Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis aldabraensis (Neon Dottyback)

Down to 2 larvae from 4/11 hatch. One of them looks like he has a moustache, with little whitish fuzz on his lip. Any thoughts out there on what this might be? Maybe columnaris? Would the best course of treatment be antibiotics? What is the recommended dosage for larvae, maybe start at 1/4 dose?
 
He is still eating and appears healthy. I hesitate to treat at all and see if it just gets better on it's own but since there are only 2 still kicking I'd like to take whatever steps seem prudent to keep the little guy alive. I hate to add any antibiotics to my cycled larva tank... I welcome any advice.
 
I'll try and get a photo but he is an active little guy. Hard for me to even eyeball what exactly is going on.

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

I moved the fish with the "cotton mouth" to the tank that I was using to try raising larval peppermint shrimp since most of the shrimp died off on 5/15. I added some API triple sulfa per manufacturers recommendations. I can't tell if it fixed the problem or if it cleared up on it's own, but it looks better now. Need to pull him out into a specimen container for closer observation.
 
On 5/17 I pulled him for observation and it looked like his mouth was still a little cottony. But I also noticed some color on him and a bright blue streak in the light. I had to leave town on 5/18.
 
When I returned on 5/19, he was in full coloration, fully settled!! woohoo! He seems OK and I'll remove him tonight for closer observation and to check his lips again and to snap a photo. They hatched on 4/11, so from 4/11 to 5/19 would make it 38 days to settlement, if my math is correct.
 
I've still got one other larvae from the 4/11 batch without any issues. He is much larger than the one that settled but no sign yet of coloration.
 
There are also roughly 15 of the larvae from the 4/18 batch still kicking in a separate tank
 
edit: for whatever reason in this particular post I had "3/" in here for all the "5/" dates- I've corrected them. March... May.. they're both M's...

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

fully settled "baby #1" pics attached. The other survivor from 4/11 is getting huge but still hasn't settled. And today I noticed about 2 or 3 from the 4/18 hatch are getting the blue stripe that I saw a day or two before this guy settled so I think in a couple more days I'll have some more of these guys (or girls)...

 

Attached Image(s)

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Awesome!

It's definitely awesome! My first ever marine fish baby!

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

I've had 4 settle out from the 4/18 hatch, and they've been transferred to a 10g tank with the one pictured above from 4/11.
 
The remaining single larva from 4/11 (there were only two 4/11 survivors) is still not settled and is huge. It's been 46 days! He's about twice as big as the other sibling from 4/11 that has settled. About 4x as big as any of the 4/18 larvae that has settled. He is all by himself in his 4/11 larva tank. I'm not sure what he's waiting for.
 
Now that I know what to look for during settling- a dark blue streak on the backs of these larvae- I've found that it takes about 4-7 days from the time that the streak appears to transition to full coloration. They also get aggressive towards their tankmates. The larvae are all happy together but once they start to settle they start attacking other tankmates that invade their space. Little buggers.

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

A couple new videos now that all the babies are settled out.
 
The first video is sort of a mixed bag of fish... It has the first fish to settle from the 4/11 hatch, he is pretty large. And it has the first 3 fish to settle from the 4/18 hatch, one is fully colored and the other two are still partially colored. There is also a larva in there from the 4/11 hatch that STILL hasn't settled:
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0DpGmRhi0M
 
The second video is the remaining babies from 4/18. Besides the 3 in the first tank in the video above, there were an additional 11 survivors in this tank. Unfortunately when I was moving some things around I set an airstone on top of one of them and didn't notice until the next day- so now there are 10.
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkP-_x9cgAM
 
The fish from the 4/11 hatch are a little "off". Around mid 20 days-post-hatch everything was fine and I had a solid 10-12 larva. Then over the course of a week or so I'd lose a fish or two a day. I suspected some sort of disease. Then the first larva to settle had the cottonmouth issue that I mentioned before. He still hasn't really fully recovered. He has a white speck under his chin where the gill meets up, and the gill that it's on really flares up when he breathes. I've treated with QuickCure for a week and triple sulfa for a full course (4 days of treatment) but no change. I'm going to try some copper this week.
 
The other fish from that hatch is the larva that still hasnt settled (50 days!). His stomach is getting really thin and I watched him a long time today and he didn't eat anything. I think he is on the way out, and because he is having trouble eating he's not getting the nourishment that he needs to transition.
 
When the first couple fish settled out from the 4/18 batch I put them in with the 4/11 fish, but then realized this was prob a bad idea if there is some sort of disease with the 4/11's. Fortunately, most of the remaining 4/18 fish settled out about the same time, so I moved the eleven (now ten) 4/18 fish from their 10g to new 20g long tank half filled.
 
I'm sorry these videos come out so lousy. I have a "pre-digital" camera, and the video looks great until I transfer it to digital and then it gets kind of blurry, and then I have to upload to youtube and it loses a little something there as well...

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

I have a pair of Neon dottyback, as last day the female was seen at the top of aquarium while had torn fins. please could you tell me how long takes to be spawned after mating? I am feeding by enriched food using AminoOmega plus Shrimp and squids.Temperature and salinity are 27 C and 10021 respectively.
Looking forward to hear you
Thanks

 
This might be a better question for the forum than the journal. I'm not really sure what you mean- are you asking how long it takes to spawn after they are paired?
 
My female spends most of her time at the top of the aquarium. It's a good idea to put some PVC tubes up there for her to hide in. Ragged fins can mean that spawning is eminent, or it can just be a sign that they're not currently getting along. When I first put mine together the female was constantly harassed for about the first three weeks and then they started to settle down.

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Thanks for you information,
but I added 4 neon dottybacks 17 days ago, as they been well together but now It seen that a big male harass the two fish that stay at the top. last day her fins torn. it appears they have been pared?
 

Dottybacks in general don't get along too well in the same tank. I would recommend picking two fish and just keeping that pair in the tank. Even that pair probably won't get along too well but they will have less distractions.
 
I would recommend the dottyback breeding forum here on MBI for your questions: http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tt.aspx?forumid=128
There will probably be a larger pool of people checking that who can assist with your questions.
 
 

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Dear Joel
Thanks, I am a PhD student. Can I contact you as private message for more information concerning the neon dottyback? the behariour of this species is strange. Please help me. I am interesting in getting egg from them surely.
thanks
 

Could you kindly tell me what is the sign of two neon dottyback being paired ?

You can contact me via PM but you really would have the biggest group of people available to answer your questions (myself included) in the dottyback breeding forum that I referenced. People with much more experience than myself.
 
This thread is a journal, with details related specifically to my personal spawning experience/observations/etc with the pair of neon dottybacks referenced here. It's not really meant for general inquiry regarding neon dottybacks. 

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Well, my male's aggression finally took it's toll. He has been overly aggressive lately, not sure what triggered it. The female seemed to be tolerating it as usual but I think the length of it was longer than usual and ended up being too much for her. One morning I noticed her hiding behind the standpipe, where she never hid. Later that day she was being pulled into the strainer of the standpipe. I removed her, she was sluggish and stopped eating, and about three days later had perished. In the future I will need to keep a better eye on the dottybacks.
 
The babies are doing OK and have adjusted to a flake based diet. Some of them had more trouble adjusting than others and perished. Their bellies would get skinny and I would feed more BBS (every 3-4 days) and they would fill up again, so there was nothing wrong with their ability to eat. But they would refuse most anything else, including flake. At some point I made the decision to stop with the BBS and feed only flake and I lost a couple. I've lost a couple more to what I believe to be aggression, and there are one or two more currently with tattered fins that may be on their way out.
 
In total now there are seven left, in a 20g long tank. It's amazing that fish so small can be so incredibly aggressive to their tankmates.

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Ok, for the rest of your baby fish you can put them in a herbal aquarium for example Refugium to having a place to hide.
 

in refugium conditioning with chaetomorpha algae you can grow amphipoda , artemia and so on as live food for your baby
 

I've been mostly absent lately, opening an aquarium shop in VT.
 
I checked today, I've finally hit my post-60-day mark, by a couple weeks. I had four remaining until today- one died last night- now there are three. They have been a bit neglected I have to admit, and I haven't had a heater on the tank and it's been hovering between 70 and 72 degrees so I think that's slowed their growth. I can definitively identify the fish that settled first by the fact that he still has that growth on his mouth. I'm not sure what it is, I've tried everything to get rid of, it is apparently causing him discomfort- the gill on that side flares out more than the other, and he is always looking to be the skinniest of the bunch- but he continues on.

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

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"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr

Attached Image(s)

"If everything is going good, you've obviously overlooked something."- Martin Moe, Jr