Paracentopyge hybrid project

[Servo]

Not to hijack but did you give up on the joculator project?

 

[chad vossen]

I hope these fish never make it into the wild as it will destroy natural ecosystems.

I completely agree, any aquarium fish being released would potentially have negative effects on the ecosystem. Just like we're seeing with lionfish.

This hybrid is a naturally occurring hybrid, but is incredibly rare. Retail pricing for the hybrid is over $5000, so I would never expect someone to dispose of enough of them into the ocean to start a population.

 

[chad vossen]

Very interesting. Is it a trade secret how you plan to remove unfertilised eggs?

We have developed a realistic method of artificially hybridizing the eggs that I have not seen used anywhere else. For now, we're leaving it a trade secret.

 

[chad vossen]

Not to hijack but did you give up on the joculator project?

Kinda. The Joculators are in a clients tank that's an hour away, so we haven't found much time to make the trip. The spawns are not easy to collect either. I do plan to collect eggs and try another larval run before summer, so fingers crossed that we get a lot of eggs

 

[mort]

We have developed a realistic method of artificially hybridizing the eggs that I have not seen used anywhere else. For now, we're leaving it a trade secret.

Very interesting and I wish you every luck in raising them. Please keep us updated.

 

[chad vossen]

Made some progress last night!
Multibar pair has started spawning. We have not collected eggs yet, but will be making attempts this week.

Unfortunately the venuesta are showing no interest in spawning yet. I suspect they are winter spawners, while multibar are summer spawners. This would explain the crazy rareness of the hybrids. Only chance for hybrids in this case would be spring or fall when their spawning overlaps. I have someone looking into this to fact check this hypothesis, otherwise we'll figure it out in the coming years.

For now, we'll work on raising multibars, which is equally exciting to us.

 

[Maritimer]

Me too!

Beautiful, utterly charming fish, but a challenge to get started in captivity; a perfect choice to captive-breed.

~Bruce

 

[SPS Junky]

I commend you for your efforts! It's so exciting to see these breeding attempts coming to fruition more and more often, and it takes a huge commitment to see these very time-consuming and stress inducing projects through! I wish you every success!!

 

[chad vossen]

Significant step forward!
Multibar angels are spawning for sure now. We collected a spawn of 450 eggs from our pair a couple nights ago, unfortunately 100% infertile. The female released eggs early during their spawning rise, and the male didn't notice. Last night we got another good spawn, but I was focused on trying to take photos.

Interestingly, the eggs from this species are yellow.

 

[leahfiish]

How do you collect the eggs? And how do you know that they are infertile?

 

[chad vossen]

How do you collect the eggs? And how do you know that they are infertile?

We're not ready to share our collection method yet, but eggs that are fertile will begin cell division that is easily visible under the microscope within 30-40 minutes after spawning. The eggs above show no signs of cell division, which indicates they are infertile. This spawn was also observed, and it was very clear the male did not realize she had released eggs, so he never did his part.

Last night was a successful spawn, but we did not collect anything.

 

[leahfiish]

Does observing them under the microscope hurt the eggs?

 

[Maritimer]

This would be a great time to run them past a fertile male P. venusta . . . (~_^)

Awesome news, Chad!

 

[jlanger]

Last night was a successful spawn, but we did not collect anything.

Slacker.... ;Meh
Great news on the Multibars, though!

 

[chad vossen]

Does observing them under the microscope hurt the eggs?

Not at all, they are very easy to handle as eggs.

 

[chad vossen]

This would be a great time to run them past a fertile male P. venusta . . . (~_^)

Awesome news, Chad!

Just waiting for the venusta pair to start spawning, and things will really get interesting

 

[chad vossen]

We've had a couple nights of good spawns with decent collection and fertility. I've added 200 larvae to one of our tubs to see what we can do. Below is a current pic of the larvae, note they have no food in their stomachs, which is a problem. This morning I've added more copepod naups and algae to hopefully fix this. I'll check the larvae again this evening.

Here's a fun pic of the female multibar. She'll come right up to the glass to check you out before darting back into the rocks.

 

[revhtree]

We've had a couple nights of good spawns with decent collection and fertility. I've added 200 larvae to one of our tubs to see what we can do. Below is a current pic of the larvae, note they have no food in their stomachs, which is a problem. This morning I've added more copepod naups and algae to hopefully fix this. I'll check the larvae again this evening.

Here's a fun pic of the female multibar. She'll come right up to the glass to check you out before darting back into the rocks.

Oh man great strides!

 

[Kengar]

We have developed a realistic method of artificially hybridizing the eggs that I have not seen used anywhere else. For now, we're leaving it a trade secret.

Completely without self-interest as a patent attorney ( ) I recommend patenting! Trade secret only protects you from someone stealing the method from you; others can develop the exact same thing independently without any repercussion. Do you see yourselves using this method to such an extent that the commercial benefit is substantial enough to keep it under wraps? Of, if you patented and licensed the technology to other breeders supplying the industry, what sort of gain would that bring you?

Please don't answer these questions publicly on the board. If you'd like to chat, I'm happy to do so free of charge for some general guidelines/discussion. Contact me via PM and we can do so.

Best, Ken

 

[dodgerblew]

This is incredible!! Excited to be following along. Would like to be on a waiting list for a cb juvenile