Breeding Journal, Species: Corythoichthys intestinalis (Indonesian)

General
Species:  Corythoichthys intestinalis (Indonesian) AKA Dragonface Pipefish
Social Structure:  Group with males and females, peaceful
Size of Individuals:  about2-3 inches in length 
Age of Individuals:  unknown
Date added to Tank:  4/5/2013   

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  10 gallon
Substrate Details:  sand, 1/2 inch deep
Filtration Details:  sponge filter  
Water Changes:  10% weekly
Water Temperature:  75F
Lighting:  moderate, fluorescent
Lighting Cycle:  14 day, 10 night
Other Tank Inhabitants:  none

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  live copepods to start, and I'll try to wean them to frozen cyclops or other frozen foods
Feeding Schedule:  continuous copepods, then twice a day frozen

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  unknown
Spawn Time of Day:  unknown
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  unknnown
Courtship Details:  unknown
Egg Size:  unknown
Egg Color:  unknown
Egg Count:  unknown, at least 30

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  1/30/14 for Crooktail
Hatch Time of Day:  before noon
# Days after Spawn:  unknown
Larvae Description: Tiny transparent 1/2 inch threads with heads and prominent eyes.  Nearly invisible without a good light.                             
Consecutive Hatch Dates:    unknown 


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  75F
Size of Larval Tank:  2 gallon plastic fishbowl in a 15 gallon glass tank water bath
Substrate Details:  bare
Other Tank Decor:  rigid airline at 3 o'clock position to create kreisel water movement
Filtration Details:  none , except naturally occuring bacteria
Lighting:  ambient LED
Lighting Cycle:  brighter during daylight, but still lit from neighboring larval tanks overnight until about the second week
Water Changes:  about 10 % every other day, with siphoning of the bottom crud.  If I didn't have rotifers in there, I might not need to do so much cleanup.
Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  to begin: 1/2 gallon of my best Parvocalanus culture filtered, live isochrysis: 250 ml of a dark coffee culture. 2 days later, another half gallon of a different jar of pods, this one containing Parvocalanus and Apocyclops panamensis, filtered and added. Later, rotifers appeared, probably from the store the pipes  came from, and what we think is Euterpina acufrons, a harpacticoid that thrives in live phytoplankton.  It seems to have been contaminating my Parvo cultures.
Feeding Schedule:  none. pods and phyto added as needed.  

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  2/11/2014
Days after Hatch:  12
Date of Settlement End:  2/22/2014
Description of Fry:  At the settlement start date, they looked to be twice as long as they were when they hatched, but still very thin and threadlike.  There is some pigmentation, with a pattern of reflective spots. Settlement is noticed when they have color, and appear to feed off of the bottom and sides of the tank. the one survivor appears to be 3-4 times as long as the day he was born.  His body is more filled out and I can find him and see him without a strong flashlight.

Grow-Out Tank Details plan
Temperature:  75F
Size of Grow-Out Tank:  10 gallons
Substrate Details:  sand, 1/2 inch
Other Tank Decor:  maybe a plastic plant
Filtration Details:  either sponge filter or a power filter.  Power may be best as it can function as a refugium for pods.
Lighting:  ambient
Lighting Cycle:  14 day, 10 night
Water Changes:  10% weekly
Size at Transfer:  3 inches?
Age at Transfer:  probably 30 days or so, or whenever I can get the tank ready and the fish acclimated.

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  live copepods, and perhaps NHBBS until I can wean to frozen foods
Feeding Schedule:  continuous until weaned, then twice a day with frozen or if eating pellets, 4 times a day

Additional Information
  These babies were found in the shipping bag when the pipefish arrived at a LFS. Crooktail survived 6.5 weeks. Now that I have brood stock, if they will spawn….   
I can try again(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 

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 1/30/14
Wow, what an exciting day in the fish room. 
I got a call this afternoon from my LFS that they had some pipefish delivered and there were a lot of fry in the shipping bag.  They wanted to let me have some!
I fought the rush hour traffic to make it to the LFS before they closed.  They had drip acclimated them to clean up their shipping water and warm them up.  They also added some rotifers.  
I got them home, only to find half the basement dark and quiet....Unemployed husband said that there was a power flicker earlier in the day. The GFCI circuit breaker had tripped over the larval tanks and one of the broodstock systems.  Temperatures were down to 69-70F.  Nobody seemed dead, though , so I got the juice flowing again, and made sure the heaters were still working.  I got a tank ready as a waterbath with heater , for a 2 gallon plastic fishbowl kreisel, airline, water, etc.  Added 250 ml of my coffee colored iso, and filtered the culture water out of half a gallon of my best parvo culture, adding the pods to the kreisel. I gently transferred the tiny pipes into the kreisel using a cut off plastic transfer pipet in order to transfer as few rotifers as possible.  There were 10 pipes in the bag. These pipes are so tiny and transparent.  Love their tiny heads! 
While doing all this, I re-read Jim Welsh's journal thread on the bluestripes.  Very helpful. So glad he's done them and has documented them so well.  I also emailed him and he replied promptly with helpful advice.

Now we wait and see. Or not see. (Aside: I've got a batch of neon gobies that i put into a glass tank as opposed to the BRT, because I wanted to see them. Still can't see them without a strong light, and I now think it was better in the BRT.  When I do see them, it seems that there are several more than last time (1survivor and it just got its blue at 34 days) Generally, the ones that make it past one week tend to do well.  It would be nice to be able to raise lots of these gobies. )  

Now that the pipes are in the Kreisel and in a water bath, the only time I see them is if they float near the surface.  I sure hope they grow fast...  Bloom, parvos, bloom! 

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http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Using my phone and a flashlight:

 

 
 

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You will have to use your imagination.

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My McGyver larval setup:

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The pipes are two days old today, and I just counted 7 of them.  I only added 10 to start, and I can't see them too easily, so 3 more could be hiding.  I added the copepod contents of half of one of my gallon copepod jars.  It had some Apocyclops panamensis mixed in with the Parvocalanus crassirostris, so I hope its OK… I wonder what the starvation date is for them. Anyone know?
 
It appears that the Iso has not been consumed, or it is being consumed at the same rate that it is reproducing, so I didn't add more. 
 

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Cool!  Good luck!  I love these guys!  My LFS has them cruising around their large, shallow, top-view coral tank and they are awesome in there!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

At day 2 most of them are no longer transparent.  They seem to be darkening and seem a bit longer, if that is possible.  In order to see them, I have to cram my head between the tank and the stand that holds up the top row of tanks, and, with my close-up glasses and a flashlight, peer into the top of the fishbowl.  Sucks getting old.
:-)
 

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Could only find 4 today, but I confirmed that they are the intestinalis species.

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Only one today.

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That's often how it goes.  While I understand the need for the water bath, it really does help to be able to see the fry, and observe how they are swimming, whether they are snicking, whether they are being drawn too much to the top or the sides due to lighting, etc.  Flying blind like you are really makes it much more challenging.

Do you expect to get more fry to attempt soon?

Just move the bowl to the side of the glass..t.hen you can see into it.  I clamped mine to the tank's side for the Harlequins...

Matt, I can't as the flat side is too wide for the short side of the tank, the only one visible. The long side of the tank is sandwiched between two other tanks.  Guess I need another setup, but this was done on the fly with no advance warning.
 
I wish it was summer, because then I would need no supplemental heating at all.

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Yesterday evening, I looked again, and there were actually two! Hope springs...

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I do want to try again. I shall have to go to the expense and trouble of obtaining broodstock and keeping them happy and well fed enough to breed. I suspect that part of my trouble was having the babies born in the shipping bag with its probable ammonia, and known issue with cold temperatures. Then all the handling before they could get put into their larval kreisel.  If I controlled the transit better, I might have a better result.  Time to get the copepods ramped up.

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Did you see them alive this morning?  Every time I see this thread I think, "Go, Kathy, go!"

Thanks Shannon.  This evening there were 3, so I am not as hopeless as previously thought.
 
However it seems I've completely lost 2 batches of neon gobies for no apparant reason. :-(

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I can't even get neons to pair up  
 
Do they three alive look like they are eating anything?  Have you found any information about the starvation timepoint for them?  How did you go about confirming the species for these?  I have had a couple in the past but never got as far as actually IDing them 100%...  

They do look like they are eating and growing, though it is hard to document when there are so few.  I can't risk putting one under the scope for pictures. Jim Welsh says that he seemed to loose some at 6 days, which is today, so we'll see tomorrow.
 
It didn't look like there was anything approaching a yolk sack on the babies.  They are amazingly thread like.
 
I can't really confirm the species, since there are two similar ones, but I just asked the store owner who shot back intestinalis from Indonesia.  He could be wrong, but its all I have to go on at the moment.

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Day 7, and I still have at least 2.  One is bigger than the other. Longer, I should say.  they swim all over and are becoming faster swimmers.  Sometimes they just hang there in the water column, and as I get the camera ready to take a shot, they are suddenly shy and fast, and dart out of the focal plane.
 

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Way to go!  I like keeping the aeration low enough that they spend most of their time hanging in the water column, as you describe, and swimming slowly to hunt.  I think that if they spend too much time using that fast swimming motion, that they are probably burning too much energy.  Even when they are just hanging there, it is still really difficult to get good pictures of them.

Thanks Jim, I am feeling hopeful.  I've done some searching, and can't find any mention of anyone successfully breeding them, so if these two make it, I'll have to purchase some adults and see if I can do it again, or at least document the spawning and hatching parts.
 
I do think that that they must be eating if they have survived this long. Looking at the culture water under the scope, there are a fair number of ciliates and Parvocalanus in there as well as Apocyclops.  Given that the pipes are so threadlike at birth, they must need the really small, slow pods to survive.  Or maybe its the ciliates. If i can get some adults to spawn for me, I can do a photographic study of the mouth gape, like Jim did, and see what I can see. 
 

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Hey! I have 3! Finally saw them all at the same time in the same spotlight from my flashlight! Happy I am!

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managed to get these, had to crop...

 

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Adorable!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys.  I am thrilled!
 

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Today I siphoned some of the crud from the bottom of the tank, and upon examining the siphonate, I saw some rotifers.  I did not intentionally add rotifers.  The phyto is clearing more frequently now, so perhaps that is why.  Probably the rotifers will not take over since I am not feeding the tank as much food as it takes to produce a roaring rotifer explosion.
The pipes seem to still be doing well.  I am so thrilled that there are three!
 
One of them has a crook to its tail. Possibly an injury from the transfer from the shipping bag. Its a little smaller than the other two, but I think it seems OK otherwise.
We shall call him Crooktail.  I'm really getting serious now. :-)
 

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You named him.  Kiss of death.

You are having really tremendous success so far, Kathy.  I hope I didn't just jinx you.

Are there still abundant Parvocalanus?  If not, I suggest you add some.

Good luck!

Thanks, there seems to be a fair amount, but I'll add some more tomorrow.
This evening one was lying on the floor of the kreisel just before lights out.  He rose up at the flashlight, but I'm wondering if all is well or not.  How long until I can relax?

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In a couple of months .

I think I'll do a water change this evening.  I siphoned yesterday, but more crud has collected to the point that it doesn't look like I did anything……...
 
I just finished the water change, and i may have finished Crooktail. I was siphoning, and he got sucked up the siphon and down to the collection jug.  Good thing I saw him.  Pipetted him back to the kreisel, but I wonder if this was the last straw.  The other two pipes seem OK.  They did not flee at the sight of the siphon tube, so I'll have to be more careful next time.
 
Checked the stuff I sucked out, and there are a ton of rotifers, boo, and some Parvocalanus, Apocyclops, and the harpacticoid that I'm now finding everywhere.  Who knows if this combination is good or bad, but the pipes must be eating something.
 
My buddy Joe took 20 of the babies and put them in a tank with brine shrimp, rotifers, Tigriopus, and some amphipods? Unfortunately, none survived. Just a FYI.

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Three alive, Crooktail and all.

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Wonderful!  If these develop anything like the flagtails, then they should start to "settle" in the next few days.  When that happens, that harpacticoid will come in real handy.

WHAT DOES SETTLE LOOK LIKE?

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It's pretty subtle, at least with the flagtails it is.  They get a little color.  They start hanging out near the sides and bottom more, and start hunting off of the surface of the glass a bit more, rather than just hunting out of the water column nearer the top of the bowl. 

Here is an example of a settled D. excisus:  http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/fb.ashx?m=60834
 
I go into describing what I consider them "settling" in this post here, too:  http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/fb.ashx?m=79009
 

Then two of them (not Crooktail, the smallest one) are there!  They are hanging out at the bottom and pecking at the sides and bottom of the kreisel. I just thought it was a bad sign.... My guys don't have a flag at the end of their tails. They do have some sparkly dots going down the length of them when I shine the flashlight just right.  In a few days, if they are still with me, I'll try to isolate one and get a proper picture.  Can it really be settlement? I would be thrilled if it were!
 

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This sounds like very encouraging news, Kathy!

Thanks, Jim, you have been a treasure!

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