Completely awesome, I swear.......

[luvthatocean]

I have a pair of breeding mandarin dragonettes in a 55g reef. I have had them mate before but never found any eggs. Well, I cant say that anymore. Tonight (August 20th) at 10:10 pm, after a romantic evening together, and a few darts from the top of the aquarium to the bottom, I noticed my maroon clown pigging out on something. I knew immediately what that something was and grabbed a drinking glass. After carefull inspection of the water, I found a clump of 3 eggs and was able to scoop them up, successfully. I know there was discussion of egg tumblers and etc to raise the eggs to a hatch, but Im going to start out simple at first, and once they become more regular in thier breeding, explore more complicated options. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck!!!!

[kiknchikn]

That is really cool. Goodluck, I hope you're successful! Any idea what they'll eat as babies? I can't imagine they'll be big enough to eat pods, unless they eat really tiny baby pods?

[luvthatocean]

All just more to exlore and research while I wait and see. I really have my fingers crossed, not so much for the 3 I have now, but more for the future successful spawnings to come. I dont think just having them in a glass is going to do much, but who knows. Ill keep posting as I go.

[phistio]

this is now the third fish spawning from members tanks in a week...

the moon is new, but can you list the temperature of your tank and any other pertinent information?

[luvthatocean]

The tank temp is 79.6-80.9 degrees f. Nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phos, all near 0, salinity 1.0255. Moonlight on tank cycles with moon phases. I have pics of my 3 egg cluster. Check it out. As of right now, the eggs have not broken and are slowly rotating around safely in the glass. Yeaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[luvthatocean]

Quick update. Earlier this morning one of the eggs looked like it had a clear squiggle in it. That has now become a cloudy blob. I think we have a good one...

[Byeager14]

have there been tank bred manderines yet?

[Mike O'Brien]

have there been tank bred manderines yet?

Yes they have been bred in captivity.

December / January 2006 Coral magazine has an article describing the rearing process. The problem with these fish is that they are palegic spawner's, meaning they just release the egg's into the water column. The egg's can's sit on the substrate or float at the surface if they are going to hatch, hence the need for a tumbler.

[luvthatocean]

Update... one other egg looks to be developing now, but not to sure if its developing or dead. Eggs are close to the bottom of the glass. Not sure if thats a good thing or not.

[reeferdude]

In one of the latest issues of Coral magazine there was an article about breeding mandarins. Good luck. I will try to find the article.

[Mike O'Brien]

December / January 2006 Coral magazine has an article describing the rearing process

Volume 2 Number 6