Breeding Journal, Species: Pterapogon kauderni

General
Species:  Pterapogon kauderni
Social Structure:  Male/Female Pair
Size of Individuals:  2-2.5"
Age of Individuals:  unknown
Date added to Tank:  September 2014

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  30 gallon
Substrate Details:  bare bottom
Filtration Details: HOB filter, Bulk Reef Supply Carbon Reactor                
Water Changes:  20% monthly
Water Temperature:  80 Degrees F
Lighting:  DIY LED Strip Light
Lighting Cycle:  12 hour on/off 
Other Tank Inhabitants:  2 Snowflake Ocellaris Clownfish

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  New Life Spectrum 1mm Pellets, LRS Reef Frenzy
Feeding Schedule:  Once per day, usually LRS (pellets if I'm in a hurry)

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  1 March 2015
Spawn Time of Day:  about 8pm
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  31 March 2015
Courtship Details:  After Spawn, male went into hiding in rock cave.
Egg Size:  2.5-3mm
Egg Color:  red/orange
Egg Count:  unknown, 3 eggs were found dangling from the female after the male had already taken them.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 
Hatch Time of Day: 
# Days after Spawn: 
Larvae Description:   
Consecutive Hatch Dates:     


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80 deg F
Size of Larval Tank:  10 gallon
Substrate Details:  bare
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: 
Feeding Schedule: 

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: 



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.

Spawn happened tonight while away from the house. Noticed a few eggs hanging from the female at feeding time. Male's mouth is full, and he is hiding in rock cave. 
 

Male with eggs in mouth, and female.
 

Notice the egg hanging from the female. There were a few more before I ran to get my camera.

Cool picture. I have never seen mine during the spawn.

I just got lucky. I noticed that the male was holding eggs about 3 weeks ago, but had swallowed them after about the third day, so I've been checking every night. I just happened to walk in an look immediately after the transfer. There were 3 or 4 eggs still hanging from the female, but by time I got my camera there were only two, and while trying to get a picture one came off and was immediately eaten by one of my clowns. 

Is this pair a young pair ? I had the same happen with mine. The second round was better , I was able to get five. And on the next 27. Good luck

Did you figure out what the lumps were on your cardinals?

 
They are fairly young. I got them 5 or 6 months ago, and they weren't very big then.
 


Well, initially these Cardinals were apart of a larger group and I'm pretty sure the lumps were bite wounds inflicted by these fish. The lumps went away after a few days, but I went away on vacation for a week and came back to a couple of the Bangaais very battered and malnourished. It would appear that this couple had paired off and started becoming very aggressively towards the others.  Two of them died, but I was able to save one, which is now living as on outcast in the frag tank with my Tomato clown.

The male spit out or ate  the eggs from the 1 March spawn on 4 March. 
 
I noticed that the male was holding eggs again on 31 March. On April 2nd after consulting Matt Pendersen's chapter on Advanced Breeding in the Banggai Rescue Project, I decided to go ahead and pull the eggs from the male. I caught the male in a brine shrimp net and was easily able to get him to spit out the eggs, by lightly applying pressure to the sides of his mouth. I placed the eggs in a wine glass inside of a 10 gallon I already had set up in anticipation of  a Peppermint Shrimp hatch. The tank is aerated by two air-stones on opposite ends of the tank, and the wine glass has a very light flow of water from a Aqualifter pump I had laying around.
 
I know that pulling the eggs on day 2 probably won't yield good results, but I'm not going to be around this weekend, so I couldn't wait any longer. 
 

 

 

Hope it goes well. I never had success with tumbling banggai eggs. Fortunately my pair got it right after a few tries and the male always held full term thereafter. I have seen some nice reports of tumbling successes. I'll be following your progress.

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

I have never tumbled banggai's. I just let them mature and now my males won't even spit them out when I net them. I have to pry the little guys mouth open on the 22nd day to get the little ones out. I just pulled 9 more out this morning. This male still snacks on the eggs but he is getting better I will also follow your progress in tumbling. Also I power feed these guys, because they go so long without eating.

well, that didn't go well (as expected) the eggs lost color within a couple days, then deflated over the new few.
 
Thinking about maybe separating the male next time he is carrying eggs and see if that affects anything.

Separation should help.  I'm curious about your egg size measurement being 1mm...can you confirm that?

Matt, you are probably right. That egg size was based off an estimate of the few eggs I saw still hanging off of the female on 1 March (either there was something wrong with them, or I am terrible at estimating from a distance) . The eggs I removed from the males mouth were larger probably in the 2.5-3mm range.
 
Based off the timing between the last few spawns, I'm expecting the next one to happen any day. I'll try isolating the male this time and see where that gets me.