clear out some of the rots and then added some more iso.
 
Pair looked like they were going to spawn again today but didn't. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. I did however manage to get a shot of the male in his spawning colours. The head is greyer and around the gills much redder than normal.

Day 13. Took this vid this afternoon.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbOdnN1nFLA

Day 17.
About 20-30 fry left now. Some look very strong others are just floating around in the current. A few of the larger larvae appear to be feeding off the side of the tub, presumably copepod naups.

Day 24. Counted 7 larvae in the tub today. Must be very close to meta now. Hatched another nest, hopefully will have better success with this one.

Day 26. I could only see 1 larvae swimming around this morning so I thought I better get some shots, although their maybe more inthere. Looks to be around 8-10mm at a guess. Looking at the Vid any ideas when you think it might get to Meta?
 

Day 38. Cameback from weekend away and they finally look like they have gone through meta. Lost about 4 of the 8 I counted on Friday. Here is a pic of one of the fish. You can just make out the red starting to come in around the head. Sorry not great shots will try and get a vid tomorrow.
 

GRR, looks like photobucket has all your photos offline for the moment!  I wanted to see! (I'll have to come back later)
 

Here's a vid at 40 dph. You can just make out spots of colour starting on the body. Fins are well developedand they are much harder to catch now. Lost another 2 yesterday so down to only 2 now. Have some more about a week behind these in another tub.

Day 49. Pigmentation now starting to come in.

Lost about 8 of these fry this weekend. Only one remaining now in the BRT. I can't seem to get them feeding on anything. They spend all their time stuck to the side of the BRT what looks like grazing on the algal growth. The top  3" of the tub is completely stripped of all life where they were swimming round the tub cleaning of any algae. I have been feeding nhbs, bbs 100,200 micron powdered larvae feed all it seems to no avail. The remaining larvae is approx 12mm now, but doesn't seem interested in anything that isnt attached to the side of the BRT. Any thoughts, comments much appreciated.
If these are algal grazers, (which it seems they have been doing since settlement) would it be worth trying to add more surface area for them to graze? I know in the commercial prawn farming industry they use plastic weed beds in the growout tanks to encourage growth of algae and provide perching plaaces.

That sounds like a decent plan to me. I'd also probably add in harps just to see if they'd give them a try. Maybe Tisbe?

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

Day 64.
Looking in the BRT today and to my suprise there were 2 perfect miniature Redheads. Don't know wher the second one has been hiding. One is slightly larger than the other about 13mm and 11mm and has slightly more whitish colour on the body, But you can only spot them by there red heads as most of the body is still clear.
Still not quite sure what they are feeding on. They spend most of the time stationary on the bottom or side close to the bottom. I did manage to see one of them devour a 400 micron pellet yesterday as it floated to the bottom, but thats the only time I have seen it feed. Will try and get some shots next week.

Congrats,well done!
Feed them bbs,they take small prey close to the substrate,but I don´t think they graze on algae at this time.Offer Oto B or such until they start to take it.

Managed to get a shot of one of them today, not great but you can make out the clear colour and pattern on the fish.

Day 76.
Got a couple of decent shots of the fish today as I have moved them to a growout tank. There feeding on 400 micron pellets and frozen cyclopeeze.

Awesome! Congrats

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

Congratulations!

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

Well they have had 18 days now in the growout tank and whilst they have not really put on much length, their bodies have filled out.  Their growing strong and very healthy and their colour is amazing.  The female has stopped laying and has reduced her feeding so I don't think she will spawn for a while. I do hope I get another chance with this pair as I feel I will be able to get much more through settlement next time.
Here is some shots I took today.

Nice shots, their color really is amazing! Nice work. What are they eating now?

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

400 micron pellets only.

Well the two that made it are are 6 months old now and about an inch long. Their in with their dad now as I need their growout tank. Here's a pic of one of them.

those are pretty babies. Looking great!

RLTW

180 Gallon Mixed Reef

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8