Tailspot Blenny Pair W/ Eggs

[FreeEnergyReefer]

Hey guys, in the nano lives a pair of blennys that's it no other fish. The tanks diy automated so I'm not hands in daily. I started not seeing but the one blenny swimming around. I gave it about a week, then started looking last night. I found her with a clutch of eggs! In a corner so tight inbetween the glass and a rock of gsp. I literally can't get a picture. Her behavior is different she stays on those eggs almost 24/7. Only after watching for a long while, did I see the male go back and guard the eggs so the female could grab a quick bite. 2 things worth mentioning, right before the female dissappeared the male dugout/made numerous homes and burrows all around the tank. When I found the eggs my gf said i told you I seen them dancing " I will try again this evening to get a pic of the eggs and post. But, the reason I am sharing this experience is in hope that someone has had experience in successfully rearing Tailspot Blenny larvae will comment and share their experience and advice.
I culture and dose my own phytoplankton daily. I have equipment for rotifers also but haven't started them yet.
When I searched this topic online all I could find was how supposedly hard it was to get these blennys to pair, mate and lay eggs. Didn't find one article on anyone evening researching this. All advice is appreciated Thank-you

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey guys, in the nano lives a pair of blennys that's it no other fish. The tanks diy automated so I'm not hands in daily. I started not seeing but the one blenny swimming around. I gave it about a week, then started looking last night. I found her with a clutch of eggs! In a corner so tight inbetween the glass and a rock of gsp. I literally can't get a picture. Her behavior is different she stays on those eggs almost 24/7. Only after watching for a long while, did I see the male go back and guard the eggs so the female could grab a quick bite. 2 things worth mentioning, right before the female dissappeared the male dugout/made numerous homes and burrows all around the tank. When I found the eggs my gf said i told you I seen them dancing " I will try again this evening to get a pic of the eggs and post. But, the reason I am sharing this experience is in hope that someone has had experience in successfully rearing Tailspot Blenny larvae will comment and share their experience and advice.
I culture and dose my own phytoplankton daily. I have equipment for rotifers also but haven't started them yet.
When I searched this topic online all I could find was how supposedly hard it was to get these blennys to pair, mate and lay eggs. Didn't find one article on anyone evening researching this. All advice is appreciated Thank-you

You're probably out of luck with finding someone who has reared them successfully - ORA claimed the first confirmed rearing of an Escenius species (E. gravieri) back in 2014, and that's the only confirmed rearing of an Escenius species I can find.

Red Sea Mimic Blenny | Ecsenius gravieri | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

Captive Bred Red Sea Mimic Blennies are now available from ORA. These beautiful fish are near perfect mimics of the Blackline Fang Blenny.

www.orafarm.com

Based on this, I'd assume you'll probably need more than rotifers - I'd guess you'd need Parvocalanus crassirostris pods (or other, super tiny pods - but Parvocalanus are by far the easiest to find on the market at the moment), and you'll probably build up slowly from Parvo nauplii to Artemia nauplii over the course of the rearing.

Some general advice that might help:
- Have a tank ready to move the larvae into (basically a tank with an air stone, a dim light, and a heater - a kreisel tank is ideal, but not necessary; you don't want a filter, a skimmer, uncovered pumps/powerheads, etc. - it needs to be as pelagic larvae safe as possible).
- Be prepared to catch the young when they hatch (ideally, you'd be able to move the eggs immediately before hatching into the new tank, but I'm assuming you don't know exactly when they'll hatch) - catch them and move them into the larval rearing tank as soon as possible.

Assuming you have fertile eggs, the advice I would give is this:
- if possible, get some Parvocalanus crassirostris pods too (rotifers are great, and I would expect the larvae to go for them, but some fish larvae are picky and prefer pods over rotifers - having both seems like a good way to ensure you have good, small foods for them... Artemia and other larger pod species would likely be good to have on hand too for the larvae as they grow.

- Get various sizes of very fine sieves so you can control the size of the feeders being offered to the larvae as/if needed.

- Add phyto directly to the larval rearing tank. It’s a good method of ensuring that the feeders are gut-loaded and healthy, and it makes them easier for the fish to see (better feeding/survival rates are typically observed with this method).
- Observe and note information about the larvae (things like how big the eggs are, how big the larvae are, when the larvae settle, when coloration comes in, etc.) and the larval behaviors (stuff like if they are attracted to light, how they react to light, if they are attracted to certain colors, what feeders they eat and what what sizes of feeders they eat at what days post hatch, what kind of substrate they prefer to settle on, are they cannibalistic, etc.).

- Watch for developmental bottlenecks and issues with your rearing methods.

- A lot of people run into feeder issues their first few times breeding, so I’d have a backup plan in place to be able to get some feeders quickly if you find yourself needing some.

With regards to the sieves and feeder sizes:
- You may need to screen the feed initially to only offer Parvocalanus nauplii.
- Observing the larvae eating when/if possible is important for telling if they are accepting/able to eat the food you are offering them.

Generally the main thing to watch for at this stage is a bottleneck where the young start dying off - these usually happen after a few days (day three post hatch seems to be one of the most common bottleneck days for fish that hatch with a yolk they can feed off of - if the rots and phyto don’t provide the proper nutrition for these guys, you might see a die off sometime around here). Some fish run into multiple bottlenecks, including some that happen around/after 2-3 weeks post hatch, so you really need to keep an eye on how things are going. Bottlenecks typically occur because the food the fry is eating isn’t nutritious enough for them, or they’re not interested in eating the food offered, or the food isn’t the proper size for them to eat.

if you do run into a bottleneck and lose this batch, don’t get too disappointed by it - this happens frequently in trying to breed a new species (even to the professionals), and every attempt gets one step closer to success.

With regards to the substrate settlement:
- Some species need sand, rock, dark areas, specific colors, or other oddly specific things to settle on/in (from what I've seen, inverts are usually a lot more picky with this), so it may help to have a ledge or cave (PVC should be fine for this, if it's even needed, which I honestly kind of doubt) and a little sand in the larval rearing tank.


That’s all I can think of at the moment - hope it helps!

 

[UltraKelius]

Wow exciting! Wishing you best of luck with this, I don’t have any knowledge in raising these but I hope you get a chance to give it a go

 

[DaJMasta]

The behavior sounds similar to a lot of gobies including masked gobies which I've been intermittently attempting. You'll find out what the egg incubation time is (maybe a week or so?), and the babies will probably hatch out at night, probably within a couple hours of lights out. I would turn off the wavemakers but leave your main circulation pump at night and then look with a flashlight for little, clear, line shaped fish. If you see a couple, tonight is the night, and you can try to catch them when they come out in higher numbers.

A larval catcher may work, but I'm a fan of sieves (I use 2 cup measures with a window cutout and filled with mesh) for collection - if they are phototactic, gathering them up should be easy, but at least the masked gobies aren't (though most larvae are).

From there you transfer to your vessel to raise them. It varies between species, but it seems like lower circulation with an airstone is a good place to start, and I would feed them immediately (some species don't have functional digestive systems for a time, though).

The larvae may be very small, so rotifers are probably a good starting place for the fry, though I'd agree that more nutritious and eventually larger live foods are probably important to getting them to settlement. Adding some phyto to tint the vessel is probably also good, both to feed the live foods, and to increase visibility of the foods.

Parvocalanus nauplii is the sort of go-to recommendation for very small foods, but I've found the cultures difficult to maintain in the long term, and they're not the only ones with tiny nauplii. I've so far not successfully fed masked goby fry on copepods alone, even feeding nauplii that are caught by a 45um screen but get through a 200um screen, but I've recently checked with a 25um screen and there are definitely nauplii getting through (and I've got apocyclops, tisbe, tigriopus, and euterpina), so there should be some other options for very fine copepod foods. If the larvae end up being reasonable starting size, the very fine sieves may not be required, though you'd likely still want to screen out the adults before feeding the early stage fry.


It will be challenging, but I've found attempting to raise various larvae rewarding, and I'm still gradually making progress. Good luck!

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

You're probably out of luck with finding someone who has reared them successfully - ORA claimed the first confirmed rearing of an Escenius species (E. gravieri) back in 2014, and that's the only confirmed rearing of an Escenius species I can find.

Red Sea Mimic Blenny | Ecsenius gravieri | ORA | Oceans, Reefs & Aquariums

Captive Bred Red Sea Mimic Blennies are now available from ORA. These beautiful fish are near perfect mimics of the Blackline Fang Blenny.

www.orafarm.com

Based on this, I'd assume you'll probably need more than rotifers - I'd guess you'd need Parvocalanus crassirostris pods (or other, super tiny pods - but Parvocalanus are by far the easiest to find on the market at the moment), and you'll probably build up slowly from Parvo nauplii to Artemia nauplii over the course of the rearing.

Some general advice that might help:
- Have a tank ready to move the larvae into (basically a tank with an air stone, a dim light, and a heater - a kreisel tank is ideal, but not necessary; you don't want a filter, a skimmer, uncovered pumps/powerheads, etc. - it needs to be as pelagic larvae safe as possible).
- Be prepared to catch the young when they hatch (ideally, you'd be able to move the eggs immediately before hatching into the new tank, but I'm assuming you don't know exactly when they'll hatch) - catch them and move them into the larval rearing tank as soon as possible.

With regards to the sieves and feeder sizes:
- You may need to screen the feed initially to only offer Parvocalanus nauplii.
- Observing the larvae eating when/if possible is important for telling if they are accepting/able to eat the food you are offering them.


With regards to the substrate settlement:
- Some species need sand, rock, dark areas, specific colors, or other oddly specific things to settle on/in (from what I've seen, inverts are usually a lot more picky with this), so it may help to have a ledge or cave (PVC should be fine for this, if it's even needed, which I honestly kind of doubt) and a little sand in the larval rearing tank.


That’s all I can think of at the moment - hope it helps!

Thank-you so

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

Thank-you all so much for your help. Here's couple pics I could snag of the eggs n mom from last Thursday. I'm on the way home now. I will keep everyone updated

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

Only fish in there are mom n dad. WaveMaker schedule turns down to %1 at night. I ⁵⁵58⁰hope they don't eat their young before i can net em out. I have one of those mini shrimp nets. And can put em in the Lil 2.5g w/ the mangroves. No powerheads n gravity overflow.

 

[sabeypets]

Don't use a net! Scoop them out, larvae trap, or the other method would be to siphon. How are you planning on keeping them and their live food in a tank with a gravity overflow system?

 

[Tamberav]

Only fish in there are mom n dad. WaveMaker schedule turns down to %1 at night. I ⁵⁵58⁰hope they don't eat their young before i can net em out. I have one of those mini shrimp nets. And can put em in the Lil 2.5g w/ the mangroves. No powerheads n gravity overflow.

I am pretty sure you will damage them with a net. Also pretty sure you can not have an overflow.

Larval Trap Aquatics

If you have ever tried collecting fish larvae in an aquarium it is a time consuming tedious task, that will usually require you to stay up late at night after the lights go out with minimal results. The Vossen Larval Trap is a very simple and easy to use for fish fry and larvae. The included...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Vossen's Larval trap | Vossen Aquatics

VOSSEN LARVAL TRAPS ARE MADE TO ORDER. Expect about 2 weeks for orders to ship. The Vossen’s Larval trap is an essential tool for any marine breeder, from beginner to advanced. The trap works by luring the larvae to the opening of the trap with an LED light lure (included!), and sucking the...

www.vossenaquatics.com

The Vossen’s Larval trap is an essential tool for any marine breeder, from beginner to advanced. The trap works by luring the larvae to the opening of the trap with an LED light lure (included!), and sucking the larvae into the trap with an air lift, trapping the larvae in the holding compartment until you retrieve them. This trap works for any phototrophic larvae, such as clownfish, gobies, gramma, damsels, blennies, dottybacks, shrimp, crabs, and many more. This trap is essential for some species that are not easily collected with other methods. All you need to operate this trap is an air pump

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

I am pretty sure you will damage them with a net. Also pretty sure you can not have an overflow.

Larval Trap Aquatics

If you have ever tried collecting fish larvae in an aquarium it is a time consuming tedious task, that will usually require you to stay up late at night after the lights go out with minimal results. The Vossen Larval Trap is a very simple and easy to use for fish fry and larvae. The included...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Vossen's Larval trap | Vossen Aquatics

VOSSEN LARVAL TRAPS ARE MADE TO ORDER. Expect about 2 weeks for orders to ship. The Vossen’s Larval trap is an essential tool for any marine breeder, from beginner to advanced. The trap works by luring the larvae to the opening of the trap with an LED light lure (included!), and sucking the...

www.vossenaquatics.com

The Vossen’s Larval trap is an essential tool for any marine breeder, from beginner to advanced. The trap works by luring the larvae to the opening of the trap with an LED light lure (included!), and sucking the larvae into the trap with an air lift, trapping the larvae in the holding compartment until you retrieve them. This trap works for any phototrophic larvae, such as clownfish, gobies, gramma, damsels, blennies, dottybacks, shrimp, crabs, and many more. This trap is essential for some species that are not easily collected with other methods. All you need to operate this trap is an air pump

Thanks but I'm pretty sure we're just gonna let nature run it's course. I'm pretty sure if I can see them theyre not gonna get damaged with that soft butt silk shrimp net. I dose live phytoplankton daily and as a result there is plenty of zoo plankton floating around in there. Plus there's algae on a few rocks and sea veggies on a clip if they make it they make it.

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

Don't use a net! Scoop them out, larvae trap, or the other method would be to siphon. How are you planning on keeping them and their live food in a tank with a gravity overflow system?

Yea if they are bug enough to see I am scooping them out with one them Lil soft shrimp nets. And keeping them in a Lil 2.5g refugium with a gravity overflow. But let's just see if we get that far first. I doubt I see any babies if I do then I'll do my best to keep them alive

 

[merkmerk73]

Very interested in following this

You should be taking more pictures for posterity - people will search this years into the future and this can be one of the first documented spawnings in captivity, which is very important for the hobby.

 

[klawson]

This is really interesting! How do you know male vs female, and how did you pair them? From all I've been able to read, it's almost impossible to sex and pair them

 

[FreeEnergyReefer]

This is really interesting! How do you know male vs female, and how did you pair them? From all I've been able to read, it's almost impossible to sex and pair them

It is almost next to impossible to pair them. When I finally pick a male it has taken me months of scouring local fish stores and petco's just watching behaviors before I choose. I'm 2 for 2 but far from having a foolproof method to pass along.

 

[Kasrift]

It is almost next to impossible to pair them. When I finally pick a male it has taken me months of scouring local fish stores and petco's just watching behaviors before I choose. I'm 2 for 2 but far from having a foolproof method to pass along.

Can you post photos of the female with the eggs and the male? I know lots of people are trying to find out how to sex these fish.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Any updates?

 

[Reef_Freak720]

I'd sell an organ for a pair of tailspot blennies.

 

[Montagne]

There is a reefkeeping article that refers to sexual dimorphism in the “In the Wild” section:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/hcs3/index.php

Notably they refer to males being larger with more prominent dorsal rays and some other anatomical differences.

Hopefully this helps more people to clear the first hurdle of setting up pairs. As adorable nano fish with sporadic supply, the Escenius genus seem like they would be great hobbyist breeding projects if more can be learned and shared.