land shark Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 When my lights came on I saw what I thought to be huge pods. I turned off my pumps to investigate and I saw what appeared to be larvae. It's really hard to get pics or vids. They are in a picotope with mod-high flow. I kept my pumps off so they wouldn't get sucked in. Should I turn my pumps back on? I want to do my best to keep these alive. I didn't even think my gobies interacted at all! I suspected they were opposite sex but had no idea. What do you guys think? Am I right? Are these larval fish? If so, what do I do now to help them survive? All I have as a food source for my gobies is frozen cyclops which is way too big for larvae. I don't have a lfs that has fresh phyto or rots. I'm hoping they'll do ok with what's in my tank's ecosystem. I also don't have another tank suitable for them, only the pico is cycled. There's a lot of them too! Here's a vid of them. Link to comment
dragonxflare Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Video is marked Private, cant see it Link to comment
keydiver Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Very cool! Although I'm sorry to say that they will almost surely die without addition of live microfeeds, larval fish are tricky business. But now that you know they do indeed spawn, you should consider setting up a 10g greenwater tank for next time and try to raise some, I don't know of any documented cases of captive bred flaming prawn gobies, and one of the biggest problems with this species is that they do not take well to captive life. Link to comment
smeagol108 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I have one for 8 months. Fat and healthy. This is pretty cool. Link to comment
land shark Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Fixed the video I think. If you guys still cant view it let me know. Hey keydiver, nice avatar. I actually planned on getting phyto and pods from you but you went on vacation. I definitely plan to get a bigger tank going for the larvae to come. I now have a ton of research to do. I was actually hoping this would happen but I never saw any signs of interaction between my gobies. I was totally unprepared. Now I know why one hid almost all the time. What would you feed them? You have the equivalent of docs eco right. Let me know from a marine biologist stand point. I actually looked everywhere for info on this when I was buying my gobies. I have only heard speculation and no one had ever seen larvae. Maybe it's a first. I am going to turn my pumps on because my corals are sad now. Not sure what I can do atm to save them and I am more worried about losing coral. Link to comment
land shark Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 I have a small container(about 1.5g) I added an ammonia source to with one piece of lr that I have had sitting with stagnant water for a while now. I also have a small bubbler. I was planning to set it up with my old pico light when I was done building my new one(not anywhere close to being done). I have a warm white led bulb and the stock picotope light. I was thinking I might try to add some tank water to it and get it up and running. I am going to look on cl for some cheato, phyto, and pods. Maybe I can get something going before they all die. Is it worth the effort or should I just prepare for the next batch? Link to comment
vlangel Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I really doubt you could save this batch being unprepared but I would start preparing for another batch which will probably be forthcoming. I don't know anything about this specie but raising fish fry is a boatload of work, (I have raised clowns and seahorses) but very rewarding. Link to comment
land shark Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 I am going to start getting a tank together for the next batch as this one did not make it. I turned off my pump and there was literally one left . I put it in a small cup but it's unlikely it will live much longer. Could anyone confirm that they were goby larvae from looking at the video? From what I have seen I am almost certain they are. I was hoping someone could say for sure. I know its not the best quality video though. Here is the best pic i could get of the survivor. Link to comment
jamescstein Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Might get a better response in the aquaculture forum. But yeah, I'd put money on those being gobie larvae. Link to comment
keydiver Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Fixed the video I think. If you guys still cant view it let me know. Hey keydiver, nice avatar. I actually planned on getting phyto and pods from you but you went on vacation. I definitely plan to get a bigger tank going for the larvae to come. I now have a ton of research to do. I was actually hoping this would happen but I never saw any signs of interaction between my gobies. I was totally unprepared. Now I know why one hid almost all the time. What would you feed them? You have the equivalent of docs eco right. Let me know from a marine biologist stand point. I actually looked everywhere for info on this when I was buying my gobies. I have only heard speculation and no one had ever seen larvae. Maybe it's a first. I am going to turn my pumps on because my corals are sad now. Not sure what I can do atm to save them and I am more worried about losing coral. They definitely look like goby larvae to me, super cool! I would start getting the hang of phyto culture, and once you get your next spawn you will be ready. I'd most likely try rotifers first since they're a staple for larval fish but would also incorporate some small harpactecoid copepods into their diet. Since this is really probably one of the only times this has happened, you get the honor of playing the guessing game and finding out what works well. A good place to start is running a greenwater culture much like any clownfish larval growout and go from there. Link to comment
land shark Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 They definitely look like goby larvae to me, super cool! I would start getting the hang of phyto culture, and once you get your next spawn you will be ready. I'd most likely try rotifers first since they're a staple for larval fish but would also incorporate some small harpactecoid copepods into their diet. Since this is really probably one of the only times this has happened, you get the honor of playing the guessing game and finding out what works well. A good place to start is running a greenwater culture much like any clownfish larval growout and go from there. Thanks for the info. I've done a lot of reading on this subject and I honestly think that copepods are the way to go. Rotifers are easier to culture and produce more but they don't vary greatly in size. They also have less nutritional value than pods. Even SS-type rots appear to be a little on the large size for this larvae. Any species that has a nauplii size starting around 40 to 60 microns should be a good start imo. Which tibse do you have? Do you have access to any other species? btw I forgot to ask, is there a reason to stay away from calanoida? Something to do with the large antennas or just more difficult to culture? Link to comment
land shark Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Did a little more research on the subject. Harpactecoid are benthic and Calanoida are planktonic. So basically one is more of a crawler and the other stays in the water column. Not sure why to go with one over the other. Parvocalanus Crassirostris seems to be a good choice though. The larvae are free swimming so calanoida should be ok right? Link to comment
Halo_003 Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Wow how interesting, I have 3 of these in my display tank. Are the larvae free swimmers or do they scoot on the bottom too? Link to comment
land shark Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 Wow how interesting, I have 3 of these in my display tank. Are the larvae free swimmers or do they scoot on the bottom too? Hey you never posted that video. I'm not gonna tell ya till you post it. jk Anyway, they were definitely free swimming. They were very typical for larvae based on other videos I've seen. They were very attracted to the light as well. When the light came on I looked at my tank, saw a couple, turned off the pump, and in a split second they were all swimming at the top. I didn't even see where they came from. I ended up going with some tisbe biminiensis from key. Tisbe can feed on crushed flake. I didn't want to deal with phyto right now so I chose them. Should be good for the parents too as they almost exclusively feed from the bottom. If the larvae don't go for that then I will try parvo pods (smaller and free swimming). I am still interested in the way yours look and behave. Do you still have trouble observing them? I could see how they would be constantly in the rockwork with that much lr(relative to my picotope). One of mine is nearly twice the size of the other and has a way deeper red color. The larger one also looks hydrated(has a belly on her) so I think it's the female. It looks like it has a way longer spike fin too but it may just be the size difference. They both appear to live under the same rock. I have trouble seeing the smaller one. When it comes out the larger one sees it and chases it back to their home sometimes nipping its tail (never causes any damage). This happens every time I feed them. I even suspect the larger one is feeding the smaller while it cares for the eggs. I can't say for sure if the small one has a fat belly too though. I've seen many pics of FPG's with big bellies so it could just be fat. I have yet to get a good look at the small one since I let it out of the bag. The big one on the other hand is out all day hunting. I have no idea what the typical behavior is for them. Most people just say they hide all the time. Let me know how yours interact. Link to comment
Halo_003 Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Know what, you're right! I totally forgot that, here are the videos. (You can mute, audio is nothing anyways) (first short video) (second longer video) Sorry for the quality lol. I see them about daily actually, they are very shy, so they are almost never out and about when the lights are on, but in the morning hours before the lights are on you can regularly see them if you move slowly and keep still. Link to comment
land shark Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 (second longer video) You did the exact same thing as me when I started this thread. The second video is private. That is the weirdest thing ever! Mine never did that. Maybe because their was such a size difference when I added the second one it was intimidated. The small one just probably thought forget messin with this guy. Funny thing is they started out the same size at the fish shop. Thanks for posting. Link to comment
Halo_003 Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 You did the exact same thing as me when I started this thread. The second video is private. That is the weirdest thing ever! Mine never did that. Maybe because their was such a size difference when I added the second one it was intimidated. The small one just probably thought forget messin with this guy. Funny thing is they started out the same size at the fish shop. Thanks for posting. Fixed, good call. Yes I thought it was incredibly strange, never seen anything like that and they never did it again after the first day. Link to comment
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