Breeding Journal, Species: Pterapogon kauderni (Banggai Cardinalfish)

General
Species:   Pterapogon kauderni
Social Structure:  Mated pair
Size of Individuals:  2"
Age of Individuals:  Unknown.  Purchased as wild caught adults 5/2013 from Saltwater Paradise in Irving, TX
Date added to Tank:  5/18/2013

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  30g
Substrate Details: 1" sand, live rock 
Filtration Details:  AIO tank w/Tunze 9004 skimmer, inTank media rack, filter pad, cheato, ClearFXPro, GFO in CPR nano reactor
Water Changes:  1.5g (5%) every other day
Water Temperature:  78F         
Lighting:  AI Hydra LED
Lighting Cycle:  Complex program with different colors fading in at out at different times, with ramp up starting at 8am, peak lighting from 12:00pm to 7:00PM and ramping down to moon light a 9:30pm.  AI lunar cycle and variable clouds in use.
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Mated pair of Sea and Reef Wyoming White Ocellaris clowns, 2 emerald craps, 6 red tip hermit crabs, misc LPS and soft corals

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Thawed San Francisco Bay Mysis Shrimp
Feeding Schedule:  3 times a day, spread out during peak lighting

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  6/2013 (exact date not logged)

Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown- was not witnessed
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  8/2013, 12/2013, 1/24/2014, 2/21/2014 
Courtship Details:   Unknown- was not witnessed
Egg Size/Color/Count:  Unknown- Mouth breeder and spawn was not witnessed, so the eggs were not seen.  Evidence of their existence was the male's distended mouth, refusal to eat, and eventual release of settled juveniles. 

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 

• Clutch 1: 2/18/2014 (4 released), 2/19/2014 (36 released)
• Clutch 2:  3/19/2014 (19 released), 3/20/2014 (23 released)         

Hatch Time of Day:  Dawn
# Days after Spawn: 

• Clutch 1: 4 released on day 25, 36 released on day 26
• Clutch 2: 19 released on day 26, 23 released on day 27           

Larvae Description: look just like mini versions of adult
Consecutive Hatch Dates:    2        


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  78F         
Size of Larval Tank:  small breeding net inside 30g broodstock tank, changed to 5g tank for clutch 2             
Substrate Details:  none
Other Tank Decor:  fake plant
Filtration, Lighting, Water Changes Details:  See broodstock tank details

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  Live Baby brine shrimp
Feeding Schedule:  5 times/day

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start:  2/18/2014
Days after Hatch:  Unknown (mouth breeder so hatch is not witnessed)
Date of Settlement End:  2/19/2014
Description of Fry:  look just like mini versions of adult 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature:  78F     
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 5g Fluval Spec V, then moved to 15g at 18 dps
Substrate Details:  bare bottom
Other Tank Decor:  fake plants
Filtration Details:  Filter pad
Lighting:  stock LED
Lighting Cycle:  8am-9pm
Water Changes:   25%, every other day
Size at Transfer:  6-7mm
Age at Transfer:  1 day

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:  BBS
Feeding Schedule: 5 times/day                   

Additional Information
While the pair had mated 3 prior times over a 6 month period (noted by the male's refusal to eat), he only lasted about 10 days each time.  On 1/25/2014, he once again began refusing food.  On day 15, I realized he may make it this time, so I scrambled to get a breeding net ready and BBS hatcheries set up.  At 5pm on 2/12/2014 (day 19), I started the first brine shrimp hatchery.  At 5pm on 2/13/2014 (Day 20), I noted that the first BBS hatch was successful, started a second, and moved the male in to the breeding net.  On 2/18/2014 (Day 25), 4 babies were released.  On the morning of 2/19/2014 (Day 26), the remaining 36 were released.   Over the 2 day release, 40 live fry in total were collected and moved to growout.  Upon cleaning the breeders net, 1 dead fry was found.  

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 



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BBS Hatcheries running in anticipation of hatch.

 
Male moved to Breeding Net on Day 20.

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Day 25, 4 babies released.
 


 

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Looking good!

36 babies were released this morning around 10:30 am for a total of 40 settled fish.  I additionally found 1 dead in the bottom of the breeder net after removing the living ones.

I set up a 5g Fluval Spec V for a grow out tank and the babies are all in it.  About half of the fish are in the plants and the rest are on the bottom in groups of 5-10.
 

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Looking good! Now to just keep them well fed. Cool to see how they like to hide in plant. In the wild, some schools of these live in eel grasses, even though we always see pics of them on reefs and in anemones.

2 DPS update:
I was a little conserned yesterday as it seemed that only a few of the babies would move from their spot at feeding time to chase food.  Most would stay in their safe spot, and just grab food that came right to them in the current.  Today's feedings are much better, as at least half of them are darting around chasing the food... Much more of the feeding frenzy I was expecting.
 
Feeding Frenzy.
 

Thanks!  I am trying to feed them 5-6 times a day with BBS that is no more than 24 hours old.  The feeding will be less frequently for 3 days next week while I am on my business trip, so I hope that doesn't cause any problems.  I have asked my wife to try and feed them at least 3 times a day.
 
I find it very interesting that about 1/3 of them love hanging in one of the plants, while the others don't go near the plants at all.

10 DPS update: No losses noticed, but I have been unable to count them.  When not feeding, they move around the tank in a baseball sized school.
 
 

Today (18 dps), I moved clutch 1 into a 15g bow front that was given to me.  I carefully counted as I transferred, and there was indeed still 40 fish.  One of them got very traumatized by the move and was floating on his side on the surface for a few minutes, but now 30 minutes later he must be OK and back swimming in the school because I can't pick him out from the rest.  The move was necessary because (1) 40 growing fish were going to quickly outgrow the 5g, and (2) the male has been carrying clutch 2 now for 16 days so I needed to start getting the 5g ready for them.  
 
Hopefully I can utilize enough of the misc used equipment I have laying around to keep things going until Petco has another $1/g sale.  At that point I will start building a proper grow-out setup.

They look great in the above photo. They are prone to "sudden fright " with certain events, such as transfers, water changes, etc. I have also had this happen, and they will recover if not overly traumatized. The first time I ever witnessed it, though, I thought I had killed the fish and almost disposed it! Fortunately I had a few chores to do, and when I cameback to remove the corpse, it was happily swimming around again. Sounds like your pair is going to be productive! Soon you'll have tanks all over. Congrats on the good work!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken

Thanks Ken, good to know!  I currently have 5 tanks in service and the 5g is now clean and ready to come on line for clutch 2.  I also have a 20g that could be brought on line quickly if needed, but having one off tanks spread around the house is going to quickly become a pain.  Hopefully I can set up a consolidated grow out rack soon.

20 DPS update: Still no losses.  I will probably start trying to switch them over from live BBS to frozen BBS this week.

Clutch 2 is at 20 days held so far, so I moved papa back in to the breeding net.

It is day 25 for clutch 2 and no releases yet.  As I was concerned with being sure I could feed the male for a while before putting him back with the female, and also wanting to eliminate the work involved with fry transfer that i had on clutch 1, I am trying something different.  I divided the 5g tank in 2 with egg crate, placing a fake plant on one side and the male on the other.  My hope is that when he releases the fry, they will go through the egg crate to the cover of the plant and away from hungry dad.  This will theoretically allow me to feed the male for a few weeks in the same tank as the fry.  I don't know if it will work, but it is worth a try.  
 
I am slowly gathering pieces to build a rack that will house several 10g tanks to make all this easier.  It would definitely accelerate my efforts if Petco would have another $1/gallon sale.  
 
 

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Well at least 17 fish from Clutch 2 have been released so far and he is still holding more.  It has been a frustrating morning though, as my divider idea is not working well and the fry do not look nearly as developed as the first clutch. 

The total count for the Day 26 release of clutch 2 was 19, but more are expected tomorrow.  They are clearly less developed than those from the first clutch, with 15 of them spending most of the day huddled in one of 2 packs in corners of the tank.  The other 4 have found cover swimming in the plastic plant.

The rest of clutch 2 was released today (day 27, 23 released) for a total clutch size of 42.  One appears to be DOA, so there are currently 41 free swimming from Clutch 2.

Clutch 1, 30 dps

Clutch 1 (36 dps) has been on exclusively frozen food for 5 days now (frozen SF bay BBS and Cyclop-eeze).  More of them become interested in eating it at each feeding.  The addition of a nano power head to the tank helps a lot.  I removed 1 dead one today that looked like he hadn't been eating, so we are now at 39.
 
Clutch 2 (7 dps) is doing good on live BBS.  no losses so there are 41 from the clutch.
 
The Male has been separated from the female for feeding for the last week.  It is a painstaking process, as he has never been a fan of dead food.  It isn't a problem in a tank with other fish because he doesn't take the time to look at what he is about to eat given the competition.  Alone, he looks at it and then moves on.  I have taken to feeding him by coaxing him to the surface and then adding a single PE Mysis via a dropper.  When it is released within about 4" of him, there is about a 50% chance he takes it.  I will do this until I have seen him actually eat 3 or 4.  I am doing this several times a day.  I have tried to find live food to power feed him with but no one around me sells live mysis or blood worms.  

Clutch 1 (40 dps) has been on exclusively frozen food for 9 days now.  A second one died over the weekend, leaving me with 38. 

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38 is still a nice amount!

Hooray! for them being on frozen food now. What sort of frozen food?

Thanks... Every other day I thaw out 2 mini cubes of SF Bay Frozen Baby Brine shrimp and 1 cube PE packaged Cyclop-eeze, and then divide them between 2 specimen cups that I keep in the fridge.  I then feed 1 specimen cup a day spread out over 5 feedings.  So each day, they are getting 1 mini cube of baby brine and half a cube of cyclop-eeze.  Current seems to be important during feedings, as very few of them are interested in anything not moving.  Because of this, I have a koralia nano 240 powerhead that i turn on during feedings.    They also are not interested in the larger pieces of cyclops so I added a small HOB filter to clean up the uneaten food.   Once they start eating everything, I will reduce the baby brine and increase the cyclops.
 

Day 46 for clutch 1.  Die-off over the last week has been really bad, with 1-2 dropping every day.  I believe I have 29 left.  Very frustrating and not sure what the problem is.  

Around day 48, the die-off was getting pretty frustrating.  I made a few observations:
1) Clutch 2 was quickly catching up in size to clutch 1, highlighting the fact that growth had slowed down considerable with clutch 1.
2) It appeared that clutch 1 was eating up all the frozen bbs in the feedings, but leaving most of the cyclopeeze.
 
This lead me to the hypothesis that perhaps the frozen BBS was not nutritious enough for them.  I considered 4 options:
1) Continue down the course I was taking and see what happens.
2) Eliminate the frozen BBS from the diet to force them to turn to the more nutricious cyclopeeze.
3) Try to move them to a different frozen food.
4) Supplement there feedings with live BBS
 
I decided to go with option 4, and have been including newly hatched BBS in the first and last feedings of the day.  I had 2 more die about a day after re-introducing the live BBS, but have not lost any more in the 2 weeks since then.  In all, I lost 16 between days 36 and day 49, but still have 24 going strong at 63dps.  My plan at this point is to stay the course with supplemental feedings of live BBS until they get bigger and look like they are eating the cyclopeeze.  
 

 
Clutch 2 is now 35 dps, still on 100% live BBS, and has experienced no losses (41 alive).
 
I kept the male separated for feedings for about 10 days before returning him to the broodstock tank.  There have been no spawning since then, but he is eating like crazy.