Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis tapeinosoma Pair #2

General
Species:  Pseudochromis tapeinosoma
Social Structure:  Male / Female pair
Size of Individuals:  Appx. 2"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  12/28/2011

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  210 Gallons
Substrate Details:  Live aragonite sand
Filtration Details:  Protien skimmer, RDSB, UV, lots of Live Rock
Water Changes:  Not frequent enough
Water Temperature:  78-81 F
Lighting:  4 x 39W T5 Actinics, 3 x 250W MH
Lighting Cycle:  Actinics on appx. 8:00 AM off appx. 10:00 PM.  MH on 10:00 AM off 4:00 PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Many other fish and inverts.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Various frozen foods
Feeding Schedule:  2-3 times a day

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
Food Types: 
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
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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.

I picked up a 2nd pair of these "Black Margin Dottybacks" (although I see no black margin), or as I like to call them, the "Klingon Dottybacks" from Diver's Den last week.  Since I already have one pair of them in a very sterile breeding setup, I thought I'd risk putting them into the 210 that has a lot of live rock arranged to provide many many caves and hiding places.  I also added two pvc cave arrangements, each made up of seven lengths of 3/4" PVC appx. 6-7 inches long, and cable tied together, that I suspended from the returns in the back upper corners of the tank, much like what can be seen on page 181 of Witt's book.
 
This pair that LiveAquaria put together has a female that is a little bit larger than the male.  Of course, she is putting her size advantage to good use to bully and intimidate the male.  They first went into the tank on Wednesday (it's Friday now).  He spent all that afternoon and evening hiding in a little forest of sponge in the back left corner, and she spent all that afternoon and evening hiding in a nearby cave in the rockwork.  At one point, she did find him, and chased him out of his sponge forest, and he found a nearby rock to hide under, at which point she went back to hiding in her cave.
 
The next morning (yesterday), he was nowhere to be found, and she had taken over his sponge forest.  I feared the worst, but a few hours later, I noticed her patrolling another rock in the center of the tank, and lo and behold, he was there, being chased around and around that rock by her.  I didn't see him any more yesterday, but I did see her patrolling back and forth, low in the tank, along the rockwork, with her range covering the majority of the middle of the tank.
 
This morning, he was out in the open on the far right-hand side of the tank.  She was following and harassing him, and he was getting chased up high into the water column, but even though he kept going near one of the PVC cave setups, he never did enter it.  I fed the tank, and I'm pretty sure he got a good meal, and then he disappeared.  After that, he was nowhere to be seen, but she was back to her "patrolling".  About an hour ago, I sat and watched the tank for a while, and after a few minutes, he did make an appearance, but she immediately started harassing him, and he cowered under a rock, and managed to lose her.  She continued to look frantically for him, and he continued to hide, peeking out from his cave, afraid to come out.
 
I have seen absolutely NO aggression by him towards her.  She is the clear, hands-down aggressor.
 
I think that he basically just comes out when he is hungry, and otherwise, is too intimidated to do anything.  His fins look OK so far; he isn't really being beaten up physically (yet), but he is clearly stressed.  Based on what I've seen written by both Matts about these fish, I suspect that I may get to watch a two-way sex reversal happen here in the next month or so!  As long as she doesn't kill him, then it should be very interesting to watch.

OK, I've had a chance to watch them some more today.  She is kicking his butt from one end of the tank to the other.  He has been frantically hugging the overflow seams, and also trying to hide by the base of the powerheads up near the top of the tank.  He has not yet taken refuge in the PVC caves I built.  His dorsal fin is now looking ragged.
 
As he was taking refuge by the base of a powerhead, I moved two algae magnets arranged parallel with each other and horizontally over where he was, with a dottyback-sized space between them.  He has found that "cave", and has been hiding in it for the last couple of hours, and has managed to calm down somewhat.  She hasn't found him yet.
 
I could probably easily net him out of the 210 at this point, and maybe put him in with the seahorses, but the whole point of my having these fish is to try to breed them.  I'll never be able to get the female out of the 210 without taking all of the live rock out of it!  At this point, I'm going to keep trying to give the smaller male (I did manage to measure him, now that he's cowering next to the glass, and he is about 1 3/4" long, whereas the female is more like 2") some kind of "safe haven", and see how this pans out......
 

Sounds like my P. tonozukai. They spawned a few times when I first got them then I had to separate them. Male ended up killing the female. These might be the type that you can only put together when the female is ready to spawn them separate them again.

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

He spent all night and most of this morning cowering in his algae magnet cave.  I took mercy on him, and have moved him into the seahorse tank.  Maybe I'll get a breeder basket for him, and try putting him back in the 210 inside the basket at some point in the future, but for now, I'm going to give him a break and let him recuperate.
 
Looks like the breeding of this pair has suffered a setback!  But, at least I still have two live fish.

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