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Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Monday, April 22, 2013 8:33 AM
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Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system General Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback) Social Structure: Male/female pair Size of Individuals: Female ~2 inches, male ~3 inches Age of Individuals: Unknown Date added to Tank: 3/8/2013 Broodstock Tank Details Size of Tank: 20g High on a 200g+ system Substrate Details: None Filtration Details: Skimmer, bioballs, live rock Water Changes: 5-10% every two weeks Water Temperature: 80F Lighting: LED light puck Lighting Cycle: 6AM to 8PM Other Tank Inhabitants: A little crab, species unknown, a couple hermit crabs Broodstock Feeding Details Food Types: Frozen foods including krill, squid, mysis; live blackworms (the female will not eat them) Feeding Schedule: 2-5x per day Spawning Details Date of First Spawn: 4/21/2013 Spawn Time of Day: ~6PM Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 5/1/2013: Eaten? 5/7/2013: Spawned before 6PM, egg ball removed immediately for artificial incubation since the tank has copper in it. ~50 larvae hatched 5/12/2013: Spawned between 5 and 7 PM, egg mass broke apart before hatch 5/20/2013: Not collected 5/26/2013: Egg ball taken ~12 hours post spawn, sterilized and tumbled 7/15/2013: Egg ball immediately taken and tumbled in inverted 2L soda bottle 7/22/2013: Egg ball immediately taken and tumbled in inverted 2L soda bottle Courtship Details: None noted, but likely typical dottyback spawning behavior involving the male dancing and attempting to lead the female back to his chosen spawning site. Egg Size: ~1mm Egg Color: Clear/white-ish Egg Count: Not counted Hatch Details Hatch Date: 5/10/2013 from the 5/7/2013 spawn Hatch Time of Day: all day (artificial egg incubation) # Days after Spawn: 3 (hatch is on the 4th night) Larvae Description: ~3mm, transparent, no yolk sac Consecutive Hatch Dates: 7-18-2013 (7-15-2013 Spawn), 10-19-2013,10-25-2013, 11-17-2013 Larval Tank Details Temperature: ~80F Size of Larval Tank: 17 gallon BRT Substrate Details: none Other Tank Decor: airstone Filtration Details: live phyto Lighting: Fluorescent strip light Lighting Cycle: 24/7 Water Changes: ~25% on Day 5 Larval Feeding Details Food Types: Rotifers constantly, nhbbs added starting around day 8 or 9; Apocyclops, Tisbe, and Euterpina copepods added occasionally, enriched bbs added after day 17 Feeding Schedule: constant Metamorphosis/Settlement Date of Settlement Start: 11-24-2013 Days after Hatch: 36 Date of Settlement End: 11-26-2013 Description of Fry: Miniature adults, about a centimeter long, bright purple with a black line by the eye
Grow-Out Tank Details Temperature: 78-80F Size of Grow-Out Tank: 13 gallons on a ~115 gallon system Substrate Details: None Other Tank Decor: Few PVC pipes, yarn mops Filtration Details: Live rock, sponge filters Lighting: Fluorescent strip light Lighting Cycle: 6AM to 9PM Water Changes: Occasional and random Size at Transfer: ~2 cm Age at Transfer: ~ 1 month post settlement (Transferred 12-29-2013) Grow-Out Feeding Details Food Types: Enriched bbs, golden pearls, crushed flake, Spectrum grow pellets, frozen, enriched artemia Feeding Schedule: Two or more times a day Additional Information (No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please) Miscellaneous Information: The male is wild caught, the female is ORA captive bred. The first settlement I got was from the October 19th hatch. The first settled juvenile was seen November 24th and the last larva in the tub was November 26th. I ended up finding three settled when I pulled the sponge filter and heater out. 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.
<message edited by shannpeach on Friday, February 21, 2014 9:57 AM>
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Monday, April 22, 2013 8:38 AM
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Here is a quick picture of the parents. They are actually pretty hard to photograph because the LED light puck above their tank isn't very bright, so then I have to use the flash, which scares them a bit. I don't want to make them too nervous now!  Here is the egg ball in a 1" PVC tube that is about 7" long  I was surprised at how big it looked considering the female just seems so tiny I was a bit surprised with this spawn. The female had been looking a little gravid, but I was thinking it was more due to her starting to eat way more aggressively lately than she had been. I was expecting my neon dottys to spawn this weekend (it seems they had a missed connection instead) so this is a fun surprise. A friend also gave me some Hippocampus comes seahorse fry to try my hand with on Friday, so I may have my hands full in this egg ball hatches!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 8:40 AM
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The egg ball is still there as of this morning (4-25-13)  I am shocked (and pleased!) that he did not eat it so far. Fingers crossed he keeps taking care of it today since they will hopefully hatch tonight. The egg ball seems a bit smaller than it was originally, but not too much smaller. It is hard to really say because I have been trying not to spook him too much with the flashlight. Also, the egg tube has been moved twice since they spawned. The first time, I moved it and propped it up during a water change that I did immediately after the spawn (the tube is long and the first time I looked I didn't see eggs...so I went ahead with the scheduled water change and their tank was due to be cleaned; good thing I checked again!). The second time the male must have knocked it down or something because in the morning it was no longer propped up on top of another PVC section, but had rolled several inches away. Luckily, neither of these tube rearrangements have bothered him much.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 12:39 PM
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In the future be very careful about moving the pipe, it may cause the eggs to be eaten. I never messed with the tanks while eggs were around. If I did the eggs were usually eaten.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:41 PM
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I didn't intentionally or knowingly do it. I didn't think they had spawned when I cleaned the tank, and the second time wasn't anything I did or was involved with. I just wanted to make note of it was all 
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:50 PM
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I know, I was just saying be careful in the future. Once they get on a schedule you'll be able to tell when they will spawn. Mine were on a nice 7 day cycle so I could clean their tank a day, or so after the eggs hatched.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:45 PM
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My male used to be really sensitive, it was like you look at his egg ball through the glass and he would eat it. Now I can actually remove the egg ball to inspect it, and put it back and he won't eat it. That's pretty unusual in my limited experience.
Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, April 25, 2013 11:12 PM
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Of all the problems I've had with my P. tapeinosoma and P. cyanotaneia, the male eating the eggs has not been one of them. I, too, have removed the egg ball to sample a couple under the microscope, and returned it, and even lost track of the number of days, and tried to hatch them in the tumbler one day early once, then returned them to my P. tapeinosoma male, and he continued to properly care for them. Every time the P. cyanotaneia spawn, the female exits the cave prematurely, and drags the egg ball with her, and I have to find it and give it to the male at the entrance to his cave, where he takes it and puts it in the back of the cave where it belongs. I also examine them with a flashlight regularly. None of this has ever phased my males.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Friday, April 26, 2013 9:07 AM
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Well, I have no larvae and no egg ball. I was working late last night so I had put the snagger in yesterday. Either they hatched during the day (a friend didn't flip the snagger "on" until about 6PM), he ate the egg ball on the day of the hatch, or they hatched and the snagger missed them (when I checked at about 10:30 last night the snagger suction cups had slipped and there was an escape route out of the snagger the larvae could have taken). Regardless, no larvae  Hopefully they will spawn again on Sunday.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:17 AM
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Another spawn last night on 5/1/2013, 10 days since the last spawn. I think part of that is due to the larval snagger that was in the tank for a day. The male did not seem to like it at all and hid for a couple days even after it was removed. Egg ball looked to be about the same size as the last one.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Friday, May 3, 2013 9:01 PM
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The egg ball was much smaller as of yesterday, perhaps half the size as it was originally, if not smaller. Hopefully I will still have some eggs by the time the hatch is due!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Saturday, May 4, 2013 7:41 PM
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Eggs are gone
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 8:45 PM
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Another spawn today, which was surprising for two reasons. One, it seems a bit early, and two, there is copper in the tank. Because of the second reason, I actually took the eggs out right away and put it in a flask to artificially incubate (or attempt to, at least). The egg ball:  The flask:  Not sure if the eggs are fertile or not. We shall see!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8:29 PM
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Today I disinfected the eggs since I had not done it yesterday (all I had done was put them in new saltwater). I used 5mL hydrogen peroxide in 1L of water for 15 minutes while keeping the egg ball gently tumbling around. Then I scooped the ball out with a very fine net and put it into fresh saltwater again in the flask. I have the flask sort if protected from light by wrapping it with gray WalMart bags (looks ridiculous but it works. Sort of).
There were a few free floating eggs in the flask but they looked white so I am guessing they aren't any good anyway and I did not scoop them out with the egg ball.
I wonder if I should sterilize the egg ball again tomorrow if it makes it until then?
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Friday, May 10, 2013 8:25 AM
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The egg ball started to really break apart during the night. Yesterday there were definitely more free floating eggs and it was clear that only about 1/3 of the egg ball was developing. During the first night of tumbling, the egg ball had settled in the flask and I wonder if the non-developed eggs are the ones that settled on the bottom and didn't get as much water movement and died. Or, perhaps the male didn't fertilize them to begin with. I didn't check with the microscope when I first pulled them. There was one free floating larva, but it did not seem alive. Considering the way this egg ball is rapidly breaking apart, I don't anticipate getting much out of it. I will clean out the flask today again just in case though.
The female is looking gravid again, so hopefully I will be able to tweak the egg tumbling set-up and getting better results with the next egg ball.
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Friday, May 10, 2013 10:47 PM
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Well, some of the few remaing eggs hatched today/tonight!  See the eyeballs?? And under the scope:  There are probably only twenty or so. I took them and put them in a few gallons of water in a 10 gallon tank, added some T-iso, rotifers, and apocyclops. I don't have much hope, but 15-20 larvae are better than none
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Friday, May 10, 2013 11:16 PM
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Yay! It's a start. Congratulations!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Sunday, May 12, 2013 8:53 PM
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Another spawn already today (5-12-2013). I accidentally caught them in the act, and by the time I went back down and could tell the female was back in her usual tube, the male had eaten the eggs. I think I made him cranky by stealing the eggs last time and then interrupting them this time :/
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Sunday, May 12, 2013 9:26 PM
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Fake out. I found some eggs A small spawn, but I'll take it. I put it in my new tumbler based on fin farm's tumbler. I put the tumbler in a 2L water pitcher with aged new ASW and two drops of methylene blue. I may dilute that out a bit yet tonight, not sure. The tumbler is pretty cool because the eggs just sort of hover in place. I put black electrical tape around the water pitcher to keep the eggs dark and clamped it in to a broodstock tank. Here's a pic of the tumbler:  There are a few larvae alive still from the hatch that just happened on Friday cruising around. I have left the lights on 24/7 over them. They seem so small!
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Pseudochromis fridmani (Orchid Dottyback)
Monday, May 13, 2013 9:29 AM
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Should I be concerned that the time between spawns went from 10 days to 6 days to 5 days? 5 days between spawns seems super short... I mean, its nice to have another chance so soon, but it is also a bit worrisome. Could this be an effect of the copper?
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