Royal gramma fry

[HomebroodExotics]

The other night I sat down and looked at the tank and saw a small fish fry like object darting around the tank. I then seen a couple more and got a good look at them and started to lose my mind. I counted at least 5 fish fry darting around the tank. The only fish couple in this tank is royal grammas. Fortunately I planned for this in case it would happen and have a larval trap. I set it up and let it roll. Works wonderfully. I caught at least three of the fry. These things are so mobile it's really surprising. There's 2 circled below from the second night.

During the next day they stopped moving so I thought they died and figured yea that's about right next time we'll try something different. Low and behold night time rolls around the fry are still alive and start swimming again. Mind blown. Well see what tonight looks like but I don't know how long I'll be able to keep them around. Trying though. Check out some videos if you can load them. Happy reefing everyone.

 

[Peace River]

This is sooo exciting! Congratulations on the fry!!!

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Thanks for the kind words. It's been a crazy couple nights. So I have actually not been able to keep the fry alive through the night yet. What I thought were the same fry were actually new fry. They have been hatching every night for the past 5 nights. Tonight was the largest hatch. I must have collected about 15 or 20 and split them between 2 aquariums and an egg tumbler. First goal is to keep them alive for more than a night or day and we'll go from there. I didn't expect I'd have these kind of numbers to play with and it's helping me quickly learn from the mistakes. I'm absolutely stunned and dumbfounded by how many fry I've been able to collect, it's been a fun experience. Like Christmas every night. Enjoy some photos and hopefully some videos if they work.

 

[Peace River]

Do you think it is a first food issue, water, quality issue, or something else?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thanks for the kind words. It's been a crazy couple nights. So I have actually not been able to keep the fry alive through the night yet. What I thought were the same fry were actually new fry. They have been hatching every night for the past 5 nights. Tonight was the largest hatch. I must have collected about 15 or 20 and split them between 2 aquariums and an egg tumbler. First goal is to keep them alive for more than a night or day and we'll go from there. I didn't expect I'd have these kind of numbers to play with and it's helping me quickly learn from the mistakes. I'm absolutely stunned and dumbfounded by how many fry I've been able to collect, it's been a fun experience. Like Christmas every night. Enjoy some photos and hopefully some videos if they work.

Loving the photos of your experience with this!

 

[MDAquatics]

Very cool, would love to watch this progress.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Do you think it is a first food issue, water, quality issue, or something else?

so far I've had trouble simply keeping them alive and swimming since they are so small. The first try I just left them in the trap to see what would happen but they didn't last. So I put some into an egg tumbler but the 2 I put there ended up getting stuck in the polyfill blocking the output so I fixed that and am trying it again. I also put fry in 2 seperate 10 gallon tanks last night so well see what that looks like tonight. Just throwing things at the wall currently.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

A little success. 2 or 3 survived the night in the egg tumbler.

 

[revhtree]

One of the coolest threads! I hope you can keep them alive!!! I have a soft spot for this stuff!

 

[HomebroodExotics]

One of the coolest threads! I hope you can keep them alive!!! I have a soft spot for this stuff!

Thank you!

 

[Peace River]

Keep at it! I really like what you are doing and I definitely understand the joys and frustrations of breeding fish (especially the ones where the "recipe" isn't as clear). Maybe it is because of the surface level visual similarities between dottybacks and royal grammas, but this reminds me of listening to Martin Moe explain about his adventures in breeding dottybacks (much of this info can be found in his book entitled "Breeding the Orchid Dottyback). Unlike most narratives of breeding experiences that leave out the failures and frustrations, Martin presents a very real story with all of the ups and downs.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Keep at it! I really like what you are doing and I definitely understand the joys and frustrations of breeding fish (especially the ones where the "recipe" isn't as clear). Maybe it is because of the surface level visual similarities between dottybacks and royal grammas, but this reminds me of listening to Martin Moe explain about his adventures in breeding dottybacks (much of this info can be found in his book entitled "Breeding the Orchid Dottyback). Unlike most narratives of breeding experiences that leave out the failures and frustrations, Martin presents a very real story with all of the ups and downs.

I'm not familiar with him or the book but I will definitely search for it. Thank you for that. Its a lot of trial and error that is for sure. I will certainly keep updated on how it goes either way. i doubt I'll be successful to raise them any time soon but I've done more than I thought possible so far.

 

[Peace River]

Martin Moe has been described as the father of marine aquarium fish aquaculture. He started breeding fish in the late 60s/early 70s and was one of the first to commercially breed clownfish. He has published many books including his most recent in 2021 on diadema urchin reproduction. He is the OG to many of the OGs in the hobby. He has been an inspiration to me for a long time and thankfully I have had the privilege to know him.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'm super late to commenting here, but this may help some with the rearing process (Royal Gramma fry reared through metamorphosis in a lab setting under the following conditions):

"Adults spawned naturally, and newly hatched larvae were removed from the spawning tank to rearing tanks with constant illumi-nation as, ‘green water’ and a temperature of 26°C to 28°C. Constant illumination is a common rearing prac-tice in the aquarium industry. For the first 5 days rotifers were supplied, and from 6 days after hatch (DAH), the larvae were fed with Artemia nauplii"

Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260189396_Development_of_morphology_and_swimming_in_larvae_of_a_coral-reef_fish_the_royal_gramma_Gramma_loreto_Grammatidae_Teleostei