Australian Breeding Challenge Poll- winner= coral gobies

[damer]

Ok, sorry to everyone for the delay. i have a bit going on at the moment.

here is a poll to make it all offical. well, at least allow us to get started.

PLEASE

1) only vote if you are genuinely interested in participating, no matter what the outcome is. if you are not going to participate if a certain species doesnt get over the line, then please dont vote. (edit: if the winning species is totally unsuitable for your tank, im sure people wont feel bad towards you not going ahead)

2) only vote if you are prepared to copy all the information onto MOFIB

3) take into consideration ability to get broodstock. ie coral sea fish may be hard to get

4) take into consideration some species are not that easy to breed.


could everyone reply with a "voted" post so we know who is prepared to participate.


Here is some more information from Christian. thanks for that.

Meiacanthus grammistes-striped fang blenny
M. reticulatus - Coral Sea Fang blenny

Broodstock (adult fish) can be a bit tricky to maintain, but are generally robust fish, spawn readily and larvae are easyish to rear on rotifers and BBS.

Assessor flavissumus- yellow assessors
A. macneilli- blue assessors

Not so easy to pair or spawn, but rearing is ment ot be quite easy, again rotifers and bbs.

Pictichromis paccagnellae- royal dottyback
P. diadema- diadem dottyback

Both species easy to get, pairing in bigger tanks is easy, not so easy in small tanks. Rearing will be more difficult. But Doable.

Gobiodon sp. - Coral Gobies.

Probably the easiest to pair, bidirectional sex change, but the harest and smallest to rear, could need s or ss (small or super small) strain rotifers.


Seahorses- species to be determined

Broodstock hard to maintain, juvs easy to rear.

pipefish- species to be determined

Easy to obtain broodstock, easy to spawn, difficult to pair i think? and relatively easy to rear larvae on rots and bbs.

any questions, or if i have stuffed something up, please let me know.




Damien

[PaulG]

Voted

[Hunts25]

Voted

[Chris]

Damien you migth wish to cut and paste this in your orgional post.

Some very basic assessment of different species and their difficulty


Meiacanthus grammistes-striped fang blenny
M. reticulatus - Coral Sea Fang blenny

Broodstock (adult fish) can be a bit tricky to maintain, but are generally robust fish, spawn readily and larvae are easyish to rear on rotifers and BBS.

Assessor flavissumus- yellow assessors
A. macneilli- blue assessors

Not so easy to pair or spawn, but rearing is ment ot be quite easy, again rotifers and bbs.

Pictichromis paccagnellae- royal dottyback
P. diadema- diadem dottyback

Both species easy to get, pairing in bigger tanks is easy, not so easy in small tanks. Rearing will be more difficult. But Doable.

Gobiodon sp. - Coral Gobies.

Probably the easiest to pair, bidirectional sex change, but the harest and smallest to rear, could need s or ss (small or super small) strain rotifers.


Seahorses- species to be determined

Broodstock hard to maintain, juvs easy to rear.

pipefish- species to be determined

Easy to obtain broodstock, easy to spawn, difficult to pair i think? and relatively easy to rear larvae on rots and bbs.

Christian

[damer]

Damien you migth wish to cut and paste this in your orgional post.

Done. thanks for that.

Voted.

[chrismelb]

Voted,

Thanks for organising Damien

[Chris]

have we got an end date for this poll Damien?

CHristian

[Chantelle]

Chris you mention with the seahorses that:

"Seahorses- species to be determined

Broodstock hard to maintain, juvs easy to rear."

Seahorses are hardy and easy to maintain if they are bought as captive bred (CB) and there are several species that are CB and available in Australia. They are also easy to determine the sex and are known to breed readily.

Unfortunately Im not going to be able to put a vote in as I am limited with space/tanks etc and current stock already within the tanks and some of these fish are very incompatible with what I have. Maybe next time?

[Chris]

Chantelle, your probably right, but do you think i could keep the little buggers alive?

I think breeding seahorses is a higher skill in itself, ahh well.

Christian

[damer]

Chris, i set it for 7 days.

could everyone reply with a "voted" post so we know who is prepared to participate.

mmmmm strange, 11 votes and only 4 "voted"s


chantelle,

i have edited my original post to

1) only vote if you are genuinely interested in participating, no matter what the outcome is. if you are not going to participate if a certain species doesnt get over the line, then please dont vote. (edit: if the winning species is totally unsuitable for your tank, im sure people wont feel bad towards you not going ahead)

i wanted to deter people just voting for the sake of it. if the species is unsuitable, it wouldnt be expected that you would have to put it in your tank.

[Chris]

I voted days ago damien, does that make you happy now!!!

Christian

[Mr Miagi]

Voted

[KirTracid]

voted.

[Chris]

Hmmm Coral Gobies are in the lead, this could be very interesting!!!

Christian

[Chantelle]

Thanks Damer!

Voted.

[Hunts25]

anyone have s or ss strain rots

[damer]

I voted days ago damien, does that make you happy now!!!

Yep

[KirTracid]

Very interesting considering them to be one of the harder ones to raise. Always like that, everyone wants to chose the hard ones, eh? =P
I won't be in with a chance, but it'll be a bit of fun and a good thing to do with all the small uneeded tanks I have. Easy to source also which is good for most.

[Chris]

hmmmm well i didnt vote for them but the coral gobies got another vote, this will be very interesting.

Hunts i dont have s or ss but i suspect i might be able to get some. Want to try on normal rots first though.

Have to find some pairs, which species is the question.

CHristian

[KirTracid]

Well it sounds a bit broad so far. How about the G.histrio young, are they larger and able to be raised on normal rots compared to G.okinawae?

[Chris]

Kirsty, my limited understand of this group, it makes no difference which specie syou choose, all need similar conditions to rear.

Christian

[Chantelle]

Ive got rotifers, not sure what strand they are though. Ive got them on hand incase my seahorses breed, that way I wont need to panic and try sourcing some at the last minute. Really easy to keep. I feed them to one of my gorgonians thats non-photo. Yummy!

[chrismelb]

Whilst i dont want to discourage people for attempting to try breeding coral gobies, they are my fav fish, loads of personality and species i voted for but according to Witenrich (2007) G.okinawae may be slightly more difficult to raise. He suggests that it takes approx. 5 days before larvae of coral gobies can accept normal sized rotifers (~240UM). I remember researching this species, found that very few people have successfully raised them.

Does anyone know of poeple who have bred them, especially here in AU? I remember names such as The Ediaz and Luis AM from MOFIB have had some success and also the tropical marine hatchery http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/hatchery/species-list.asp

[Chris]

Hi Chris, I share your concerns, I will ask Luis about it see what he says, Who knows i might be on the BOD with him now!!! Crossing my fingers.

Edgar is going to europe i believe so i will try to go through his old info, he does say its easy, but edgar has a good touch and his easy is impossible for most!!!

Christian

[KirTracid]

There seem to be few people in general, let alone in Oz. With small size, time till adult hood and long tim until of sellable size (for a dodgy rice) most people just haven't found it worth it fortunately. Seeing as we're not looking fr financial gain, a group of us together may as able to make som eadvances.
Nothing wromg with a challenge, puts everyone on a bit of an ewual ground.

[Mr Miagi]

There seem to be few people in general, let alone in Oz. With small size, time till adult hood and long tim until of sellable size (for a dodgy rice) most people just haven't found it worth it fortunately. Seeing as we're not looking fr financial gain, a group of us together may as able to make som eadvances.
Nothing wromg with a challenge, puts everyone on a bit of an ewual ground.

Could be a chance to test a co-op Chris?

Is this going to be a strict "competition" or a loose "fun" see what you can do with it kind of thing?

Id like to move some Gobies (G. histrio) into my new frag set-up to pair off. If there is going to be strict time limits I wont bother until we set a date, but if I could get started that would help me in my moving things process.

Good thing about the Gobies and their small food issue is our ease of accessing wild Plankton (for some of us near-shore residents anyway).

[Chris]

HI Ben

Look if anyone breeds heaps ill buy them off you!!! Co-op not sure, considered it before but probably to unmanagable in australia.

The final words with Damien, this is his baby, really bugger all to do with me. I personally think we make a comp out of it, MOFIB has gone the non comp rought and im not sure it helps.

So i cant comment on when it would start, i would hope soon, but we need this vote to close first, so go gramisties!!!

Christian

[Hunts25]

I'm sure if someone posted a picture of Meiacanthus grammistes, it would spark a bit of interest. If this species was chosen, where would we source brood stock. I have never seen one in a lfs

[abbott75]

If this species was chosen, where would we source brood stock. I have never seen one in a lfs

They're readily available, wholesaling for about $15 each. Any reputable LFS will have no trouble getting them in. (Well, until they all of the sudden become wanted )

Adam

[damer]

Id like to move some Gobies (G. histrio) into my new frag set-up to pair off. If there is going to be strict time limits I wont bother until we set a date, but if I could get started that would help me in my moving things process.

Good thing about the Gobies and their small food issue is our ease of accessing wild Plankton (for some of us near-shore residents anyway).

settle down buddy, they havent won yet

the poll was set for 7 days, so should finish on thursday.

i guess the announcement will be made then, and i have no problems with starting the next day.

i remember edgar mentioning on MOFIB or RC that coral gobies are not that hard, then again he said the same about grammas and black caps.


competition- i dont know. if that is what everyone wants. who do we decide is the winner? first person to have them through met?

so go gramisties