Breeding Journal, Species: Cryptocentrus cinctus

General
Species:  Cryptocentrus cinctus
Social Structure:  M/F pair
Size of Individuals:  ~3 inches (both)
Age of Individuals:  Unknown, wildcaught
Date added to Tank:  Late summer 2013 (IIRC)

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  40 breeder plumbed into a larger system
Substrate Details:  None
Filtration Details:  Live rock, live sand, protein skimmer, bioballs
Water Changes:  As needed
Water Temperature:  ~80F
Lighting:  Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle:  6AM to 9PM
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Tomato clown pair, valentini puffer

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Live blackworms, various frozen mysis, frozen mash, pellets
Feeding Schedule:  At least twice a day

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  3-25-2014
Spawn Time of Day:  Unknown.  Egg ball was found in the evening around 6:30 PM or so
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
Courtship Details:  None note.  I suspected they were getting ready to spawn because the female (or assumed female) became quite plump
Egg Size:  Not measured, estimate ~1mm
Egg Color:  Yellow
Egg Count:  Not counted, looks like several hundred at least

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  3-27-2014 (and morning of 3-28-2014)*
Hatch Time of Day:  Evening, and morning
# Days after Spawn:  2 or 3 days, depending on when they were spawned (possibly 3-24-2014).  Also, the system has been slightly warmer than usual (82F) the last few days because it has started to warm up slightly and I haven't turned down the heaters yet.
Larvae Description:   
Consecutive Hatch Dates:     


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  ~80F
Size of Larval Tank:  17 gallon BRT, partially filled
Substrate Details:  None
Other Tank Decor:  Heater
Filtration Details:  None
Lighting:  Fluorescent strip light
Lighting Cycle:  Constant
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  S rots, Euterpina copepods
Feeding Schedule:  Constant

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch: 
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry: 

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

Additional Information

(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 
* The eggs were artificially hatched.  The first few larvae hatched the night before, but most didn't hatch until the morning when I busted up and beat up the egg ball a bit.  I don't think this is the natural hatch time (morning) but rather an artifact of the artificial incubation/hatching


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There was one fish that was looking very plump for several days, but the two fish almost never interacted so I was beginning to think that they weren't a pair after all.  They have been "den" hopping for months now, seeming to try every spot in the tank as a home.  I added a rock less than a month ago that has two holes that go all the way through and they seemed to like that.  Last night I found an egg ball attached to the OUTSIDE of a 4in wide PVC section several inches from the rock "den" area.


This seemed odd and I assumed that the eggs weren't fertile because the eggs were out in the open like that, but then every few minutes the male (I assume) came out and checked on the eggs and sometimes sat by them for awhile


 
And you can see both fish in this pic

 
I think I may add a capped-end PVC pipe (maybe 1.5 inches wide) and put it in that area and maybe they will prefer that.

I checked the eggs this morning and both the YWG were taking care of it and there look to be eye spots already.  Entirely possible they will hatch tonight!  Not sure if I'm going to do anything with this hatch since I just started to scale up my S rots, but won't have enough to feed this many larvae for a few weeks.   I may still try and maybe make up the difference with Euterpina and Apocyclops copepods.  I think I will pull the egg ball tonight and set it to tumbling since I don't have a larval snagger I can put in that tank.

Go Shannon go!

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I pulled the egg ball a few minutes ago and put it into an inverted 2L bottle and set them to tumbling. Before I even got the airline in, I saw some larvae hatching!

Double post

Great job, I have a hunch the copepods may keep them going until the S rotifers scale up.  

Here is a pic of an egg I took last night:

 
And here is one of the first larvae to hatch:

You can see that it still has the egg casing on its head
 
I let the egg ball tumble all night and this morning I checked and only a few larvae had hatched I considered letting the eggs tumble all day, but then I decided to maybe try the dottyback hatch technique--you know, the one where you smack and beat up the egg ball with rigid airline tubing?  So I whacked the egg ball a bunch and broke it up a bit and let it tumble for about 15 minutes.  I came back and nearly all the larvae had hatched   I put most in a BRT with about 4 gallons of broodstock water, heater and airstone in the middle.  I added about 1/2 of the S rots I have available, most of a 1 gallon Euterpina culture, and RG complete.  Some of the larvae were fed to the mysis shrimp culture (circle of life!) because there were A LOT More than I first thought, easily 500+
 
I would estimate 90-95% of the eggs hatched using this "technique" lol
 
 

Oh, and I have two gallons of new ASW dripping in today as well.

The heater must have been set higher than I meant/knew. Not sure what the temp was at, but it was HOT. Cooked most of the larvae. Still some alive, but only a few. I brought the temp down so maybe they will make it...

All dead Hopefully the next egg ball goes better!

Finally got another spawn with these guys I'm pretty sure the egg ball was spawned yesterday evening, but I didn't find it until a couple hours after the lights came on this morning, so it's possible they spawned this morning.

I pulled the eggs today for a tumble hatch, but I'm actually thinking I pulled them a day early since they don't look quite ready. Hopefully they tumble/incubate well all day tomorrow :/

I am enriching some S rots overnight just in case though, and have a BRT ready for them.

No hatch, but this wasn't too unexpected.  Hopefully I will get a hatch tonight...

I think I pulled the eggs too early and that is causing the problems.  Still no hatch today.  I left them tumbling just in case they hatch tonight, but I'm not holding out hope.

How can you tell male from female?