Yellow clown gobi eggs.

[Paul B]

These clown gobies have been spawning for over a year but this is the first time I can see the eggs. You can see them just to the right of the clown gobi who is on the left. Those little "bubbles" are eggs. They cover about 3/4" of the piece of that coral and the eggs will kill that spot on the coral. The other dead parts on that coral were buried while I was in Hawaii 2 weeks ago and I will cut them off so they re grow.
Now all my fish are spawning except my copperband and we know that ain't happening.
That includes firefish, mandarins, watchman gobies, threadfin cardinals and two other cardinals. The bluestriped pipefish lived out their life and I don't have them any longer, but they spawned a number of times also.
I was away for 12 days and during that time the fish were only fed every other day which may have induced them to spawn, although I am guessing.



You can see the eggs just under the gill of the left gobi

 

[Akshay]

Wow! This is so amazing... I wish you would try and rear them as an experiment. Would be a great learning curve for all of us. Who knows eventually we could give something back to the ocean!

 

[Paul B]

Actually, the gobies don't think it is so amazing as they spawn all the time. I don't have the time to raise fish any more and I am not even prepared. I would have had to order some rotifers and green water last week, and I would have to make a device to collect the fry as they hatch. My fish spawn all the time and it is very time consuming to raise them. Maybe in the winter I will raise a batch but I am not home much any more to do that.
If you lived near me I would try to catch them as they hatch and I would give them to you.

That firefish should be fireclowns, I made a mistake.

That includes firefish, mandarins, watchman gobies, threadfin cardinals and two other cardinals.

 

[Paul B]

They laid another batch of eggs. I am glad they laid eggs but they really are destroying that coral. After the eggs hatch, that place is dead and algae grows there. From sitting on other parts of the coral, they also kill that. The coral will grow back, but I can see that a bunch of these fish spawning could really decimate a small patch of acropora.

 

[DianaKay]

They laid another batch of eggs. I am glad they laid eggs but they really are destroying that coral. After the eggs hatch, that place is dead and algae grows there. From sitting on other parts of the coral, they also kill that. The coral will grow back, but I can see that a bunch of these fish spawning could really decimate a small patch of acropora.

That's a good thing to know....I still think they are a really CUTE little fish tho!
You're just making them so HaPpY that they don't think you'll get mad if they kill your coral

 

[Paul B]

I won't

 

[DaveK]

...If you lived near me I would try to catch them as they hatch and I would give them to you...

I wish I was in a position to take you up on this, and I'm not that far from you, but like everyone else, I got to get involved working for a living. (grin) It would be an interesting project.

 

[Akshay]

Yup no worries, winter is nearby. Wld jst like to see how and what you would do to keep the fry going and in the process we might also get to learn about the life cycle of a different fish.

 

[Paul B]

You just put them in a small tank with a lot of rotifers and hope for the best. I have raised quite a few fish. It is not hard, just time comsuming.

 

[Akshay]

Which fish have you raised? Do you have pictures?

 

[Akshay]

....or perhaps a thread where its documented...?

 

[Paul B]

Which fish have you raised? Do you have pictures?

I have not raised fry in perhaps 20 years and if I did have any pictures, they would be on film and not digital. I don't remember taking pictures probably because the fry are so tiny, that I would not be able to get a picture of them. The only saltwater species I raised to adulthood that I remember were clownfish a few times, blue devils and seahorses, many times.
Now I just let them spawn and I would assume, everything eats the young, just like in nature. I could not collect these fry in my 6' long tank. Here are some pictures of my fish spawning that I do have on digital because they are recent.
These mandarins are spawning.



These watchmans spawned many times for about 10 years.


Here is the female with her eggs.

This bluestripe spawned many times, I did post the pictures of the female with the eggs, but I don't have it on file any more.


This male blue devil is over his nest of eggs, this picture was from about 1972. They hatched and I raised them.



Here is a picture of their eggs. Try to take a picture of those fry.



These coral banded shrimp spawned for 7 years in the 70s.


These guys spawn in that bottle and I can't get a picture. The larger male is 20 years old.


These seahorses, which i collected myself, are here in the process of the female transfering the eggs to the male. I raised these a few times. This was in my reef. I do have pictures of these, but I would have to look through hundreds of real pictures on film to find them.


These octopus hatched in a small tank but I was unable to raise them. This was probably 30 years ago.

Here is a link explaining how I got the seahoses to spawn and the device I invented to feed them.
http://www.saltcorner.com/Articles/Showarticle.php?articleID=26

And here is an article about the lettuce slugs I raised.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/11846

These guys.