Regal Tangs spawning

jerwin

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Its been 5 nights that my Regal tangs have been putting on a 3 hour courtship dance every night. Last night was the climax of an actual spawn in the tank. I was able to capture this rare event on video for every one to see. I am going to keep track of how often the are courting and spawning and after a few spawns I will start to try to gather the eggs and go to the steps of trying to raise them. I thought I would let you see how this all went down.

The other thing that was strange is that before 4/12 the tangs slept in alone and different places and now they both have move to a new place and sleep very close together. I will watch to see if now they go back to sleeping alone or stay together for the future.

Little background.
Male: Name: Thunder is a yellow belly hippo tang about 7 inches long and about 2 1/2 years old. I have had him since he was 1 1/2 inches
Female Name Lightning is a blue hippo tang about 6 inches long and have had her for about 8 months and got her when she was about 4 inches from a friend.

Leading up the spawning in the tank.
[video=youtube;7ZVaxQ5Sx8o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZVaxQ5Sx8o[/video]

Actual spawning video.
[video=youtube;Lxf0ETpEpXQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxf0ETpEpXQ[/video]

NWAOcean is my youtube video where there are others of the courting going on.
 
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jerwin

jerwin

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I found 2 other videos on youtube showing this behavior but they were not as long and as good quality. I guys say it was his 5th spawn over4 years. and Capt the other guy has been working on trying to raise the fry and only getting them to 8 days past hatching but I don't think his pair is spawn in a long time. I have been talking to Capt to see If in the future I can carry on his work

It was a surprise to me seeing how they are in a 75 gallon tank. I know a lot of fish. I have had most of them since they were babies. I have plans to get a 240 or 320 gallon tank
 
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revhtree

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Very cool!
 
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jerwin

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Just to keep you up to date. The tangs did spawn again last night. So far it seems to be about 7 day cycle. But he is doing his courtship dance in the morning under the blue lights and from 7:30 - 10:15 at night when the lights go off. Also they are still sleeping together so that looks like that will be the future of the couple sleeping spot.

Then tank they are spawning in is a 75 Gallon tank. As you can see the in videos the tank is full of tangs. If you would like to see more of the tank you can youtube NWAOcean and I have other videos up. I am in plans to get an 8 ft tank to move all the fish too.
 
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jerwin

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Just an update. The male Tang puts on a show every night still for over a month from about 8pm until 10:15 when the lights go off. They usually spawn on Wed night of each week. This week they spawned on Tues night. Today I did a water change on the tank and the pair just spawned again. So that that is 2 spawns in under 7 days. I was thinking it was once a week type thing as when I breed Discus. But now I know they can spawn more often then that.

I will keep everyone up to date with the next step. I am going to start to try to collect he eggs.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Very cool! Following!
 

Kworker

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I would collect half, leave the other half and see what they do with them. Would be interesting to know the success with either route and their natural behavior with the eggs going forward.

Congrats, real awesome.
 
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jerwin

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so another update. Tang just spawned again in the tank. So that is 3 times in under a week. That means they are not on a weekly cycle for spawning.
 

Mike J.

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I would collect half, leave the other half and see what they do with them. Would be interesting to know the success with either route and their natural behavior with the eggs going forward.

Congrats, real awesome.

Regal Tangs are pelagic spawners. Which means that the eggs drift with the current. The "parents" have no part in their upbringing. The fertilized eggs have a bit of oil in them which makes them float. If the parents have anything to do with their survival it is that they spawn up current from a suitable feeding ground for the newly hatch eggs. Regal Tangs have been known to spawn in aquaria.

A cool video, thanks for sharing.
 

Kworker

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Regal Tangs are pelagic spawners. Which means that the eggs drift with the current. The "parents" have no part in their upbringing. The fertilized eggs have a bit of oil in them which makes them float. If the parents have anything to do with their survival it is that they spawn up current from a suitable feeding ground for the newly hatch eggs. Regal Tangs have been known to spawn in aquaria.

A cool video, thanks for sharing.

Interesting, guess I should of researched that actually. I did some reading on eels to try and figure out how they spawn. Pelagic as well..

Be cool to see people start having success with fish that breed like that.

I'm assuming one of his largest issues would be feeding them?
 

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