Richard Ross captured some great close-up video footage of tiny Banggai cardinalfish still in their eggs. Normally the male holds the eggs in his mouth; however the male spit most of his eggs a couple days prior so these were stripped shortly thereafter.
https://vimeo.com/84739968
For more about breeding these fish check this out – https://packedhead.net/2008/breeding-the-banggai-cardinalfish/
Leave it to Rich Ross to get it in his ceph-head that it is possible to pair and breed the highly prized Dr. Seuss fish. Not only does it take an investment of time and space, but money because as you know Dr. Seuss Fish are not cheap, not even by the pair, and they eat a lot.
After nearly a decade of working with all manner of Cephalopods, octopus and cuttlefish, Rich is aiming for something totally new, and completely uncharted territory. No one has ever raised soapfish, let alone spawned them and the closest species on record as having been spawned is probably the distantly related Liopropoma basslets. (more…)
There has been a strange sense of romance across reef dwelling animals of late, with reports of very large spawning events we do believe, love is in the air. It seems a few people have taken on some interesting breeding projects, including this one by Rich Ross, the Dr. Seuss Soapfish Belonoperca pylei. Rich reports that the fish are sleeping together and fingers are still crossed for no bad behavior between them. Stay tuned for further updates and see our next post on the frisky lightning maroon clownfish.
On 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition, biologists from the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences collected two species of Ghost pipefish, the Ornate Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus) and the Robust Ghostpipefish (Solenostomus cyanopterus). In June 2011 we reportedon the spawning and rearing attempts of the Ornate Ghostpipefish and were proud to get the larvae to day 7, after which we unfortunately lost the female due to the end of these fishes short lifespan. However, we did have a female Robust Ghost pipefish and decided to display her in the same tank as the male Ornate Ghost Pipefish, and though we thought spawning between the two was possible we were surprised that courtship began on the very first day of co-habitation. It is unknown if these fish hybridize in the wild, and we are excited to present video of the first documentation of the hybridization.
We watched excitedly as the eggs that were held in the females fins began to develop eyes, and were even more excited to hatch the eggs and get the hybrid larvae to day 22 using different methodology than was used on the Ornate Ghostpipefish larvae. Currently, the female Robust is carrying more eggs fertilized by the male Ornate Ghost Pipefish, and Steinhart Staff is looking forward to another oppurtunity to raise another batch of hybrid larvae.
