Citron gobies

[Ummfish]

Noticed the citrons being bozos on the glass, and--lo and behold--they were up to no good!

Those aren't copepods on the glass.

Here's a millimeter scale shot at the same resolution as the eggs and with an egg superimposed:

Video to follow as soon as YouTube gets done with it.

 

[Ummfish]

Here's the short version of the movie featuring the female. I have a longer version that's uploading now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa3lD2RVuIY

It looks like the pair ate this nest. Typical for a first spawn, though.

 

[Kmiec123]

Nice catch on the gobies....I'm still watching for Green coris Wrasse action.

 

[Ummfish]

Oooo, that would be cool. Good luck with them!

 

[Tom Lang]

Andy - We'd love to receive your Spawning Report for Gobiodon citrinus over at the Breeder's Registry, when you have a chance!

 

[Ummfish]

Citron gobies are spawning again tonight. This time they chose an actual coral to spawn on:

I'm surprised. The one in the photo took a big piece of urchin spine in the side (black mark on its left side in photo) earlier in the week and I thought I was going to lose it. But the wound healed over and it's been doing fine.

 

[Ummfish]

I'm sure they are done now, so I can risk glass cleaning and flash from below.

The complete photo:

100% crop:

200%:

 

[Evgen]

Good gobies!
In this thime what "say" Your gobi?
Your have done young generation?

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think he's gotten live fry from the spawning events just yet. Pretty neat, isn't it?

Fantastic photos, Umm. You've got yourself some good glass, don't you? When are you going to start offering captive-bred citron gobies?

 

[Ummfish]

Thank you both! I have not collected yet. I've just gotten the larval system running and stocked with rotifers and have been planning to start with sixline wrasses over the last few days. But I've had some spawning problems from them that I think I've narrowed down to the fact that they don't like the 24/7 light from the BBS hatcher. So, that's been moved and tonight we'll try again.

It's too bad, as the citrons probably had eggs hatch last night (lights in the tank aren't on yet to check), so I could have tried. But they seem to be on a solid 4 day schedule. Maybe I could get the second rearing tub plumbed for the next batch, but more likely the one after. They are supposed to be really tough to raise, though. They are very, very small at hatching.

The camera is just an old Canon 20D with the 100mm macro lens. Nothing too fancy.

 

[Anonymous]

I love looking at your threads 8)

 

[Ummfish]

Thank you.

I want to say up-front that I have _not_ given up on the sixlines. But they are being difficult right now (everything's set up and ready and they stopped spawning). So, in an effort to encourage them to get their act together I decided that I would try collecting some other larvae and see if I can make them jealous.

So, I set up the monster of a larvae snagger:

And got some gobies, first night. I need to tweak the placement a bit as the catch was a bit disappointing. But the live ones went into the larval rearing tank. This little guy didn't make it, but bravely volunteered to go under the microscope for me: