Rhinogobius maxillivirgatus Breeding Log

[Angelphish]

Nitrates were at 20-30 ppm still, pH starts at 7.4 and drops to 6.8 after co2, and tds is 506 ppm. The co2 runs for about 11-13 hrs a day, so I'd estimate that they spend about half the at each pH.

Something I forgot to mention is that the tank is fed one cube of blood worms daily, so they enough to eat until they're more than full.

I haven't noticed the pair swimming together today, and it seems like the females stomach is _ever so slightly_ less bulged, and her breeding tube seems to be retracted just a hair, though given that the differences are so small I could very well just be imagining it... Regardless, it gives me the slightest suspicion that they may have laid eggs last night or today while I was at school, and they got eaten. If I knew how long most fish kept their breeding tubes after laying eggs before it retracts, I'd be able to determine whether this is a valid concern, but there doesn't seem to be any information on it... Hopefully this isn't the case, and they just need more time.

tlindsey I stopped by my lfs and picked up brine shrimp egg/salt mix, and a mesh breeder box, as it was all they had. Will this work, or should I still get an hob breeder box?

What do you think the chances are that they already laid the eggs, but they were eaten? As of this morning, the female's breeding tube still appears to be visible.

Another reason I think might explain why they stopped with the courtship is that the Sicyopus started getting somewhat territorial. I'll try moving him to the breeder box for a week or two and see if that changes anything.

 

[Angelphish]

I did some reading, and apparantly rhinogobius can lay quite a few eggs, or at least some species do. I forget which species they were, but I read that one can lay 600-1700 eggs, and another species can lay 3000-4000, so it seems likely that I may be overwhelmed with fry... I also read that the fry of the second species are extremely small, so small that roifers were sometimes too large to eat, and it could take a month before they could even eat baby brine shrimp. If this is the case for my fry, the only thing I can think of to do is let them graze off algae and then offer freeze dried rotifers.

 

[Angelphish]

I think my other female may have dropped her tube aswell, but it's rather difficult to tell as she's quite skittish. The only thing I'm concerned about is that she doesn't look like the other female... She doesn't have any of the markings the other female has, but rather is just a solid beige, and she's slightly smaller than the other female aswell. I almost want to say she's another species... If that's the case, hopefully the eggs will be fertile and I'll get hybrids, which I've read has occured with Rhinogobius before.

 

[Angelphish]

I think my other female may have dropped her tube aswell, but it's rather difficult to tell as she's quite skittish. The only thing I'm concerned about is that she doesn't look like the other female... She doesn't have any of the markings the other female has, but rather is just a solid beige, and she's slightly smaller than the other female aswell. I almost want to say she's another species... If that's the case, hopefully the eggs will be fertile and I'll get hybrids, which I've read has occured with Rhinogobius before.

Forgot to add the pictures. The differently colored female is on the left in both.

 

[Angelphish]

I've been busy with other things recently, so this project has been put on the back burner, though I do have one update. I did an 80% monthly water change this time, and within a week later the female had her tube dropped and was full of eggs, so big water changes seem to be the key to success. Unfortunately I wasn't present/awake to see the eggs being laid, I simply noticed the female wasn't pregnant anymore, so they were presumably eaten again. Hopefully I'll get lucky in the future and be able to separate the eggs before that happens.

 

[Angelphish]

Take three. Female seems to be pregnant again, and I just did another big water change to try to encourage spawning. We'll see what happens.