breeding frogfish

[Roy_tigris]

hi anyone knws how to breed frogfish?

[Synanceia]

I can share my observations with you. The difficult part is what to do after obtaining the eggs, since the fry are minute and will require microplankton as food. You can also refer to my previous postings for pictures.

It is not possible to sex the fish, so pairings happen by chance. If you have a compatible pair in a tank, you may see signs of courtship, which include flaring of fins and tail, stiffening and spasming of the body, vigorous sideways movement of the tail end of the body. Incidentally, the threat posture of one frogfish towards another also looks the same as the courtrhip dance, so you won't be sure until you see an egg raft floating on the upper water layer. The egg raft is an elongated gelatinous mass with many black dots (the eggs). It floats around for about 3 to 4 days, after which it 'disintegrates', which also signifies hatching of the eggs. The female before egg laying will swell her abdominal area considerably to accommodate the increased volume of the eggs. One thing I have also noticed is that if the pair produces an egg raft continuously week after week, they will die eventually from refusing to eat and possibly exhaustion. I have had 4 confirmed pairs durimg the past years, the most current pair being a black warty and a white warty with dark brown streaks. They produced an egg raft just before I went overseas last week, so I didn't bother taking photos. Maybe next time. Hope this helps.

[FuEl]

http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtop...f=12&t=2147

[Synanceia]

The larvae in the website came from the eggs produced by my previous pair in Mar 2008. You can refer to my posting on 6 Mar 2008 - 'Hatching of Antennarius sp. eggs' for the pictures of the parents.

[Roy_tigris]

thx alot guys

[Synanceia]

As promised, pictures of the egg raft if I see it again. Top left picture is the egg raft taken on the first day (today, 28 Mar 09) - incidentally they were laid in the afternoon, as the female was still swollen in the morning when I left home. Top right picture is the female warty swollen with eggs (not swollen enough yet as this was taken yesterday 27 Mar 09. She was really very swollen this morning) - now I know that it is a she. Bottom left and right pictures are the parents of the egg raft.

To be honest, I'm not excited by the egg laying, as the two specimens are still juvenile in size (IMHO) and they are producing 2 clutches 2 weeks apart. I hope I don't get anymore eggs, else I may have to separate the pair, but I don't have any spare tanks!

The egg raft also seems to have some foci of eggs which are fungal infected (bigger white dots amongst the small black ones). On the other hand, they could be unfertilised. I'll just wait and see if they hatch out.

One other major headache is that my external air pump just crashed (refused to work). I'll have to get one very soon. I'm now relying on 2 backup air pumps.

Fingers crossed