Amblygobius Phalaena Spawning

[No1Duck]

I thought I would share with you the spawning of my gobies which I witnessed this afternoon. They have spawned twice already in the last 4 or 5 weeks and I have only seen the eggs when feeding them in the morning. I naturally presumed they spawned early in the morning or after lights out at night.
It just so happened today I was setting up the camera to take some shots of my Gold Striped Maroons and set up a photographic light as I have no lights above my tanks. I noticed the male goby displaying, ( he erects his fins and turns nearly white). I have seen this before so didnt really take any notice. The does this when he wants his mate to look at a potential spawning site. She occasionally swims over has a look and swims off.
I started taking some shots of the clowns and to my amazement noticed the female goby upside downnext to the clay pot with the male. No it could'nt be.... could it? Yes it was!! she was laying right in front of the camera! Below is a shot of her with the male alongside.

She was laying for around 10 minutes at a time before resting, much longer than I have experienced with clownfish. The male would then fertilise with a very strange movement. His head and tail still but his body jerking from side to side. A bit like Shakira...The hips dont lie...lol.
In this picture you can make out the milky white eggs between the two fish.

The spawning lasted for exactly an hour, when the female swam off and lied in her usual favourite place. What was really interesting is the clowns seemed to know exactly what was going on. They hung around like juvenile teenagers sneeking a peek and every now and then the male goby would rush and tell them to clear off. Picture below of him displaying to the clowns.

I dont hold out much luck for the fry however. The male seems to carry the eggs around the tank and loses a few along the way. I also have great difficulty in providing small enough prey for the them. I am currently sieving Rotifers to below 100 micron to see if that works. If anyone can help then please post a reply.

[mikegreen]

Hi - welcome to MOFIB.
Glad to see you're not underwater yourself - I hear it's been a bit wet up there lately.
Nice photos, and interesting observations - thanks for sharing.
Is he moving the eggs as in trying to mouthbrood, or just rolling the eggball to a safer spot?

[No1Duck]

Yes it has been a bit wet here. In some places there was 12 inches in 24 hours. We are lucky we dont have a river through the town and are right on the coast.

He never seems happy with the nest location. The first time they spawned was under a pot, the second was in a pipe, the third was under a pot as in pictures. He seems to be settled this time and I will be removing the eggs tomorrow evening so will see how many remain.
Will post again on Tuesday probably, will try and get some shots of the fry.

[Luis A M]

[No1Duck]

Yes you are right luis the eggs are attached to the pot, but the male always seems to pull them off wherever they are attached. The eggs are more of a carpet than a ball. This spawning is still attached and at the moment he seems to be fanning them more gently than the last two. Just hope they are still there when I get home from work tomorrow to transfer them.

[camnbron]

For the 4-5 spawns that I had from my pair, the eggs were laid inside a 1 1/2 white PVC pipe on the ceiling of the pipe.
They were like a mat of eggs and were present for around 4 days.
The male stayed mainly within the pipe fanning the eggs, but left them to go for food and to do what sand sifting gobies do.
The female did her own thing.
You should see a colour change. I'll dig up my pictues and info and post it in my topic for you to compare.
I didnt't get to raise any due to time and resource limitations.