Breeding Journal, Species: Halichoeres chrysus

General
Species:  Halichoeres chrysus
Social Structure:  pair in community tank
Size of Individuals:  3.5"
Age of Individuals:  2+ years
Date added to Tank:  february 2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  120
Substrate Details:  2-3" aragonite sugar size sand
Filtration Details:  liverock, coral, sand, filter sock, Coralvue Reef Octopus 6 skimmer
Water Changes:  15% 2-3 times a month (goal being weekly, procrastination ensues)
Water Temperature:  77-79
Lighting:  T5HO (6 bulbs in Hydrofarm fixture, mainly ATI)
Lighting Cycle:  12 hours on/off
Other Tank Inhabitants:  1 male melanurus wrasse, 1 hepatus/blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 royal gramma, 1 Randall's anthias, 2 Chromis atripectoralis probably males, pair Darwin black ocellaris, 2 juvenile flame angels, 1 snail, few hermits, 2 fire shrimp

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Hikari Mysis, SF Bay Plankton, SF Bay krill, top dressed and regular otohime, baby brine shrimp, rotifers and cultured pods, occasional other varieties of frozen food I'm trying out or DIY food especially during vacations
Feeding Schedule:  frozen before noon and after 7pm, pellets mid day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  first noticed last spring, have photos from April 2011, believe that was within a month of the first spawn I noticed
Spawn Time of Day:  mid day
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details:  female develops noticeable bulge at vent, male becomes agitated and swims with pelvic fins and first rays of dorsal held vertically, his tail compressed to a point. He swims this way sometimes for an hour or more (often even on days she is not ready). Actual spawn occurs after she willingly swims just below and in front of him to an upper corner. Movements very fast overall.
Egg Size:  about 1mm
Egg Color:  clear
Egg Count: 12-200 counted in past spawns

Hatch Details
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# Days after Spawn: 
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Larval Tank Details
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Larval Feeding Details
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Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
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Grow-Out Feeding Details
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Additional Information
 
Miscellaneous Information: 

Probably should have more females so the male is not stressing out his mate, as she does not come into condition with any regularity, and he chases her regardless, but he does not strictly maintain the fin posture on days they don't spawn. Had a pair of melanurus wrasses spawning in this tank til about a month ago when the female began her sex change, have not seen her in quite some time and assume the worst. Egg count is the number I am able to retrieve and verify are eggs in a petri dish, am assuming most of the spawn is quickly eaten by tankmates as they seem to hover waiting for them, especially the gramma and anthias. Eggs are recovered by turning off the Koralia pumps and allowing the overflow at center back to take them to the sump where I have a nylon chiffon DIY filter sock for the eggs. Most eggs are physically damaged or otherwise infertile with this method. Last batch of eggs were from the melanurus pair and I was able to find only 12 that were definitely fertile looking, which did hatch and the larvae lived for a few days. Will attempt to collect and document this now that I can add wrasses to the MBI database.
 
 

This photo is a bit old, from last spring. They caught me unprepared when they spawned today, I had guests over. I had not seen the female for a few days and thought the worst, so was totally surprised to see her not only well but ready to spawn. This pair did spawn fairly regularly last spring so am assuming I can get some photos of the next event. There was a pair of melanurus wrasses in their tank as well, they spawned less often in the evening just before or after lights out. I have collected eggs from the tank but I can't state 100% that I am sure which pair the eggs were coming from, though I never saw both species with the female ready on the same day so was pretty sure whose eggs they were. Did keep the eggs a few times, they generally fungus quickly but if a few choice ones are selected I can hatch a few. The pelagic larvae are of course completely impossible to do more with than watch, but I can work on egg collection, sorting, incubation and larval housing while hoping someone comes up with a food I can culture. I did build an air driven kreisel for the larvae, but it is not up right now as we just got back from Mexico and are having a contractor rewire the fishroom this week. I will try and get better pix, more info for you all when things settle down. At least I started the thread finally.
 

 
couple photos before the actual event
 

 

Cool!  Do you plan to try to raise them?

This is a beautiful species in my opinion. Hope you make progress with them !

Anderson.

I checked after 23 hours and found 37 clear and bouyant eggs, 45 cloudy ones and 9 broken. Learned from prior batches to throw away anything not clear and bouyant, probably should just dump the lot in a tall glass and let it settle, use a turkey baster to draw off only the floaters. Probably were a lot more broken ones initially, but 23 hours is too long to leave them before sorting.
 
Did not plan on working on hatching this bunch as we have guys wiring the house this week, fishroom is half torn up, and anyhow I have almost nothing to feed the larvae, we were out of town and my cultures crashed. I will try a later batch, some pods I am culturing as a food. 
 
I am thinking anyone doing centropyge angels should give these a shot, assuming these breeders have tiny first foods on hand and experience with pelagic eggs, but I know some have tried other genus of wrasses without luck. At least H chrysus is easy to keep and pair up, they are not mean or space intensive. They do eat shrimp and small brittle stars though. Probably eat the nests of benthic spawners as well.

gorgeous fish.  good luck!

I have to take back one thing I said, these fish are not always good peaceful tankmates. The male H melanurus has turned aggressive against the other wrasses and possibly all other fish, looks like all tankmates are avoiding him. I am going to attempt to remove him and let the female that underwent gender change, which is apparently hiding, continue her process. An LFS got a couple more H chrysus and H melanurus females for me a couple weeks ago so am going to quarantine then add them. Wish me luck catching this wily fish, the alternative being I could drastically alter the tank decor, add a few fish and take a few out, and add the new females and hope his disposition improves... not sure the outcome of that would be good. I think having a harem is the way to go, the fish got along fine that way, and having multiple females means no one female is pushed too hard. Until he lost his mate this male was a peaceful resident of the tank.

Great,Kate!
Do chrysus show any sexual dimorphism?.They grow much larger?.
You could collect the eggs on a large piece of screen,this reduces collecting trauma.