Breeding Journal, Species: Synchiropus sp. "Ruby Red"

General
Species:  Synchiropus sp. "Ruby Red"
Social Structure:  2 females 1 male
Size of Individuals:  Male is about 2 inches, females 1.5
Age of Individuals:  unknown
Date added to Tank:  females added 04-26-2015

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  240 gallons
Substrate Details:   bare bottom full reef tank
Filtration Details:  protien skimmer and algae scrubber
Water Changes:  100 gallons once a month
Water Temperature:  80-82F
Lighting:  3x 400watt metal halides
Lighting Cycle:  1pm - 10pm
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Full reef with other fish

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Forage for copepods. Will see them occasionally eat frozen rods food.  Tank fed pellets/flakes twice daily but never have seen them eat that food.
Feeding Schedule:  2x daily

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  05/25/2015
Spawn Time of Day:  evening as lights go out
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:  Since end of 07/2015 they spawn nightly
Courtship Details:  Like other synchyropus, they lock fins and rise in the water column before releasing gametes
Egg Size:  tiny about .75mm
Egg Color:  translucent
Egg Count:  about 50 per spawn. (updated) each female now release 150+

Hatch Details
Hatch Date:  6/29/2015
Hatch Time of Day:  Middle of the night
# Days after Spawn:  1
Larvae Description:    1.5-2 mm long, translucent prolarvae, head and body curled around clear yolk, no oil globule, no eyes, mouth or gut yet, but darting with tail movements. 
Consecutive Hatch Dates:   Almost all egg batches are fertile which are daily.  


Larval Tank Details
Temperature:  80f
Size of Larval Tank:  small container maybe 1/4 gallon
Substrate Details:  bare bottom
Other Tank Decor:  none
Filtration Details:  none, water changes, airstone, saltwater additions as time goes on 
Lighting:  small led lamp
Lighting Cycle:  1pm-10pm
Water Changes:  daily

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:  As of 08-06-2015 have only tried ciliates, small rotifers, & RG complete to keep the rotifers happy.
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
(Copied from Kathy's Synchiropus Journal)
http://www.fishbase.org/P...lsSummary.php?ID=66423
this fish looks like the bottom picture. But I guess the scientific name is undecided.
(No Pictures or Videos in the Section Please)
Miscellaneous Information: 
From Jake Adams at REefbuilders:
http://reefbuilders.com/2...eous-worldwide-splash/
The guesses as to which species of Synchiropus the Ruby Red dragonet belongs to have ranged from Synchiropus moyeri, to Synchiropus morrissoni to the recently described Synchiropus tudorjonesi. Morrisson and Moyer’s dragonets have been ruled out on a variety of meristic values and although the ruby red dragonet look a helluva lot likeS. tudorjonesi, it is significantly different from the latter to be a different species, perhaps undescribed and unknown to science. We even dug up some pictures of the also unknown Synchiropus rubrovinctus but that species is also pretty distinctive, and not like the Ruby Red Dragonet currently under scrutiny.

Read more: http://reefbuilders.com/2013/04/19/rubyb-red-dragonet-simultaneous-worldwide-splash/#ixzz3ego34Xij

(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.

Hi Guys,
Kathy has encouraged me to create a breeding Journal for my Ruby Reds, so I will do my best.
Overall I have only successfully raised some Clown fish ,  and it's my understanding that these guys will be much more difficult.
However , I'll give it a shot.
 
On a daily basis now I have been collecting the eggs after spawn.
About 10 minutes after lights out the three fish (2 females one male) meet near the same piece of coral.  The two females bump and push each other around with the male hopping back and forth between the two of them.  I'm not sure how it is decided which female "wins" but once that happens the "losing" female swims off to the dark part of the tank.  The two remaining fish go through a series of small rises/spawning attempts until rising about 16 inches off the bottom of the tank. Then they successfully spawn.
 
Here is a video of the male chasing around one of the females in an attempt to spawn.  This was about a week after introduction of the females to the tank.  In this video the male is very much harassing the female and it appears she was not happy with it.  This behavior was every night until both females got into the swing of things, and now it is the females bumping each other until the winner latches onto the male and they start the spawning process.
 
https://www.adoberevel.co...984115bf8e6888ecb01cd6
 
 
 

Here are some pictures of the fish.
Male

 
Female Side View

 
Both Females together.

 
Male with Female

 

Here is what an egg strand looked like when they first started spawning.

 
I typically collect the eggs with a turkey baster, which breaks the egg strand apart. I dont think this causes any problems though?

 
After 26-28ish hours or so of sitting in 80F water here is what the eggs hatch into.
https://www.adoberevel.co...f3f2e4beb141e63b1e5ffd
 

These particular pictures are from a batch which collected on the night of 07-26-2015.
They hatched the night of 07-27.
 
The pictures/video were taken on the 30th.  On the 29th I had added the larva into a 10 gallon tank which had ciliates, small rotifers, and RG complete to keep the rotifers alive.
The images/video appear to show nothing in the stomach.   The video shows the mouth opening and closing.

 
Video

 
 
 
 

Here is the same batch on the 31st.  It looks like the eye is more developed.

 
Im not 100% sure what exactly im looking for but it appears the stomach is still empty.

 
Video

 

After taking the pictures on the 31st I had to leave to go out of town.
I came home that monday 8/3 and they had all bitten the dust.   On previous collections and by doing nothing but having them in a tank, they lived 6 days and died on the 7th.  Im assuming they did not eat the ciliates and died as previous batches have.
 
I have collected eggs every night this week however the shrimp in the reef tank have now learned there is free eggs every night between the Ruby Reds and the Coral Beauties.  Which has led me to try to beat the shrimp to the eggs with the turkey baster within seconds after the spawn.  This seems to be giving me way less eggs being fertile. Im not sure if you can collect eggs too quickly?  I have started taking steps to remove the shrimp (2 out of 5 of them have been moved).
 

Nice journal!

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Thanks Kathy!

So I set up a small phyto station tonight. I had collected eggs at 10:15 like normal. On a whim when I was done with the phyto station I checked the tank again. There was another cluster of eggs around 11pm. It's possible both females have been spawning every night and I never knew it since I do not normally check the tank this late.

I'm finding conditioning these to be a stumbling block for me. Where I am finding them more welcoming to prepared foods, they seem to lose weight way way more rapidly than mandarins do if not fed several times a day.

Just bough a new female today.

Good luck with your new female. I wish I could help but I have not done anything special with mine besides toss them into the reef tank.
 

Kathy gave me a good tip on counting up my eggs.
Looks like last nights batch was around 400 eggs.  I counted/circled 385 and didn't count any of them where I couldn't 100% say were eggs but I think 385 is a little short of actual count.
 

 

 

Ha..I love the 2nd photograph!

I like seeing the eggs in strands in the first photo.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

How long after you purchased yours, did they start spawning. 
 
The fish I got two nights ago were doing the dragonet dance last night! No eggs, but I wasn't expecting them.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

After the male started doing his dance on the female I think they started spawning in just a little over a week.

These guys are precocious. I've seen emaciated ones start rising days after hitting the reef tanks. They don't produce many or any eggs in that shape obviously but it's interesting how fast they settle down lol

Last night I tried to catch some shrimp out of the tank instead of letting them spawn. Every time I have looked at the tank today the male is constantly presenting his large fin and following the females around. I guess he didn't like the interruption last night.

I didn't have any food to offer the larva from the 8/6 (hatch 8/7) batch. They were alive this morning but all died tonight. They were in a small container floating in 80*F water. With Kathys help im working on having food to offer them.

Sorry to hear, but you'll be ready next time.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Collected one female egg strand tonight so I'll be ready for this one.

Collected eggs again tonight.  The ones from 08/10 should be hatching pretty soon.
Snapped this quick picture since i had my camera on me.
 

The 8/10 batch I collected had a very poor hatch rate so Im not going to try anything with these.
Im hoping for the 8/11 batch to look better.
Tonight I collected eggs from both females so im really hoping the 08/12 batch has a good hatch rate to see if I can get something done with them.
 

The 8/10 batch I collected had a very poor hatch rate so Im not going to try anything with these.
Tonight I collected eggs from both females so im really hoping the 08/12 & 8/11 batches have a good hatch rate to see if I can get something done with them.

Do the eggs float to the top?
 

Yes, as small strands of linked eggs.

Hrmmm not sure what I have changed but none of the eggs have hatched this week. I added salt last Friday but its at the normal salinity it has always been. Since that Friday though I haven't had any luck.

Are you using a refractometer or a floaty thing to measure salinity?  what's your lighting schedule like? On a timer?

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

A breeder on the RC website (kizanne) mentioned that her pair would stop spawning if the SG creeped upward.

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

ooo good point,.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Well they have kept spawning all week however the eggs seem to "mostly" develop but then die. Salinity is my first guess and right now it is 1.024. I collect eggs every night still and I'll just keep monitoring tank parameters till I can figure out what's up. I also sterilized a bunch of containers and am going to see if maybe that might have been an issue.

Aren't most dragonets from lagoons?  If so, it would seem that they'd be pretty tolerant of salinity swings.  Kathy, were you raising salinity to help with egg buoyancy? Do the eggs hatch from the strands or does it break up before hatching occurs?

Tom, how did you sterilize? 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Dave, I haven't had a spawn yet.
I got my eggs from Tom.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Hi Guys,
The egg strands break up when I collect them. I use a turkey baster and suck them up. Up until this week this seemed to have never affected the hatch rate.

I may have figured it out. I had readjusted some of my power heads last week and tonight I noticed the current kept a corner of the tank as "skuzzy". A film would gather ontop of the water there all day long and when the pumps go off to catch eggs this film spreads out over the whole tank. Which then I would suck up with the egg strand. I had been thinking the water always looked dirty in the egg container. So I think I put putting the eggs in cruddy water and they just couldn't handle it.

Double post

Kathy,
I sterilized using a mixture of bleach and RO water.

On a side note

It appears as though every 3d night I get a spawn from both females and any other night its just one female who spawns.

I should mention, regarding the question about these being "lagoonal", my understanding is that these are actually a species from deeper water.

Alright.
My double spawn from 08/15 has hatched and the larva all appear to be pretty strong and healthy.
This picture stinks but there looks to be several hundred alive.
Going to acclimate them to tank water then add them to a gallon container.
Will add p.crass naups and we'll see what happens
 

 

Well had a pleasant surprise.
The batch I collected on 8/13 had a very poor hatch rate, Maybe 8 out of 100 eggs hatched.
Those 8 I tossed into 2.5 gallons with some p.crass naups and didn't really expect anything out of them.  I emptied out that container today through some mesh and there was actually 3 alive in there.
Does it look like they ate anything? I'm still very new to this so i don't know exactly what I'm looking for.



 
Video.
https://www.adoberevel.co...6582fe8d7fbec2f3716eb6