Starry Blenny Breeding

[grassfluffy]

First post - I wanted to share this oddity of starry blennies spawning in less than ideal conditions and observations about the pair in general. This might be of interest to anyone interested in pairing starries. There wasn't too much information I could find on either pairing them or breeding them - there were 3 sparse documentations of hatching on the Marine Breeding Initiative but no documentations of successful marine culture Starry Blennies (Salarias Ramosus) that I could find.

Female (smaller ~ 1x) Male (larger ~ 1.3x).

The two were introduced around a month ago and I was leaning on separating the pair. They displayed inconsistent behaviors. There were signs of aggression on the female, half her tail was gone with tattering on her dorsal fin. Female was not quite cowering or hiding completely throughout the day. Female would perch right next to Male which seemed to irritate him on some occasions but most of their time was spent apart. When they ate seaweed together from the same pouch there was no aggression from the Male. Most of the aggression seemed to stem from the Female moving too close to his personal space. He does not seek her out in the tank to attack her. No aggression from the Female towards the male that I observed.

Two types of "white" color change:
1) His body turns white and he aggressively chases and takes a bite at her. They shortly separate and the female hides.
2) He turns white with a subtle pink/red flush towards the tail and repeatedly "beckons" her. He does this by swimming up to her, stopping within 2-3cm and flashing his dorsal while swimming (shimmy-ing) away. Sometimes his flash is so strong that the resulting current pushes the female off balance, it's kind of comical.

Tank details:
QT tank, not a mature system, did not expect them to breed in the small 10g tank.

Eggs:
Small Yellow eggs found on the underside of a plastic part shown in pic:


Next?
Happy to answer any questions. I had the Male first and would've never known how quirky and amusing this fish is because he came with the tank. Now all I want are starry blennies but unfortunately they're quite solitary. If anyone has any other experiences or suggestions on raising these fry let me know. I wasn't planning on trying anything for this batch (they haven't hatched) and was going to wait to see if they spawn again while I get their food sorted. It's super difficult to find live rotifers in Canada let alone the S-strain that seems to be recommended due to the small fry size. I've never raised fry before of any type before and I know this species is particularly difficult so I don't have any expectations I'll succeed but I'll try. My priority is still trying to procure the S-strain which seems to be rather difficult. Rearing doesn't seem possible without live food but if anyone has experienced otherwise I'd be open to trying.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

If anyone has any other experiences or suggestions on raising these fry let me know. I wasn't planning on trying anything for this batch (they haven't hatched) and was going to wait to see if they spawn again while I get their food sorted. It's super difficult to find live rotifers in Canada let alone the S-strain that seems to be recommended due to the small fry size. I've never raised fry before of any type before and I know this species is particularly difficult so I don't have any expectations I'll succeed but I'll try. My priority is still trying to procure the S-strain which seems to be rather difficult. Rearing doesn't seem possible without live food but if anyone has experienced otherwise I'd be open to trying.

Welcome to Reef2Reef and super cool to see!

From everything I've read about aquaculture, very, very few species are able to reared without using live food - so I definitely wouldn't expect this one to be.
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Species specific info:

I know L-Strain Rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) don't work for the first food for these guys (the thread where they tried it found a bottleneck at day 3 post hatch and lost the whole batch), but I know someone else got their Lawnmower Blennies (Salarias fasciatus) eating rotifers, presumably S-Strain - so I'm assuming (possibly incorrectly) that Starry Blennies would take S-Strain Rotifers (Brachionus rotundiformis) as a first feed (if they don't, then you'd need to try some small pods like Parvocalanus crassirostris or potentially Apocyclops panamensis nauplii).

If they take the S-Strain Rotifers and the rotifers provide the proper nutrition, your larvae should live beyond day 3 post hatch; if they don't take the rotifers or the rotifers don't provide the right nutrition, you should see a mass mortality event at day 3 post hatch. The good news is that you can use this bottleneck as a gauge of success - larvae living past it is the first step to progressing toward successfully rearing them.


Personally, I'd start by trying the S-Strain Rotifers or Apocyclops copepods if you can easily get a hold of them - Parvocalanus pods require Isochrysis/T-isochrysis phytoplankton to culture, and that phyto is notoriously difficult (it's a useful one if you can culture it though).

To my knowledge, unless you find a hobbyist or other store selling them locally, the easiest way to get S-Strain Rotifers would be by ordering from a place like Reed Mariculture which ships internationally (they mention they take order from Canada on their site) - the cost would probably be pretty high because of shipping fees, but it would work:

S-ROTIFERS

S-type rotifers are cyclical parthenogens (meaning they alternate between asexual and sexual reproduction. Parthenogenesis allows them to rapidly colonize an environment given favorable environmental conditions. Brachionus rotundiformis been used with great success in the larval culture of more...

reedmariculture.com

Barring that, I know some places in Australia that ship globally, but the cost would absurdly high and the culture would probably be half-dead before it gets to you.

The only other option I know of is one shop in Canada that sells a mixed L-Strain S-Strain rotifer blend; you could sieve out the juvenile S-Strain rotifers (sieve use is discussed below) or you could take a microscope and a pipette and hand pick the S-Strain rotifers out with the pipette, but that would be a lot more work (and the price is honestly still pretty steep).

Rotifer Combo Pack (16 oz) - Live Zooplankton and Phytoplankton

Feed your clownfish fry, small finicky eaters, and hard to feed fish with a rapidly reproducing combination of Live Rotifers and Phytoplankton. Free Express Shipping*

copepods.ca

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General Summary:

Anyway, that's my species specific advice for this, now here's my general advice.


A quick summary:

-Setup a little, simple tank.
(The larval rearing tank).

-Add the larvae.

-Add the larval food and enough phytoplankton to tint the water green.
(The phytoplankton helps dim the lighting so it's not too bright for sensitive larvae, it makes it easier for the larvae to see the feeders, and it gut-loads the feeders so they're more nutritious when eaten).

-Adjust feeding as needed as the larvae grow; you typically should start feeding regular fish food in addition to the larval food around settlement.


Now the details - sorry, it's still a bit disorderly (I'm working on it).
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Larval Rearing Tank:

The larval rearing tank should be setup prior to the eggs hatching if possible, and you should be prepared to move the eggs/larvae into it. Ideally, you'd be able to move the eggs into the larval rearing tank immediately before they hatch, but - if you don't know exactly when they'll hatch or if they've already hatched - you can also collect the larvae after they hatch and move them into the larval rearing tank (sorry, I haven't written up about larval collection methods yet - I'll probably get around to it eventually).

Anyway, for a simple larval rearing tank, all you need is:

-A small tank filled with saltwater (kreisel tanks are ideal, but not necessary)

-An airline/air stone/gentle sponge filter (for flow/oxygenation)


Depending on individual circumstances, you may also need:

-A heater (or chiller, though these would rarely be needed for anything other than temperate/coldwater species; these should be sectioned off from the larvae - such as with a 40 micron or smaller mesh - to prevent injuries to the larvae and to keep the feeders where the larvae can get to them)

-Light(s)*


You don't want standard tank filters, skimmers, uncovered pumps/powerheads etc. - those are not pelagic larvae safe.

The size of the larval rearing tank may vary depending of the species you're working with, but, generally speaking, you want it to be pretty small so you can easily keep the proper densities of feeders and phytoplankton.

For an example of a simple larval rearing setup:

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*A quick note on lighting for the larval rearing tank:
Some species require lighting, others don't; running a light that's bright enough to ensure the larvae can clearly see the feeders in the tank without being overly bright is generally a safe option. A 12 light:12 dark or 14 light:10 dark lighting schedule is generally suggested; some people also run dim "night lights" in the room away from the tank for the larvae.

If you see larvae headbutting the wall of the tank, that's a sign the light is reflecting off the tank wall and attracting the larvae, causing "head-butting syndrome" where the larvae ram into the wall often until they die - if you see this, you'll need to blackout the tank, but I haven't seen this be a big issue for most people, especially not when they're using the "green-water" method and tinting the larval rearing tank's water green with phytoplankton.
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Feeding:

Much like human babies need special foods, larval fish also need special foods to survive. For larval fish, those foods (which I'll refer to generally as "feeders" after this) are things like live rotifers, Artemia (Brine Shrimp), and copepods, but each species of fish has specific food needs. Most larval fish need their feeders to move in specific ways in order to entice them to eat, so live food is typically a must.

As a note, some larval fish hatch with a yolk sac that they feed off of, but the yolk usually only lasts about two days - after those two days, the larvae need feeders or they'll starve.


Anyway, for a feeder to be useful in the rearing of larval fish, they need to:

-Be the right size for the fish to eat

-Be enticing to the fish

-Meet the larvae's nutritional needs at the time they're offered to them

-Be offered in the right quantity and density (for example, when rearing Ocellaris Clownfish using rotifers, the ideal density of rotifers for rearing the larvae is ~10 rotifers per mL, but you can't just put the larvae in a 1 mL tube and expect it to have enough food to eat; you need a reasonable density in a reasonably sized tank - also, some species [such as some cuttlefish, which are actually invertebrates rather than fish] may not eat if the feeder density is too high; so too low of quantity/density, and the fish starve, but also too high of density and they may starve)


In addition to these requirements, you (the aquarist attempting to rear the larvae) must be able to supply enough of the required feeders consistently throughout the duration for which they may be needed - this typically means that you will need to be culturing the feeders (and the phytoplankton needed to culture them) yourself to ensure that you always have enough of them on hand.

A lot of people run into feeder issues their first few times breeding, so having a backup plan in place to ensure that you can quickly obtain more of the right feeders (or their needed phytoplankton) quickly in an emergency is also a good idea.

Typically, feeders are best when gut-loaded (i.e. fed something - typically phytoplankton - immediately before they're offered to/eaten by the larvae) - the green-water rearing method (i.e. where the water in the larval rearing tank is tinted green with phytoplankton) is generally a useful, easy way to gut-load the feeders.

Now, to discuss more about the points above.


The right size feeders:
-Larval fish can typically only eat feeders that are approximately 20% of the size of their gape; this means that the smaller the larval fish are, the smaller their feeders need to be. To say it another way, if the feeder is too big, the fish can't eat it.

-Some feeders are the right size at specific life stages, but not at others, so you may frequently need to sieve the feeders to ensure you're offering the fish the right size of feeders.


An example to help explain sieving:

Adult Parvocalanus crassirostris copepods get up to 400 microns, whereas stage 1 Parvocalanus nauplii are about 40 microns. This means that the Parvocalanus nauplii should be ~1/10 the size of the adult pods - the stage 1 nauplii are a good size for a lot of small fish larvae, but the adults are too big.

So, to make sure you're only offering the stage 1 nauplii, you could take a 45 micron sieve and pour the Parvocalanus culture into it - the stage 1 nauplii at 40 microns are small enough that they would fall through the sieve's 45 micron holes, but the other stages (including the adults) would be too large to fall through. This lets you collect only the stage 1 nauplii to offer to the larval fish.

Similarly, as the larval fish grow, they can begin eating larger feeders (say, 120 microns, for example), so you can use larger sieves (say 130 microns, for example) to ensure that you keep offering only the feeders which are small enough for the fish to eat (the sieve's size is the maximum size the feeders could be when you offer them to the fish).

Now, while I used copepods for the example above, sieving is useful/needed for things like Artemia nauplii [A.K.A. Baby Brine Shrimp/BBS] as well, since adult brine shrimp are much larger than baby brine shrimp. Again, it's all about controlling what size of feeder you are offering to the larvae.

Typically, when the larvae are ready to settle they're also ready to start being weaned onto "normal" aquarium feeds like frozen foods and pellets, but these also need to be offered in appropriate sizes (Otohime and TDO Chroma Boost pellets, for examples, are available in a wide range of sizes, including sizes that are appropriate for most newly settled fish).


Larval nutritional needs and changes (Bottlenecks):

As mentioned, larval fish have special food needs. Some species need rotifers, others copepods, others Artemia, etc.

For some species, though, those needs change at different points of their larval development. This means that a feeder (such as rotifers) that meets their nutritional needs at one point in their development (such as immediately after hatching) may not meet their nutritional needs at another (such as 15 days after hatching). So, you may need to switch what is being fed (such as switching from rotifers to Artemia nauplii) to the fish at or slightly before that point in order to meet their new/changing nutritional needs.

We refer to these points as "bottlenecks," as the number of larvae that survive beyond these points without a change of feeders is typically very low or zero.

We typically find out about these bottlenecks by - unfortunately - watching them happen. This can be incredibly disheartening, but the good news is that once we have identified a bottleneck (days 2 and 3 post hatch are common bottleneck days, and there's often another bottleneck after about 2-3 weeks), we know to adjust something (typically the feeding) to account for it with the next batch and try to get larvae surviving through it.

Remember, every attempt gets us one step closer to successfully rearing the species - don't give up!
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Settlement:

Some species need sand, rock, dark areas, specific colors, specific chemical cues, or other oddly specific things to settle on/in (from what I've seen, inverts are usually a lot more picky with this), so it may help to have a ledge or cave (PVC should be fine for this, if it's even needed, which I honestly kind of doubt) and a little sand in the larval rearing tank just in case the fish need it.
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Final notes:

Since marine aquaculture is still a developing field, any information you can gather is helpful for both you and others.

With that in mind:

-Watch for developmental bottlenecks and issues with your rearing methods - some species may require fine-tuning things like the lighting, flow, broodstock (parental) diet, etc. Fine-tune your larval rearing process, and if you can't get past a certain bottleneck, you may need to start looking at things other than the larval foods.

-Observe and note information about the larvae (things like how big the eggs are, how big the larvae are, when the larvae settle, when coloration comes in, etc.) and the larval behaviors (stuff like if they are attracted to light, how they react to light, if they are attracted to certain colors, what feeders they eat and what what sizes of feeders they eat at what days post hatch, what kind of substrate they prefer to settle on, are they cannibalistic, etc.).

Any information you get can bring us closer to success.


Finally, this last link gives a bunch of info on rearing difficult species and some ideas about trying to troubleshoot problems with the rearing:

Has anyone successfully raised Sunshine Chromis from fry?

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If you have any questions, please ask - I'll help when I can.

I hope this helps - good luck, and keep us updated!


Edit: Oh, and to include the links about the Lawnmower and Starry Blennies:

Algae Blennies Breeding

We recently discovered a pair of our resident algae blennies have begun laying eggs in a PVC tube in one of our reef systems! Although we have quite a bit of experience with clownfish, this will be our first crack at culturing blennies. Day one they are beginning to hatch, and they are attacking...

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Starry Blenny (Salarias ramosus)

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