Sleeper Banded Dragon Gobies, repro., raising young, Rotifer sourcing, culture  - 12/01/2012
<Joel, twelve megs of pix? You're killing us!>
Hello, I was told you and the crew may be the only ones to help me.
My name is Joel Martynuik and I live in Edmonton Alberta Canada. I recently discovered that my male and female Dragon Gobies are now a mated pair and spawning to produce eggs and have the eggs hatch into fry. I tried doing all the research I could about breeding and raising Dragon Gobies but found nothing no where and no aquarium fish store managers know nothing either but haven't even herd of someone having a mated pair in captivity before. I tried doing a rough estimate of how many eggs and fry there where and I used my judgment by a 5ml vile volume as a basis and think its around the 3-5 thousand mark.  The eggs get laid on a piece of live rock and then I take that live rock out and put it in a 5 gallon tank with the same aquarium water and a small heater and foam bubble filter. The eggs hatch after 3-5 days and die at 4 days after hatching with no food being given. They last also 4 days or so with food being given being Rotifers but Im not to sure how many they need especially considering their amount as a whole in the tank. I've had 3 batches so far with each batch being 2 weeks from one another, I've only done anything about the 3rd batch because the first two I didn't know what was going on and the fry just all died with me knowing nothing about them. I was told that they'll only eat a live amphibian but my problem is that because they're only 1mm big I don't know if a Rotifer can fit in its mouth. I've researched that the average rotifer is between 150-300 microns big and that a brine shrimp net is about 300 microns big. The brine shrimp net can catch the Dragon Goby fry so I assume they're bigger than 300 microns. Do you know how small
a baby Rotifer is and if a 53 micron sieve could catch them?
<I wouldn't try to sieve these out, but just add a portion/aliquot of the culture media and all>
 Also how do you know what kind of Rotifer is what and if there's a specific species of Rotifer to feed to these small baby fry?
<There are quite a few; I'd be reading Reed Mariculture et al's sites re what they offer>
  Are some species smaller and bigger than others?
<Oh yes>
 How and where could I get them?
<The online culture outfits... or raising your own... are you familiar w/ Frank Hoff's works? Use the string "frank hoff's plankton culture manual rotifers" to search re>
 Do you know any other similar fish that has fry like this?
<Mmm, a few>
I looked up the Lancer Dragonet but also haven't found any information to help me because they're so rare in captive breeding.  I would really like to successfully breed these fish but would appreciate some help and guidance for the process. I've never had any breeding experience tell now but have own fish for a while now.
Another note is that once a baby fry comes off of Rotifers and onto baby brine shrimp, how does that transition take place without endangering killing the fish from them not eating?
<If they're ready size-wise to handle Artemia nauplii, no problem>
(Brine shrimp eat Rotifers right?) so putting the two in at feeding at once, one will eat the other as they're being eaten?
<Yes>
I hope you can get back to me ASAP as Ill have a newly hatched batch in 4-5 days from now because they just laid eggs again last night and want this batch to make it =)
I also have videos on YouTube for your reference ......rocketrabbitracing7 user name
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQovaO3R68w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prCI9EtmIvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ1j9MC2Wx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmqcobyjodU
Thank you. Sincerely,  Joel
<Am sending your query to our Neale Monks for his input, as he's much better versed in brackish matters, livestock.
Bob Fenner>