Brackish update, Exciting!!

[Sea-agg09]

So my girlfriend started up her brackish tank, and everything is going great. Her stocking is as follows;

2 Vietnamese Mudskippers (male & female)
4 Knight Gobies
4 Diamond Killifish (natives)

Today we got in dragon gobies, so the stocking is now complete. She is going to be holding 1 for me while my salt tanks establish, so she will have 2 for a short time. In the end she will only have 1 Dragon Goby.

Salinity is set at about 1.005, but may be raised just a bit now that all the fish are in there.

News that made me make this... KNIGHT GOBY EGGS!!!!

Wednesday afternoon my girlfriend discovered the eggs inside a cave in floating wood. From all our research.... there is ridiculously little information on this. We think the cue was a drop in pH from adding a DIY yeast CO2. We can see eyes in the eggs and they are developing nicely. Aparently they hatch after 2-3 days, and are closely guarded by the parents. The mother has not left the cave in 2 days, and fans the eggs with her fins. There are at least 3-4 hundred eggs. From our reading, they can lay over 1000. We picked up some rotifeast, but have started cultures of greenwater/paramecium in case they don't like the dead roti's.

[Mzungu]

That's awesome!! Is it possible to take pictures/videos for us to see? I'd love to see it!

Congrats, you two!

[myjohnson]

nice pictures. )

[Nickintex]

nice pictures. )

[Sea-agg09]

We're taking pictures, but we haven't had time to upload them. I'll actually try to take a video at some point.

[electricblue]

are dragon gobies brackish only.i see them a lot at walmart

[Nickintex]

They can live in fresh, brackish or marine environments, but they do not fare as well in freshwater.

[Sea-agg09]

are dragon gobies brackish only.i see them a lot at walmart

They are not happy in freshwater... they bloat badly and are very succeptable to disease. They live a year or 2 tops in fresh. They also need a sand substrate. They dig and nearly cover themselves, and get badly bruised trying to get into large rocks. They sift sand for food, so again, anything but sand doesn't work that well. Petsmart made the wise decision to stop selling them a few months back, and walmart should do the same thing.

Also, so apparently the male was the one in the cave. We pulled out the other because we can't be sure whether that is the actual mother or not. Knight Gobies are crazy hard to sex, and even harder to tell individuals apart. We're thinking the eggs should hatch tonight (makes sense that the babies would become motile at night). She has tomorrow off, so she is going to be hovering over the tank most of the day hopefully...

[electricblue]

They are not happy in freshwater... they bloat badly and are very succeptable to disease. They live a year or 2 tops in fresh. They also need a sand substrate. They dig and nearly cover themselves, and get badly bruised trying to get into large rocks. They sift sand for food, so again, anything but sand doesn't work that well. Petsmart made the wise decision to stop selling them a few months back, and walmart should do the same thing.

Also, so apparently the male was the one in the cave. We pulled out the other because we can't be sure whether that is the actual mother or not. Knight Gobies are crazy hard to sex, and even harder to tell individuals apart. We're thinking the eggs should hatch tonight (makes sense that the babies would become motile at night). She has tomorrow off, so she is going to be hovering over the tank most of the day hopefully...

no joke... all the walmarts i been to lately have more dead than live fish
i really feel bad for those spotted puffers... i'll probably give em another try
once i figure the salinity they need.. rip my 3 previous puffers

[Sea-agg09]

Yeah walmart just needs to stay out...


Anyways, No babies yet. I think the temp on the nursery tank was a bit lower than the main tank, so development is generally slower. We are at 3 days and counting. We put a new heater on the tank, so hopefully we will have babies by morning.

[Sea-agg09]

UPDATE!!

As of Now (20:55), babies are hatching!

I can't be sure whether they waited till the lights went out (very possible), or simply weren't ready until then (also possible), but they are hatching and swimming as much as any floating comma can. She is putting in both Rotifeast and greenwater for them.

My girlfriend is failing at the whole picture thing, but I will be over there tomorrow to take some pictures. I'll post them Monday before I head to work.

[Sea-agg09]

Update, still working on the pics...
We have at least 10 babies that made the whole "learning experience". The largest is almost 3/8 of an inch long and getting quite plump, while the smallest of them are about 1/4. They are eating a combination of greenwater (infusoria), rotifeast, and the largest is eating crushed flake. A few days ago we added the male back to the main tank. Crazy enough... 2 days later we have a new clutch!!! We scrambled around and found a new tank to put the large fry in, and prepared the small tank again for the eggs. They should be hatching in a day or so (4 day gestation). Considering we lost a good 80% of the fry to the sponge filter (current too stong), we should be much better off this time.


PICS TO COME!!!

[Sea-agg09]

Here are pics of the first clutch. The male is in the cave guarding the eggs.

As of Now (22:30) the second batch has begun hatching. Little earlier than the last clutch, but we have had a heater in the tank the whole time, so that makes sense.

[Sea-agg09]

For a reference... The white specs on the wood are eggs from Nerite snails. I would say 3 or 4 of the fish eggs could fit on each of the nerite eggs.

[Sea-agg09]

ok, so full update (lots of pics):

Got about 10-12 babies that are about 3/8 of an inch long.











The orange is all the baby brine shrimp we have been feeding them



got to get a better picture of this guy. He seems a little ahead of the others. He is getting his silver coloration and really starts to look like an adult fish.