Breeding Journal, Species: Synchiropus picturatus

General
Species:  Synchiropus picturatus
Social Structure:  mated pair that turned out to be 2 males.  Females added later, one pair per tank
Size of Individuals:  Large and small males, about 2 inches and 1 inch, and females approximately 1.5 inches
Age of Individuals:  unknown
Date added to Tank: 2 males 9/14/2011, 2 females 10/4/2011 

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  20 gallon high
Substrate Details:  sand and small live rock, PVC fittings for cover.
Filtration Details:  100 micron bag, washed weekly, artificial live rock in sump, auto top off, bag of carbon
Water Changes:  weekly, about 5%
Water Temperature:  80F
Lighting:  compact fluorescent
Lighting Cycle:  14 hours day, 10 night
Other Tank Inhabitants:  one pair has just bristle worms and aiptasia, and the other tank has an orange spot filefish, until I get a mate for her.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Otohime C1
Feeding Schedule:  twice daily

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 
Spawn Time of Day: 
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details: 
Egg Size: 
Egg Color: 
Egg Count: 

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


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Larval Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
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Feeding Schedule: 

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
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Additional Information
s
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 
Broodstock are a cpative bred mated pair purchased from ORA.


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Two days ago,  I put the males with the females, one pair per tank, in the small growout system.  There are not a lot of fish on the system,and I've recently added a 17 gallon aiptasia tank to it, and the water quality has been really very good there.  It's about 67 gallons total with about 20 fish in it at the moment.
 
I am just pairing them in this system because I have 10 gallon tanks available on it, bare, so I can catch the fish easily should they not get along at first, and the males are already in that system.  Once I am sure they will get along, I'll move them to the 20 gallon high broodstock tanks.
 
So far they seem to get along.  The Large Male really likes his female, hangs around her, etc., whereas the female with the smaller male seems not to be interested.  It may be that she wants a male that is bigger than she is.  I've heard that this is likely with mandarins.

Bummer.  I transferred the mandarins to the broodstock system, as they seemed well and getting along.  I drip acclimated them for a long time. One twenty gallon per pair, with a 10 gallon sump.  This morning the two males were out and about and eating.  One of the females was dead, providing a lunch for the bristle worms.  bummer...
I don't know why she died, but she is the third fish to die in that tank… No clue.  
 
The females have tended to be less active in these pairs, and the one female is still less active, but still moving. There is hope...

Sorry to hear about the lost female Kathy.  I got an ORA "pair" that were both males too btw.

really? that makes two, and they charge more for pairs.  I had to order 2 females and paid for them as well. Not the pair price, however. bummer.

The next day the male of that pair was dead.  That tank is, officially, the tank of death, and is now offline, waiting to be bleached.
 
The other pair, on the same system and in the same tank with the remaining orange spot filefish, formerly known as Thin Female, and are doing well.  In fact, the female Synchiropus of that pair was feeding today, while I watched, for the first time since the move.  She might have eaten since the move, but I did not see her do so until today.  She started out a little bigger than the male, so perhaps it is just as well.  The male ate like crazy the whole time, and was very active the whole time, whereas the female was very sedate and I didn't see her eat, or attempt to eat anything.  Frankly, I was very worried. Not so much today.  She looks fine, and it seems all the fish are getting along well. I am not sure, but I think the male and female are the same size now.
 

i lost the female last week.  She stopped eating, got thinner, acted crazy, then stopped moving altogether.  Male is in mourning, but he is eating again.  I'll look for a mate for him.

Kathy, if the tank of death is part of a system, how could bleaching it do any good?  That is so strange.  Maybe it is jinxed and needs to be sold to some unsuspecting person!  Hehe.  Sorry to hear you haven't had much success with these.

It's part of a two tank system.  4 otherwise healthy fish died in it within a relatively short period of time.  I don't know what is wrong with it, it must have been some benthic problem, since the other tank experienced no death.  The one fish that survived in that tank was a neon goby leftover from a batch of breeders.  Large and robust, that fish tended to stay at the top or the sides of the tank.  I sold the goby, took the tank off line, and bleached the living daylights out of it, literally.  I am a bit afraid to resume its use, but I do believe in bleach. After I thoroughly dechlorinate it, I'll put a cullable fish in it to test before I put the dottyback pair in it.

Yeah, good idea.  For the cost of a tank though...

yeah, for the cost of dragging the spare tank out of the crawl space,...