Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish)

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shannpeach
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Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 1:29 PM
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:  Syngnathus scovelli
Social Structure:  Group (two known males, two unknowns)
Size of Individuals:  ~5-6"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown, wild caught
Date added to Tank:  9-7-2013

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: 20 gallon "long"   
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Sponge filter
Water Changes:  Daily currently, sometimes 2x a day
Water Temperature:  78 F
Lighting:  Clamp-on CFL currently, may change it to a fluorescent bulb when I get some time to tinker
Lighting Cycle:  6 AM to 9 PM 
Other Tank Inhabitants: 

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  newly hatched artemia, enriched live artemia, Hikari Mysis, Ova, Rod's Pacific plankton   
Feeding Schedule:  Usually twice daily, some days more often

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Unknown, before purchase, estimate it to be 8-24-2013
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown currently
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  12-29-2013
Courtship Details:  None noted
Egg Size:  ~1.5mm, seem to get larger as they develop
Egg Color:  Orange-ish clear
Egg Count:  ~20

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  9-7-2013 after lights out (from spawn before purchase)
Hatch Time of Day:  After lights out
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description:   Miniature adults, roughly 15mm/1.5cm
Consecutive Hatch Dates:  9-13-2013


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80F
Size of Larval Tank:  standard 10 gallon glass aquarium 
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Two sponge filters, yarn mops, zip-tie hitching post, macroalgae 
Filtration Details:  Sponge filters  
Lighting:  Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle:  6 AM to 9 PM
Water Changes:  10% here and there  

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  mainly nhbbs, although Apocyclops and rotifers have been added on occasion  
Feeding Schedule:  Constant

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  9-7-2013
Days after Hatch:  0
Date of Settlement End:  9-7-2013
Description of Fry:  Fry are "settled" as they hatch since they hatch out as miniature adults

Grow-Out Tank Details

Temperature:  Same as "larval tank"
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  Same as "larval tank"
Substrate Details:  Same as "larval tank"
Other Tank Decor:  Same as "larval tank"
Filtration Details:  Same as "larval tank"
Lighting:  Same as "larval tank"
Lighting Cycle:  Same as "larval tank"
Water Changes:  Same as "larval tank"
Size at Transfer:  Not transfered
Age at Transfer:  Not transfered

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  nhbbs, enriched artemia, sub-adult and adult artemia after about 6 weeks
Feeding Schedule:  2+ times a day

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 
Despite eating Hikari mysis for quite some time, I did not get any spawns until I started also feeding Rod's Pacific Plankton, and then shortly after that I got my first spawn.  Now, I can't say that is the cause of them finally spawning, but I do wonder if the slightly "meatier" food gave them that last little boost.  I would imagine PE mysis would have the same effect.  


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<message edited by shannpeach on Thursday, January 16, 2014 8:20 AM>

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 2:49 PM
Work for ID'ing these pipes is in this thread:
http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=86332
There are photos in that thread, but I will also post a few here:



All four:

 
The morning after I bought these guys I woke up to find 19 fry cruising around the bottom of the tank.  The adults had absolutely no interest in them (at least at the time).  I collected them with a baster and put them in a 1 gallon fishbowl with Apocyclops panamensis and some rots (they are co-culturing in the container I took them from) since I had no bbs ready.  It took several rounds of checking on the tank to find all of them because I kept finding more when I would check 15-30 minutes after checking last.  They were sort of hard to spot and there was also black dog hair in the tank which made it even more difficult lol



They seem to be about 15mm/1.5cm at hatch.
 
On day 2 I gave them nhbbs in the morning.  For the most part they stay on the bottom of the fish bowl, or cruise up one of the sides and hang out there where the food swirls.  I am thinking about moving them to a tank/container with more "floor" space but I am not sure if I have a container that will work handy right now.  Day 3 (today) they got nearly a 100% water change  and then some apocyclops to hopefully hold them over until I have some more nhbbs for them this evening.

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, September 13, 2013 8:46 AM
I have finally gotten slightly better pictures.  I am now relatively convinced that I have two males, and at least one female, and the other hides a lot and I haven't gotten a very good look at it.
 
Female (I think. I hope!):

 
This is the best pic of the male that already released the fry the first night I had him.  He is very active and constantly cruising around so it's hard to get pics of him.  This is the best shot I could get of his empty pouch area:

This male is still cruising around with eggs.  I got a closer peek at them last night and to my untrained eye they look nearly ready to hatch...

 
And then some baby pics!


In the second picture you can see bbs in its gut, so I am confident at least one of them is eating I moved them a couple days ago into a 1 gallon tupperware container that has more surface area and more bottom space than the 1 gallon fish bowl.  I tossed in a piece of rigid airline tubing that has zip ties on it and they seem to like that just fine so far.
 

JimWelsh
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, September 13, 2013 10:32 AM
Nice!

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Sunday, September 15, 2013 10:40 AM
The second male release the fry last night. This morning I collected 27 (or perhaps 28, I will try to recount later). I decided to combine both broods to make maintenance easier. There are 17 from the first hatch still and most are between 2.5-3 centimeters already

They are in a 10 gallon tank with about 3 gallons of water now with a heater (lesson learned from the clownfish!) and a small sponge filter. I will add some "hitching" things later today.

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, November 15, 2013 8:46 AM
The babies are all at 60DPS+ and I will get some pictures of them this weekend.  It is crazy how big of a size difference there is between them.  Some are several inches long and some are only like an inch.  They can take surprisingly large brine shrimp (adult ones even, with a bit of "chewing") but mostly get nhbbs or enriched bbs since that is typically what I have available (I don't have a lot of space for growing out brine shrimp more than a few days).  I've started offering some dead brine shrimp but they don't have a ton of interest in that yet.  Mostly just seem a little confused.
 
The adults are FINALLY eating Hikari mysis.  The females are the more aggressive eaters and really chase it down now, and will even grab it off the bottom of the tank.  They get a special treat of nutramar occasionally and enjoy that as well.  They also get live artemia (hatched or adult enriched) as I have it available/left over.  The females are getting nice and plump, so perhaps I will have another spawn soon.  

JimWelsh
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, November 15, 2013 12:04 PM
Very nice.  Congratulations!  Picture time now.

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Sunday, November 17, 2013 1:45 PM
Pulled a few out from their macro algae hidey holes. These are over 60DPS
Some are very dark, nearly black and some are much lighter.





This is one of my favorites:



shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 10:12 AM
As of yesterday, several of the juvenile pipes started to take frozen, spirulina enriched artemia.  They aren't going after it with gusto yet, but it's a good start!

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Monday, December 30, 2013 10:09 AM
Well, the juveniles have been chowing down on the spirulina enriched artemia and eat it great.  Soon I hope to move them onto Hikari mysis.  Now that they are eating well and growing larger, I will probably move them out of their current tank and into the growout system.  
 
Yesterday, I noticed that one of the adult males was holding eggs!  I got the best picture I could at the time, but they really aren't that great.  I will try to get some better ones in the next couple days.

 
Now I have finally rounded out this species!
 

shannpeach
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, January 3, 2014 10:15 AM
A slightly better pic:

 
The eggs (or at least some of them) started to look a bit darker yesterday.

dave w
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Re: Breeding Journal, Species: Syngnathus scovelli (Gulf Pipefish) - Friday, February 28, 2014 6:07 AM
Congratulations on getting them this far.