Breeding Journal, Species: [Synchiropus Splendidus (Var) Red Mandarin]

General
Species:  Synchiropus Spendidus  (Var) Red Mandarin
Social Structure:  Pair
Size of Individuals:  Male @ 3"   Female 2.5"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown
Date added to Tank:  Approx May 2012

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:   W 16" x D 12" x H 18"   56.63 liters   12.46 UK Gallons    14.96 US Gallons
Substrate Details:  Live rock
Filtration Details:   Live rock Skimmer
Water Changes:  10% Weekly
Water Temperature:  25 C
Lighting:  24 W T5s
Lighting Cycle:  12 Hours
Other Tank Inhabitants:  XXL Turbo Snail

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Frozen and live mix
Feeding Schedule:  3-4 times a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:   Regularly since around July 2012
Spawn Time of Day:   9 pm
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  pretty much nightly, I do not collect every spawn but the ones I have collected 22-2-13. 23-2-13. 25-2-13. 7-3-13. 9-3-13. 16-3-13. 3/19/2013. 27-3-13. 28-3-13. 1-4-13. 3-4-13
Courtship Details:  Displaying from male, dancing, followed by a slow rise to the surface where the spawn takes place rapidly, the fish then retire to sleeping places
Egg Size:  very small, less than 1mm
Egg Color:  clear
Egg Count:  uncounted but estimate 50-200 maybe more

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  23-2-13.
Hatch Time of Day:  They hatch sometime in the 12-14 hours after the spawn
# Days after Spawn:  less than 1
Larvae Description:    resemble an egg with a tail, they develop from pro larvae to larvae over a 4 day period
Consecutive Hatch Dates:      24-2-13. 26-2-13. 8-3-13. 10-3-13. 17-3-13. 3/20/13. 28-3-13. 29-3-13. 2-4-13. 4-4-13


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  26c
Size of Larval Tank:  2 liter food safe containers
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  air only at 1 BPS
Lighting:  small LED
Lighting Cycle:  LED lit 24/7
Water Changes:  20%-50%

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  S strain rotifers and now trialing dry feed
Feeding Schedule:  daily addition and subtraction of rotifers

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.

Pair in holding tank

Female hydrated

Spawning rise (I will get videos)

 
 

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Reds spawned again around 9 pm last night.
 
15 hours after spawn.
 

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These guys are spawning every night now between 9pm and 10pm

I was kindly sent some S Strain rotifers by a fellow breeder and so by way of experiment I placed a few of the 4 day olds in a liter container. 24 hours later and they still appear to be striking at the rotifers. I had another spawn last night so hopefully I can now have a go at rearing some.

The pair continue to spawn nightly, I lost the 5 larvae I was experimenting with but have been collecting eggs every evening. I have been adding S Strain rots at 3 days.

4 day old.
 

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Very cool!

-Adam

How are you collecting the eggs?

- David Gibson
Denton, TX

Sweet...keep up the great work!

Thank you all.
Gramalkin, I collect the eggs two ways, I use a beaker to remove them from the aquarium surface. I also have a makeshift collector, basically two food trays that stack together, I have cut matching holes in them and sandwiched some 300 um mesh between them. I then place this under the drain to the sump.

I guess this is good a place as any to introduce myself to fellow dragonet breeders. My name is Joe and I wanted to say congrats on the good work and good luck with your pair and all their future eggs and fry.

I'm currently working with a red male/standard female pair myself but my male is making the slow recovery from the starvation conditions in the lfs. The female is in love with him though and hydrates several times a month but he's not quite in good enough shape just yet.

I'm looking forward to becoming an active member here and hopefully successfully raising my own dragonets, as well as contributing my own experience and whatever other help I can.


Joe

Thanks Joe, good luck to you too.

The larvae seem to be eating the S Strain rots I see them striking, but I am worried about how dense the rots get in the bowl. I changed 20% of the water yesterday without any noticeable losses so today I took a gamble and changed 50% as the bowl looked like rotifer soup.
I will need to invest in a decent microscope as I am unable to tell from the pictures I get if they have rots in their stomach, but I have to assume that a little over 6 DPH they are eating. The eyes and mouth have definitely  changed.

6 DPH

Attached Image(s)

Good picture. Can you just strain out excess rotifers if you are worried about the negative effects of a water change?

What is your enrichment/feeding schedule?

I'm debating just raising my first batch in the rotifer culture with RotiGreen as an experiment. I figure it will keep the rots constantly enriched and will provide the cloudy water required for prey identification.

Joe

Hi Waldend, I do not think just removing the rotifers from the water would improve the quality of the water ? So far they seem to have escaped unscathed but I am not so sure large changes are a good idea. I will have to see how it pans out.

Hi Joe, I am using Rotigrow complete and Rotigrow plus I also have been using a blend of 5 algae that I usually use for my pods. It is my first time using the Rotigrow products so I have not enough experience with them to comment, except to say that the culture I was sent has done great. Maybe to well.

Are you raising your larvae in the rotifer culture itself or are you feeding the fry from the culture? I can see how raising them in the culture isn't a smart idea for those on here rearing several different batches, possibly from several different species, but for a smal scale project like this, I see no issue.

Other than possibly ammonia.

The reason I ask is that to feed from the culture would require extensive purging of leftover rotifers from the rearing tanks to avoid the larvae eating nutritionally poor prey. I can't imagine a safe way to do this with the larvae in there.

I feed rotifers from the culture to the rearing bowl, I am feeding rotigrow complete to the culture to maintain it and shortly before I am going to feed the larvae I feed the ritigrow plus to "hopefully" gut load the rots. I sometimes use the algae blend I have for pods.
To remove the rots I can just use some air line tube and siphon through a 53um sieve, but I am not convinced that alone is enough to keep water quality high.
So I have been siphoning water from the rearing bowl into a tub that I can see if any larvae have been sucked up. So far I have managed to avoid doing so. I then make up the water with new salt water.
My raising technique will doubtless need some modification as this is my first time attempting to rear them. My only other experience was with a couple of clown batches some years ago.
I have probably jumped in at the deep end choosing pelagic spawning difficult fish, but I do like the challenge. And as far as I know it would be a UK first to get them to settlement.
 

I would agree with you that removing rotifers does nothing to address water quality. I was asking about straining simply to reduce rotifer counts. When you do your water changes I would recommend dripping the new water in if you are not currently. That's how I did my water changes on larvae.

I lost the batches some time between 2am and 10am today. Other than the water changes the only thing I did differently was tint the water in the bowl yesterday with the 5 algae blend. The larvae were active last night more than 10 hours after the water change so I will not be using the algae blend directly in the bowl from now on.
I have another couple of batches that will soon be ready to start feeding hopefully I will get them further.

Sorry to hear.

Any updates?

Yes, any updates?  I have been following this closely. I can relate to the lfs starvation, I see it continually. Gett'em in gett'em out.     Buyers beware !
 
Can you put some of your batches in a dedicated  gallon tank with air stone and drip ?  A live rock, and assortment of pods?  That's actually my idea of conditions for parents too, just more of it. I wish you all the best, you too Joe.

Jake
We are all in this together