Breeding the The Striped Blenny (Meiacanthus Grammistes)

pdisner

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This is a great fish to raise and spawn. They have a great personality, peaceful. This will be my first clutches of eggs. It appears as if they are payed down at different times, and I think possibly more than one female spawning in this group. Here some pics of the eggs and some video of the developing fry. They are at Day 4 post hatch.
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Larry L

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Congratulations on the spawning, how are the fry doing? What are you feeding them?
 
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Congratulations on the spawning, how are the fry doing? What are you feeding them?

I’m feeding them Apex copepods I raise on RG Complete. Perfect size and they replicate faster than others like Tiggers. Found out by accident that this was way better than rotifers. My Rotifer culture was eaten by copepods, so I ended up using them instead, haha! I also use TDO a lot for larval rearing. Few times a day. They started eating it at day two. It’s an awesome food that is replacing artemia for good. Apex may replace rotifers in some cases if I am on track with this. All signs are good. Metamorphosis will be the test to see if these pods carry them thru safely.
 
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If you notice in the video, there are still more eggs to hatch. I figure in about 2-3 more days. We will see. If you look closely, you can see the eyes forming. Two beady little black eyes peering back at you. Here’s a still so you can enlarge.
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Oh trust me, I talk to Chad all the time. I dont think I would have made it this far without the support from Chad Clayton, Dr Eric and the other great people at Reed. They aren’t just trying to sell you something, they know they’re products are effective. Chad is a wealth of information. Really smart guy with a very interesting background. If anyone has the chance, LRS foods has been putting out podcasts for the last few months. Larry’s done a great job with that. It’s opened my eyes a little to this hidden part of this hidden in plain sight industry. Listen to a few. You won’t be sorry.
LRS foods has helpful as well I’ve finally got one of my LFS to carry all their products so I could get acces to it haha! Fertility Frenzy...what in the stuff? It’s like sex stimulants or something. What would happen if I ate the stuff, hmm....
 

Reef Nutrition

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I’m feeding them Apex copepods I raise on RG Complete. Perfect size and they replicate faster than others like Tiggers. Found out by accident that this was way better than rotifers. My Rotifer culture was eaten by copepods, so I ended up using them instead, haha! I also use TDO a lot for larval rearing. Few times a day. They started eating it at day two. It’s an awesome food that is replacing artemia for good. Apex may replace rotifers in some cases if I am on track with this. All signs are good. Metamorphosis will be the test to see if these pods carry them thru safely.


This is very good to see. Are you using greenwater? I would incorporate greenwater into the larval rearing tank so that the copepods maintain good nutritional value.

Look forward to more!

-Chad
 
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This is very good to see. Are you using greenwater? I would incorporate greenwater into the larval rearing tank so that the copepods maintain good nutritional value.

Look forward to more!

-Chad

Yes Chad, I green up my water using RG Complete provided by Reed Mariculture. So far, Ive been using exclusively Apex copepods that multiply prolifically on RG complete. This pic was taken early am when my water cleared overnight. I have to add quite a bit and is surprising how much the copepods can eat. Today, I have beaten my previous record. I ow it all to Reed Mariculture as well! I’m have HUGE successes, I’ve only been working with my broodstock for almost a 6 mos. nothing spawned out of the multiple pairs and harms of different species I own. Nothing spawned until a week and half after I started them all on TDO sized dry pellet. All of my fish, especially clowns, burst out with vivid coloration. Unbelievable. Something every one who keeps any fish should switch to. Here’s a video from 20 DPH.
 
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Today is 20 DPH for my striped blennies, second group. I woke up this morning and what a HUGE surprise! Over a hundred little striped blennies! My biggest hatch ever. This species of blenny is pretty fun to work with. They lay down their nests throughout 5-7 days in the 1 in PVC caves I’ve provided. When the oldest egg reaches 8 days, I pull The whole tube and transfer to my larval rearing tank to hatch. Starting on the 8th night, They start to hatch and continue to hatch each night after lights out. So for about 5-7 days, I usually have some hatchlings, but NEVER in the amounts as this! WOW!!
 
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Striped blenny (Meiacanthus Grammistes): 23 DPH. No problems have arisen with this last clutch. My larval rearing system is cycled and is clearing up the water of ammonia and nitrates. I’ve gotten my ammonia to 0 or close to it, but my nitrates are still pretty high at 80, due to the frequent feeding. I do daily water changes, usually around 20%.
 

Larry L

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Thanks for sharing progress, things are looking good! Can you describe your larval raising setup? What kind of filtration do you use? What's the water change schedule?
 
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Day 32! All is still going well. I’ve set up a Used Biocube for their juvenile grow out. As for my larval rearing system, what would you like to know? I have been feeding them Apex pods, Rotifers and TDO-A from Reef Nutrtion. The TDO has made them shimmer like pure gold. Beautiful, peaceful in groups, and make a fish that is great addition to any aquarium. They have these exaggerated way of swimming and playing games as part of their mating ritual, which I ha e video of and plan to put together a entire video short covering the whole process.
Please post your questions if u have any or if you want one when grown, let me know.
 
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I finally got 7 of the biggest ones and pulled them out at day 34 and placed them in their new home...the grow out tank. They are so amusing to watch. I think I sat there for an hour just watching them. I hope that everyone can see clearly. It was difficult trying to shoot pics and video thru the bowfront of this Biocube I’m using for juvenile grow out. Such perfect miniature replicas of the parents. Hard to put into words how captivating breeding is.
The TDO and Apex copepods really made the difference here. Copepods are packed with an abundance of essential fatty acids, carotenoids etc. studies have shown that copepods can greatly reduce larval mortality and can even shorten the larval stage and overall quicker growth. The problem is producing enough copepods to keep up the demand. I eventually had to use rotifers, but only as a supportive measure. If you look back at the beginning You’ll see that my rotifers had crashed right at a crucial point. So thanks Reed Mariculture for supplying the Apex pods. They actually reproduce quickly and they are a smaller species, perfect for smaller mouths.
I have a ton of hatchlings of various sizes waiting to get their turn to move up. Maybe in a couple of weeks or so. For now, I’m exploring what foods they will like, recognize as food and be able get it into its mouth. So far NHBBS is a hit (as always), frozen Cyclopes and I offer them TDO B1 size 3 times a day. No more rotifers. This was the best experience. Not only the feeling of success, but something so really tiny, so many stages of larval life. Fairly complex. I’m awestruck.
Well, these guys and the ones shortly to follow them (about 100 more roughly) will be ready to be in a community tank within a month. They seem like they grow every day. I can now focus some more attention to raising clown goby larvae. A lot harder species to raise, but it can be done. I just haven’t, yet. I’m determined to accomplish that, as well as peppermint shrimp. I have threads in the fish breeding forum.
Well, let me know if any questions or comments. Just post them below.
 
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pdisner

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I transferred the rest of the Striped Blennies. 18 total. Not too bad for my first two clutches. They’re so fun to watch. This has been a great fish to work with. Check it out. Also, I’ll be continuing to attempt trying to hatch and raise Yellow Clown gobies. I’ve got a pair that is making a nest at least 3x a month. So far no luck. I’ll need smaller prey.
 
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These little guys are growing very fast. If you watch last video, you can see the difference. They’re approaching two months (the bigger ones) and the smaller ones are a couple weeks behind.
 
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Thanks for sharing progress, things are looking good! Can you describe your larval raising setup? What kind of filtration do you use? What's the water change schedule?

You’re right, I left a lot of details out, just was anxious to post these videos. Im not try g o brag on myself or boost my ego, but I haven’t seen anything like that. There’s plenty posts and YouTube videos that cover raising clownfish, but not a whole lot about breeding other species of marine ornamentals. In fact, the biggest and one of a very few breeding has less than 1000 members. So that’s why I’m doing this. It’s sort of a trailblazing effort.
I started a Facebook group page where I’ve posted video, pics and info on each species I breed. It’s kind of a journal or blog. I’ve captured a lot of great pics with very cheap equipment. Shooting macro shots, even with corals, will give you a whole new perspective of each animal that you’ve collected and keep. The more efforts we have documenting stuff like this, the more we learn. Right now, our oceans are overfished. Our coral reefs are endangered. We as hobbyists have a responsibility to help preserve our oceans by learning and teaching others. No one else can do that but us “reefers”. We can make a huge difference. It’s our responsibility.
There, that’s my sermon for the day!
 
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pdisner

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My Blennies are doing great! Since moving them to the juvenile tank, they’ve at least doubled in size. Their colors are so vivid thanks to the TDO from Reed Mariculture. It’s amazing stuff, so convenient and clean. I’d bet that’s the reason for the rapid growth. I sailed through metamorphosis with no issues whatsoever. If you look at my earlier posts, I give TDO and Fertility Frenzy the credit as far as conditioning my fish to spawn. Not 2 weeks after I started my broodstock on these foods, I had a couple species spawning. Some of my hermit crabs even started spawning, haha. Anyhow, I’m feeding my juveniles the B1 size TDO at the moment and getting ready I size up some more.
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