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Discordipinna Griessingeri (Flaming Prawn Goby) Breeding Experiments


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Almost two months ago I posted about seeing possible goby larvae. I now know that I have a breeding pair of gobies. I had no activity for a while but by using typical fish breeding techniques I have gotten my gobies to spawn again. Using a crude flashlight lens and my phone I was able to get some decent pictures of the larvae. They remind me of chaos from sonic adventure :P. Most did not survive this time either unfortunately. Now that I was able to get them breeding again I will be investing in better foods and equipment. Here are some pics.

 

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Copepod

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok so what did you do? Buy 2 and they paired? This is a species high on my breeding project list but there is no info at all. The larvae look pretty big actually. There may be potential there.

 

Any notes on the behavior of the pair or eggs or hatch and starvation times? Sorry for all the questions this is a great topic!

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Glad to have interest actually. So, in a nutshell, yes I bought two and they paired. My method was very simple and is definitely a ymmv situation. I had my lfs order as many of these as they felt comfortable ordering so I could choose. Which turned out to be three. I also requested juveniles(the smallest of the small as I put it :lol:). At that time, I decided I would only get one because I wanted to wait until I knew how to sex them before I got two. Two of them had fin damage so, I chose the one without the damage.

 

A month or so went by and, at that point, I determined there was no definitive answer to finding a male or female. I decided to check in on the two I left at the store. Both had healed up and they differed in size and color. They all started out looking pretty much the same. I chose the one that was most dissimilar to the one in my tank and they paired right up. I really didn't even know they paired until I saw the larvae though. If your wondering how I know they paired so quick it's because their behavior has been the same since they met.

 

The larger, more colorful of the two is aggressive to the smaller one. The larger one can often be seen nipping the smaller one's tale, herding it back to their nest. The smaller one is always a little nipped up because of this unfortunately. The smaller one is paler in color and has a few subtle differences. Nothing stands out enough for me to say how to sex them. Size would be what I'd look for. I would say by a factor of two. Pale vs vibrant colors would be the next thing to look for. I have heard that the number of dots on the dorsal are also an indicator and I did take that into account when choosing mine. That one seems like a myth to me though. I also had someone tell me you just had to look like on a dog which is ludicrous :rolleyes:. So, it is hard to validate these things with a very limited sample size of one pair. I also have reason to believe they are sequential hermaphrodites. They seem to live in hierarchies in which the larger tail fin is the dominant. If that is the case it should be very easy to get a pair.

 

As for the eggs/hatch/larvae question, I keep them in my display pico so it is almost impossible for me to find the eggs within the lr. I am scared I may harm the fish due to their frailness. I haven't actually seen them spawn either. They reside in very small holes in the rock. It is possible that they like to lay where the rock meets the fine sand in a burrow. I see the most activity there. I have only seen two instances of larvae now. Both times I noticed them after the lights came on. Typically fish eggs hatch a few hours after lights out, which you are probably aware. I have spot lit the tank every night, sometimes up to three times a night, and have seen nothing. It just so happens the second hatching occurred on a night that I was too tired to look and had almost given up. Go figure.

 

I have attributed the second hatch to my increase in feedings and photo period. Unfortunately this makes hair algae grow like crazy. Plus not having any filter doesn't help. I fear the filter would destroy the larvae right after hatch. I only feed live pods so that helps. My levels are perfect somehow. Probably from my excessive water changes. For this reason I reduced my photo period to 7hrs for now. Before it was on for ten. Anyway, I digress.

 

I haven't found a way to know when they have spawned yet other than seeing the actual larvae. I have considered moving them to an artificial environment where I can observe them closer and be able to remove the eggs before they hatch (that sounds funny they're already in one technically, more artificial I guess :huh:). I am just afraid they may not want to spawn after that. Plus my main display would need another fish, like that's a bad thing.

 

The larvae are 2mm in size. This has been typical for lots of goby larvae. The first hatch was unexpected so I had little I could do. Most were dead within 8hrs. The second hatch I was more prepared for but not much more. I had tisbe cultures in which I screened the nauplii out of to feed the fry. I knew at the time that they would probably starve anyway. The tisbe nauplii are mostly benthic and do some free swimming. You really need pelagic copepods. I plan to get parvo's when I have the spare cash. The second batch lived about a day or so which is about as long as the first. I would say they were not eating the tisbe nauplii. I am sure these fish can be raised to adulthood If fed properly.

 

I know it's a lot to take in. I just wanted to be thorough as there is so little information on the subject. I was in the same situation as you not even that long ago. I will be documenting everything I can in this thread so keep an eye out for updates. Like your dragons btw. I've gone through the entire dragonet club thread. Would like to have a pair of those as well.

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Glad to have interest actually. So, in a nutshell, yes I bought two and they paired. My method was very simple and is definitely a ymmv situation. I had my lfs order as many of these as they felt comfortable ordering so I could choose. Which turned out to be three. I also requested juveniles(the smallest of the small as I put it :lol:). At that time, I decided I would only get one because I wanted to wait until I knew how to sex them before I got two. Two of them had fin damage so, I chose the one without the damage.

 

A month or so went by and, at that point, I determined there was no definitive answer to finding a male or female. I decided to check in on the two I left at the store. Both had healed up and they differed in size and color. They all started out looking pretty much the same. I chose the one that was most dissimilar to the one in my tank and they paired right up. I really didn't even know they paired until I saw the larvae though. If your wondering how I know they paired so quick it's because their behavior has been the same since they met.

 

The larger, more colorful of the two is aggressive to the smaller one. The larger one can often be seen nipping the smaller one's tale, herding it back to their nest. The smaller one is always a little nipped up because of this unfortunately. The smaller one is paler in color and has a few subtle differences. Nothing stands out enough for me to say how to sex them. Size would be what I'd look for. I would say by a factor of two. Pale vs vibrant colors would be the next thing to look for. I have heard that the number of dots on the dorsal are also an indicator and I did take that into account when choosing mine. That one seems like a myth to me though. I also had someone tell me you just had to look like on a dog which is ludicrous :rolleyes:. So, it is hard to validate these things with a very limited sample size of one pair. I also have reason to believe they are sequential hermaphrodites. They seem to live in hierarchies in which the larger tail fin is the dominant. If that is the case it should be very easy to get a pair.

 

As for the eggs/hatch/larvae question, I keep them in my display pico so it is almost impossible for me to find the eggs within the lr. I am scared I may harm the fish due to their frailness. I haven't actually seen them spawn either. They reside in very small holes in the rock. It is possible that they like to lay where the rock meets the fine sand in a burrow. I see the most activity there. I have only seen two instances of larvae now. Both times I noticed them after the lights came on. Typically fish eggs hatch a few hours after lights out, which you are probably aware. I have spot lit the tank every night, sometimes up to three times a night, and have seen nothing. It just so happens the second hatching occurred on a night that I was too tired to look and had almost given up. Go figure.

 

I have attributed the second hatch to my increase in feedings and photo period. Unfortunately this makes hair algae grow like crazy. Plus not having any filter doesn't help. I fear the filter would destroy the larvae right after hatch. I only feed live pods so that helps. My levels are perfect somehow. Probably from my excessive water changes. For this reason I reduced my photo period to 7hrs for now. Before it was on for ten. Anyway, I digress.

 

I haven't found a way to know when they have spawned yet other than seeing the actual larvae. I have considered moving them to an artificial environment where I can observe them closer and be able to remove the eggs before they hatch (that sounds funny they're already in one technically, more artificial I guess :huh:). I am just afraid they may not want to spawn after that. Plus my main display would need another fish, like that's a bad thing.

 

The larvae are 2mm in size. This has been typical for lots of goby larvae. The first hatch was unexpected so I had little I could do. Most were dead within 8hrs. The second hatch I was more prepared for but not much more. I had tisbe cultures in which I screened the nauplii out of to feed the fry. I knew at the time that they would probably starve anyway. The tisbe nauplii are mostly benthic and do some free swimming. You really need pelagic copepods. I plan to get parvo's when I have the spare cash. The second batch lived about a day or so which is about as long as the first. I would say they were not eating the tisbe nauplii. I am sure these fish can be raised to adulthood If fed properly.

 

I know it's a lot to take in. I just wanted to be thorough as there is so little information on the subject. I was in the same situation as you not even that long ago. I will be documenting everything I can in this thread so keep an eye out for updates. Like your dragons btw. I've gone through the entire dragonet club thread. Would like to have a pair of those as well.

Awesome awesome awesome. 8hrs seems crazy fast for starvation time. I'd bet something else killed them, how did you collect them?

 

Parvo is a good place to start, try getting your hands on S rotifers too, a lot of similar gobies have been done already on that combo. Idk how accurate you were able to measure larval length but if 2mm is accurate then that's actually not that small. I don't doubt these could be done. Join the MBI and make a thread for them.

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Be a nice little side business if you could breed them with any frequency and success.

It would be sweet to breed fish for a living. It would definitely be cool to get some cash flow from this. I'm thinking I can get this fairly consistent if I keep at it. Doing it for fun atm though.

 

Just got a good look at your larvae pictures. They look very well developed! I'm shocked, they look like they're ready to eat right off the bat.

 

I actually think the first batch died from a combo of my powerhead and temperature drop now that I think about it. I collected them with a turkey baster as gently as I could. I put them in a 2g plastic container(too small I know, I've got a 10g now) with no heater. The second batch lived longer for sure and I think they most likely starved. Used the same container with a heater, bubbler, tons of tisbe pods, and phyto. There was also a lot less of them to start with on the second batch. I probably noticed them later and lost a lot to the powerhead again. Keep in mind I don't actually know when either hatched and you could add up to 10hrs onto the time, maybe more.

 

I measured them with a very nice ruler, high precision type. They move around a lot though. I am really surprised with this larvae too. Who would have thought with such a small goby. I might get some rots later on. I don't like the idea of having to enrich them. That would mean more types of phyto I'd need to grow. I want to see where parvos and tisbe can take them first. As for MBI, I'm staying with nano reef for now. If I am successful I will be sure to post in the breeding forums. Might be avoiding some good advice though.

 

btw, I will be getting better pics the next time. I forgot to zoom in all that way. Thats why the pod pic has better magnification.

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It would be sweet to breed fish for a living. It would definitely be cool to get some cash flow from this. I'm thinking I can get this fairly consistent if I keep at it. Doing it for fun atm though.

 

 

 

I actually think the first batch died from a combo of my powerhead and temperature drop now that I think about it. I collected them with a turkey baster as gently as I could. I put them in a 2g plastic container(too small I know, I've got a 10g now) with no heater. The second batch lived longer for sure and I think they most likely starved. Used the same container with a heater, bubbler, tons of tisbe pods, and phyto. There was also a lot less of them to start with on the second batch. I probably noticed them later and lost a lot to the powerhead again. Keep in mind I don't actually know when either hatched and you could add up to 10hrs onto the time, maybe more.

 

I measured them with a very nice ruler, high precision type. They move around a lot though. I am really surprised with this larvae too. Who would have thought with such a small goby. I might get some rots later on. I don't like the idea of having to enrich them. That would mean more types of phyto I'd need to grow. I want to see where parvos and tisbe can take them first. As for MBI, I'm staying with nano reef for now. If I am successful I will be sure to post in the breeding forums. Might be avoiding some good advice though.

 

btw, I will be getting better pics the next time. I forgot to zoom in all that way. Thats why the pod pic has better magnification.

 

I wouldn't worry about the rotifers for now, get them eating parvo and see where that takes you. Rotifers are easy if it turns out you need them and they can be fed dead algae, no enrichment needed. What algae are you culturing now? You're aware you can only keep parvo on Isochrysis right?

 

Also, 2gal is plenty for these trial runs. It means less food to reach the desired concentration and water quality will be fine with live algae for tint.

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I wouldn't worry about the rotifers for now, get them eating parvo and see where that takes you. Rotifers are easy if it turns out you need them and they can be fed dead algae, no enrichment needed. What algae are you culturing now? You're aware you can only keep parvo on Isochrysis right?

 

Also, 2gal is plenty for these trial runs. It means less food to reach the desired concentration and water quality will be fine with live algae for tint.

What I meant by enrich is that they need to be fed fatty acids that the fish require. Copepods are high in the essentials on their own, without having to feed multiple types of micro algae.

 

I did not know that parvos required iso. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I think what I currently have is nanno, unfortunately. I got it from the tisbe culture I bought from key diver, sorry key. It looks like a lot of calanoids are raised on iso. There needs to be a thread or something that lists all commonly cultured plankton with diet, sizes, culture environment, etc. in one place.

 

Good point on the 2g too. I think I will stick with that until they get to meta, then switch them over to the 10g. Do you know where I might be able to get parvos with iso on the cheaper side? It would be awesome to get them from another hobbyist. No one is selling them on mbi or any other forums from what I can tell. I was planning to order from tropic pods but they are kinda overpriced, going by their tisbe pods anyhow. I really appreciate the advice. This is the first time I have ever tried to breed fish so all I know is from what I have read.

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Tisbe is a great pod for post larval fish because it is benthic. It's tough to feed it to larval fish though because it doesn't present in the strike zone enough, even though its naups are pretty small.

 

There are culture protocols available online for commercially produced calanoids such as parvo, tigriopus, Acartia tonsa and Apocyclops panamensis most calanoids will require live algae which is the real pain.

 

Reed Mariculture is absolutely the one stop shop for everything you could need except Iso. They sell 20K parvo for $20 plus shipping. Iso can be purchased online from a ton of venders depending on how much you want to start with. Algagen is my go to when I need to restart because I'm in florida.

 

I'd bet rotifers would be next to useless for these at least in the first several days, but probably not needed at all. If you're going through the trouble of growing the live Iso you may as well just back up the parvo with a second (slightly larger) copepod species like Apocyclops or A tonsa. (Apo can be grown on pastes btw)

 

On the topic of rotifers though, enrichment is becoming sort of past tense. The paste feeds available these days negate the need to enrich further. Rotifers can be cultured on complete diets such as RGComplete or RotiGrow One Step, all sold by reed, that are nutritionally balanced including fatty acid profiles.

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Good to know. I did look at reed but their shipping is $40. Tropic pods has free shipping. They have a three pack of parvo, pseudo(any opposition on this one?), and tisbe for $47 shipped. Even though I don't need tisbe that's still a decent price. I am going to contact them tomorrow and see if they can make a custom pack for me so I don't have to buy something I already have way too much of.

 

I did some more reading and it looks like nanno is one of the only commercially available phytos that pods have trouble digesting. It has a tough cell wall. I am definitely going to sell off all but one batch when I get another type. I should be able to find one of the other phytos for a reasonable price somewhere.

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Call reed and see what they say about shipping. I get my parvo shipped 2 day from them for $26 and it comes in great. I'm pretty sure tropic pods sends really small starters, doesn't give you much to work with in case you have some crash. That's why I don't like algagen copepod starters, they don't send enough to start more than one culture, so if that one craps then you have nothing.

 

EDIT: order the adult Parvo, not the naups, I made that mistake once too, the adults work much better and faster for culture starting, buying naups is only good if you're short and need them tiny right away.

 

Pseudodiaptomus is a good second pod, its a little larger but it's one commonly used when larvae outgrow parvo.

 

Another thing to keep in the back of your head when you have two different algae cultures in the house is cross contamination. You'll have to keep them apart and absolutely sterilize tools and everything between messing with cultures or you'll end up with just the stronger algae in culture.

 

Live Nanno is honestly useless, it's a waste of space other algaes could take up when there are enriched concentrated Nanno pastes available so cheaply. Tisbe doesn't require live algae so you don't need it there, and its not very nutritious or small so pelagic copepods don't do well on it. Iso and tetraselmis are the commonly cultured algae combo that many copepods do well on, but keep them apart or you'll just have tet. Look into pavlova too but not many people culture it, most copepods that eat it do fine on just Iso.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Call reed and see what they say about shipping. I get my parvo shipped 2 day from them for $26 and it comes in great. I'm pretty sure tropic pods sends really small starters, doesn't give you much to work with in case you have some crash. That's why I don't like algagen copepod starters, they don't send enough to start more than one culture, so if that one craps then you have nothing.

 

EDIT: order the adult Parvo, not the naups, I made that mistake once too, the adults work much better and faster for culture starting, buying naups is only good if you're short and need them tiny right away.

 

Pseudodiaptomus is a good second pod, its a little larger but it's one commonly used when larvae outgrow parvo.

 

Another thing to keep in the back of your head when you have two different algae cultures in the house is cross contamination. You'll have to keep them apart and absolutely sterilize tools and everything between messing with cultures or you'll end up with just the stronger algae in culture.

 

Live Nanno is honestly useless, it's a waste of space other algaes could take up when there are enriched concentrated Nanno pastes available so cheaply. Tisbe doesn't require live algae so you don't need it there, and its not very nutritious or small so pelagic copepods don't do well on it. Iso and tetraselmis are the commonly cultured algae combo that many copepods do well on, but keep them apart or you'll just have tet. Look into pavlova too but not many people culture it, most copepods that eat it do fine on just Iso.

I have a few questions for you or anyone who may know. I have been doing a lot of reading but I haven't found all the answers I am looking for. Due to contamination issues in culturing, as mentioned, I've opted to culture one algae only. From what I can tell all calanoids can be cultured on either pavlova, tetra, or t iso. Will tetra alone be good enough for the calanoids we talked about. I plan on getting all three(a. tonsa, parvo, and pseudo). Tetra is supposedly the easiest to maintain, though it is considered the least nutritious. Pavlova is considered the hardest of the three so I'm avoiding that one. T iso is the most difficult to get a hold of and is considered difficult to keep going. I am also confused on whether it matters if you get the Tahitian variety or just any isocrysis.

 

Is there a significant difference between T iso and just iso? What are your thoughts on just going with tetra alone?

 

Another issue I have run into is that copepods don't produce enough to get the food density needed in rearing larvae. I am not sure if one can culture enough without very large batch sizes even for a small scale breeding operation. I still think copepods are the only things these guys are going to survive on. I want to avoid rotifers because they will quickly over run pods and will often become too prominent in a greenwater setup. I plan to culture the pods in the greenwater, in addition to their individual containers, alongside the larvae in order keep as high of nauplii density as possible. Might try some egg collecting if needed. That's my revised plan anyhow. I guess we will have to see how this goes. I won't be inducing breeding until I get my cultures going strong. Thanks again for all the helpful info!

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I have a few questions for you or anyone who may know. I have been doing a lot of reading but I haven't found all the answers I am looking for. Due to contamination issues in culturing, as mentioned, I've opted to culture one algae only. From what I can tell all calanoids can be cultured on either pavlova, tetra, or t iso. Will tetra alone be good enough for the calanoids we talked about. I plan on getting all three(a. tonsa, parvo, and pseudo). Tetra is supposedly the easiest to maintain, though it is considered the least nutritious. Pavlova is considered the hardest of the three so I'm avoiding that one. T iso is the most difficult to get a hold of and is considered difficult to keep going. I am also confused on whether it matters if you get the Tahitian variety or just any isocrysis.

 

Is there a significant difference between T iso and just iso? What are your thoughts on just going with tetra alone?

 

Another issue I have run into is that copepods don't produce enough to get the food density needed in rearing larvae. I am not sure if one can culture enough without very large batch sizes even for a small scale breeding operation. I still think copepods are the only things these guys are going to survive on. I want to avoid rotifers because they will quickly over run pods and will often become too prominent in a greenwater setup. I plan to culture the pods in the greenwater, in addition to their individual containers, alongside the larvae in order keep as high of nauplii density as possible. Might try some egg collecting if needed. That's my revised plan anyhow. I guess we will have to see how this goes. I won't be inducing breeding until I get my cultures going strong. Thanks again for all the helpful info!

 

 

With the pods, I would suggest multiple cultures for density and redundancy. It's all on what you have space for. If you experience a crash, you'd have a backup. Not to mention risking another batch of larvae. And looking into the algae pastes will save you some time and headache. Have you looked into Florida Aqua Farms?

 

And as mentioned above, I would for sure get on the MBI website as well. Several of the guys at Reed's post there frequently. Lots of good info and you'd be really helping out the community as a whole.

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With the pods, I would suggest multiple cultures for density and redundancy. It's all on what you have space for. If you experience a crash, you'd have a backup. Not to mention risking another batch of larvae. And looking into the algae pastes will save you some time and headache. Have you looked into Florida Aqua Farms?

 

And as mentioned above, I would for sure get on the MBI website as well. Several of the guys at Reed's post there frequently. Lots of good info and you'd be really helping out the community as a whole.

Yah I know what you mean by multiple batches. I got 8 tisbe going right now. I will be reducing to three though. I can't harvest enough on all 8 cultures so it's actually caused a drop in population when you look at them individually and I'm worried about crashes. So, 3 two liters of each species is my plan for now. I've actually been putting off reducing my tisbe collection. Sad part is, when culturing, many people often end up discarding excess in order to maintain the culture yet it's costly to get a starter.

 

I have good reasons for not going with paste. Calanoids do best on live and some can't go without it. Really I've found live feed to be optimal because it actually keeps the culture from getting too high in ammonia. Same theory applies for my greenwater setup.

 

I think I will start posting in mbi as well as mofib. I even already have an account on mofib. I know there are lots of people on those forums with tons of experience. Mofib has been extremely informative and mbi has very good information too.

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As far as which algae to go with, Iso is a no brainer. It's the one algae you can grow just about any copepod with. It's not hard to get at all, Algagen sells it very affordably, Carolina Laboratories even sells 10mL lab grade cultures for like $10 if I remember correctly. It's definitely easy to get your hands on and it ships well.

 

Copepod density isn't too big of a deal actually. Remember you're talking about nutrient dense prey items, as little as 3-5 per ml is plenty in fact high prey density can actually cause larvae to stop feeding. A common problem is actually too many copepods because once they settle into the larval vessel, they can really overpopulate quickly. Parvo has proven to be a very prolific pod when kept to its liking. My parvo gets very dense actually.

 

If you're not doing rotifers don't worry about pastes. There are very few useful copepods that can be done on pastes and if you're culturing algae anyway...why even bother?

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As far as which algae to go with, Iso is a no brainer. It's the one algae you can grow just about any copepod with. It's not hard to get at all, Algagen sells it very affordably, Carolina Laboratories even sells 10mL lab grade cultures for like $10 if I remember correctly. It's definitely easy to get your hands on and it ships well.

 

Copepod density isn't too big of a deal actually. Remember you're talking about nutrient dense prey items, as little as 3-5 per ml is plenty in fact high prey density can actually cause larvae to stop feeding. A common problem is actually too many copepods because once they settle into the larval vessel, they can really overpopulate quickly. Parvo has proven to be a very prolific pod when kept to its liking. My parvo gets very dense actually.

 

If you're not doing rotifers don't worry about pastes. There are very few useful copepods that can be done on pastes and if you're culturing algae anyway...why even bother?

Thanks for letting me know. Sounds like I just need to get the ball rolling. Iso it is. I'm not sure Carolina labs has t. iso though. I'm still not sure what the difference is with the Tahitian variety, or if it has any relevance, but I have read that iso can have many differences between strains. I'd like to get it from the neptunes gardens guy but I don't think he sells anymore. I'm just going to go with seahorsesource/algagen I think. It's more expensive but I know I will be getting the right stuff. I'll call a few places Monday just in case there's a better option. It's always a hassle to get shipping costs from these places for some reason. I'm going to be ordering the algae on Monday and as soon as I have enough to start culturing pods I'll order those. After that the light cycle goes to 12hrs with feedings twice a day and we should see larvae again.

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That's the worst part, splitting shipping, because you can't really buy the pods and the algae at the same time.

 

I'm not aware of differences between the Iso strains. I know they vary in color with Tahitian being a chocolate brown. That's the one Algagen sells. Does Carolina not sell it anymore? I grew their strain for a while last year because mine all crashed and I found someone else growing Iso that they got from Carolina so I bought a starter from them. It was dark brown like the Iso I got from Algagen but I never checked on it against the website.

 

I think if you follow basic instructions for culturing both Iso and Parvo, you'll be successful at least with them. The larviculture part takes some trial and error playing with air flow, prey densities prey sizes and so on. Keep this thread updated ill help as I can.

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Carolina sells iso but it doesn't specify it's Tahitian.

 

This, link, is the thread that had me concerned. Along with this thread, link. Almost every culture thread says they use T. Iso so after reading that I figured it had some significance. I did see some other threads with people using different types of isochrysis. I'm thinking I should shoot for the T. Iso even if it's more costly to get. I had an issue signing up for MBI, never got an email conformation, but I am going to see if someone on MOFIB can chime in on this. I'll report back here if I find an answer.

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I never really paid much mind to the strain source that Carolina sold. I bought the starter and didn't note anything weird about it so I never looked further into it. I checked out both links you posted and its weird that people said they got green cultures from Carolina. To my knowledge there are no green strains of the algae.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Unfortunate news today. The larger of the two, Gunter, is almost gone. Don't know what happened. Something with his fins, probably bacterial. Looks like this is gonna be put on hold for a while. Don't know if I'll be able to find another to breed. :( Not sure if I should stop culturing the algae. I won't be needing it now.

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  • 2 years later...

This seems to be the only information I can find on breeding Flaming prawn gobies. I THINK I have found eggs in my nano tank inside a barnacle 'cave'. They appear pink and located toward the 'roof' of the cave. I can't get a good picture. I have seen some posts about removing the eggs before they hatch  - is it best to leave them alone? I didn't see in this thread how many days before they hatch, or how often the spawning was?

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On 8/12/2018 at 1:22 PM, Lori said:

This seems to be the only information I can find on breeding Flaming prawn gobies. I THINK I have found eggs in my nano tank inside a barnacle 'cave'. They appear pink and located toward the 'roof' of the cave. I can't get a good picture. I have seen some posts about removing the eggs before they hatch  - is it best to leave them alone? I didn't see in this thread how many days before they hatch, or how often the spawning was?

:welcome:

 

I never saw the eggs only the larva. The fish are so small they can get into every nook and cranny. They lived literally inside my live rock as if the tiny tunnels were a vast cave network. They laid inside the rock near the sand. I only assume cause I vaguely remember seeing fry come out from there.

 

Did you ever see larva? What else is in the tank? I would love to see someone get these to settle. If I had another pair, I would isolate them in a breeder with a single piece of LR, some sand, and some macro algae. I would feed the pair heavy twice a day. Just be careful to not soil the water. I would also try to feed the fry rotifers first as apposed to trying the more difficult copepods. Unfortunately, I lost one of the fish shortly after due to ich, I think. Whats on this thread is really all the info I got for you. I got them to breed every month or two but I know they would breed more with proper feeding and water quality. Also, I would not remove the eggs unless you were able to breed frequently and have enough to experiment as it can kill the eggs from air exposure or rough handling. The main reason for doing so is to prevent predatorization or to more easily control parameters.

 

Please let me know if you make any discoveries or start a log thread. I would love to follow along and help any way I can.

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