Holy smokes! Coral beauties are breeding!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I've been noticing a lot of digging going on in my 120g fowlr/softies reef tank. Just tonight, noticed my pair of coral beauty dwarf angels hanging out in the big "hole" they dug and going through courtship/breeding behaviour. VERY COOL!

Doubt I'll be able to get any of the eggs/fry to survive since they're in a tank full of fish, but neat to see dwarf angels breed in my tank anyways.

Anthony

[biocuber]

Congratulations Anthony! That is really exciting, you know you are doing a good job when your fish are happy enough to spawn. Maybe the dragonets will be next :mrgreen:

[Veng68]

If you do want to try and breed them......... you need a tall tank because they are pelagic spawners and they need a high vertical space.

You can probably make your own egg catcher.

The main problem with dwarf angels is that the larva need really small food like ciliates or zooplankton nuphii (sp?).

If your interested............ I've got some books you can read.

Cheers,
Vic

[Carmen]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats! That is very cool!

[Piscez]

That IS cool, congrats Anthony, but hey you already know what it feels like to be a proud papa :biggrin:

[Jason McK]

Very Cool Anthony! A Pic would be neat or Video LOL

J

[Delphinus]

That is definitely neat. :cool:

[muck]

Pics or it didn't happen... :razz::razz:

[fkshiu]

Darn. Can't find the "This thread is useless without pictures" smilie.

[Tom R]

Hi Anthony

Congrats! That is very cool!

You must have added some Powell River water or something to your system for this the happen.

Tom R

[BC Mosaic]

Congrats Anthony!

[Lance]

That's pretty cool Anthony! How long have you had the pair?

[Snappy]

That's great Anthony. However we expect some pictures very soon.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sorry, can't find the charger for my digi camera & the batteries are dead.

[justinl]

more babies anthony? lol

[parkinsn]

Congrats!! How do you sex them just out of curiosity?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I think all dwarf angels start out genderless, then turn into females. Then the largest one turns into a male and the next largest becomes the dominant female, with any other smaller angels in the harem as sub-dominant females.

If anything happens to the male, the dom. female turns into a male & the next largest turns into a dom. female.

Basically, opposite of clownfish.

[Delphinus]

I've heard that as well. With some species there is a difference in colours as well, like with flame angels the amount of blue in the tail, and the tail shape is different (way more blue in the males).

[danny zubot]

Very cool news Anthony, do you think the courtship had anything to do with the recent full moon?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Well I leave the blue LED moonlights on most of the time, so I don't know what effect the real full moon would have on the fish.

The pair have been hanging out for a couple of weeks now, and they have always been "friendly" so I wasn't too surprised that they when they paired off.

According to everything I've read, its next to impossible to successfully rear the fry of dwarf angels unless you have the facilities to raise the right size and species of live food so I'll just be happy that they "did" it, without worrying about trying to rear baby angels at this point in time.

Anthony

[danny zubot]

Perhaps in the future then you might be prepared to try? I'd surely buy one from you.:biggrin:

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I doubt it. From what I've researched, no private hobbyist has been successful. Only the biggest organizations with the research money to develop and raise the proper diet have done in to date in the world.

Anthony

[Delphinus]

Wasn't there a guy in Hawaii who was commercially producing Centropyge offspring for a while? I can't think of his name. Frank Baensch or something? He's taken a break for the time being being and is just doing photography now but for a while there RC, at least the angel collectors at RC, were all abuzz about these angels ..

[Delphinus]

Here's the guy's website..

http://www.rcthawaii.com

I suppose when you live in Hawaii you might have a bit of a leg-up on others. :)

[Willito]

That is very cool! I believe the toughtest part is gathering the eggs and rearing the fry, their food demands are very particular and require lots of time and effort. My trio of Flame angels used to practice the ritual regularly at dust and would go one for hours. It was very fascinating to watch to say the least. However all that went out the window when a pair of Imperator was introduced

[Navarchus]

Darn. Can't find the "This thread is useless without pictures" smilie.

there you go...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2003/2189568405_c1003315b0.jpg?v=0

[Leah]

:bounce:Quote;" Happy that they did it " Too funny!