Bbg Full Of Eggs?

[geo7x]

Hi,
I have this bumblebee goby in my BBG species tank, and he/she is waaaaaay fatter than the others, and I mean round. Is it possible that it is full of eggs or is it just dominant out of the lot and gets loads of food? heres a pic of it:

and for comparison here's a pic of a 'normal' BBG in my tank:

sorry theyre so blurry, hopefully you can see the outline though.

edit: on neale monks' website he says that during spawning the male(s) colour may fade alot, well today I noticed that one or two of the other BBGs colour is extremely faded, infact i was a little worried, so this may be another indication that they may be breeding, what do you think?

 

[nmonks]

Sounds as if your fishes are breeding! Typically, the black on males fades out, making them overall golden or even red in colour. There's a nice picture in Baensch vol. 1, page 837. As with many other gobies, getting the fish to spawn is the "easy" bit (in relative terms, anyway); the tricky part is raising the fry, which are tiny and need very small live foods. Anyway, I found a nicely illustrated web page here which covers the basics.

Your first step will be to find a suitable cave. Apple snail shells are ideal, but anything that sort of size will do, even a tiny flower pot or hollowed out walnut shell.

Keep us posted, and good luck!

Neale

 

[CAC]

Wow, well done geo
Didnt think BBGs spawned in captivity under normal aquarium conditions....


Mikey

 

[geo7x]

wow, that is a fantastic article, and I hope you're right about them breeding. My possible male isn't at the stage of the one shown there yet. I have a bunch of decorative sea shells, just plain old ones, and I think I could have a couple that are ideal, would these work? Even if this spawning doesn't work out they sound like fun fish to breed so I may try more in the future.
Thanks Neale.

edit: just saw your post catfish are cool, thanks alot, they must be happy in my little tank

 

[CAC]

edit: just saw your post catfish are cool, thanks alot, they must be happy in my little tank

Sounds like it!!!
Its allways a good sign that things are going well when things are even remotely interested in breeding

Good luck

Mikey

 

[nmonks]

Also be sure and read Naomi's article on breeding these fish. It isn't especially difficult, just not commonly done (this is actually pretty true with freshwater gobies generally).

http/tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/gobygroup/message/287

Let us know if you see her laying any eggs!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[geo7x]

thanks neale, another great article, would you say that sea shells would be ok for caves?

 

[CAC]

If you can, i would get some shells, for sale specifically for hermit crabs, because they normally have only one way in....Also, they should be quite easy to get from an LFS, and you can get the food for the new babies, and some caves Im sure the shells you have will be fine too.
Do you know how long the pregnancy is?

Mikey

 

[geo7x]

thanks catfish are cool, I added a nice shell last night and it may be coincidence but the male with fading colours is currently in the shell. Up til then there has been no kind of activity or showing of interest, but I think one of the other females could be filling up with eggs too. I think its in the early stages at the moment as theyre not chasing each other or anything, no eggs either. I'm not gonna buy fry food yet, I dont want to count them before they hatch!

 

[geo7x]

heres a picture of the slightly faded one:

taken last night, just hope he goes completely faded then I can be sure.

 

[geo7x]

Ok, I'm not sure what to do now, The male is guarding the shell fiercely, but the female is crazily going round laying eggs on the tank wall! she just layed about 6 right before my eyes! I just hope there are some eggs in the cave because I dont think the ones on the glass have much chance

update: one of the others ate some off the eggs on the glass so ive taken them out and put them in a small container.
Male still guarding cave, hope there are egg in there.

 

[geo7x]

male hopefully guarding eggs.

 

[nmonks]

Looks very promising. I've seen female gobies "scattering" eggs away from the male or a nest. It may simply be a way of getting rid of eggs the fish doesn't plan to use, or perhaps they take a few tries before they get everything right, as happens with cichlids. Anyway, keep us posted.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[geo7x]

thanks, would the male only guard the cave if there were eggs in there? Hes usually tucked away in there or just outside.

 

[geo7x]

well, i was slightly worried that for any reason he could abandon the shell overnight, and last night when I turned the lights off he went off to do his own thing and left the shell woke up and he was away from the shell, but he has since gone back to sticking in or by the shell and guarding it