GSP Spawn?

[PetPirate]

Fantastic! Can't wait to see this

If they turn out to be GSPs, would you be able to identify which one was the mother?

[mustangsherman]

Okay,
I'm back......
Raising fry has been a rapid learning curve. But posting video on YouTube and linking to here is another. Tried Friday and Saturday, but my computer and the high speed service kept interrupting. I started one video uploading so many times. Still not sure what was happening as today connection is fine so far (knock on wood).

The first video is of the adult puffers in their new temporary home. The next 7 videos are of fry in several locations, lighting and timing of lighting being on in the tank. When the lights are off the fry swim all over the back wall and the bottom of the tank. So I got a couple of last videos just after turning the lights on. I apologize in a couple of videos for floating objects. We had just cleaned out the filter. But the fry were visible and I didn't want to miss a video opp as I don't have any idea how many opportunities we may have.

Also some of the rock has algae growing on it. We have not pulled it out to manually remove because the fry had their home there. Didn't want to disrupt anything. They seem to like under arched areas of rock, within one scooped out shell shaped areas of rock (also many copepods in this area as well, but the shape and movement of the two are quite different). And with lights off they are venturing all over the tank. Rather surprised how many there are--at least 40-50 (and I'm probably grossly underestimating). There appear to be fry of different sizes indicating more than one spawning. I don't know if it will be at all possible to separate them out or if the smaller will become food for the larger more mature.

We have been feeding live and frozen baby brine shrimp. I fed after turning the lights on when they were out and about and they seemed to swim more vigorously. One of the videos even catches an ever so slight bit of very subtle very mild aggressive interaction between two fry.

Meet the parents:


Fry located under branch.



This was shot under actinic light. You'll see the fry as dark darting objects.

Another actinic lit video. This one there is a brief interaction, maybe even slight demonstration of aggression???, between two of the fry

Still actinic lighting. Different location in the tank. In this video I pan out to give perspective and then (shakily sorry) move to section of branch that you have seen in the previous videos.


I discovered that when the lights are off that the fry swim all over the back wall and the bottom of the tank. This video is shot soon after the lights are turned on. I tried to pan out so that you see some perspective.

This last video is the poorest of my video skills and shows the dirtiest spots on the front of the glass tank. I had just fed the tank so spilled a bit down the front. But I was getting some shots more clearly of a couple of larger fry.
******WILL GET THIS ONE TO YOU LATER, HAS BEEN UPLOADED BUT BEING PROCESSED BY YOUTUBE, CAN TAKE UP TO SIX HOURS PER THE SITE****** this is the only one that didn't get processed quickly by youtube.

Hope you enjoy my videos.

[Pufferpunk]

Sooooo hard to tell what those swimming specks are...

[mustangsherman]

Hello again,
I am sorry about the video quality. It is the best I could get with the equipment that I have. The swimming specks have a tail and definite eyes. In some light they have a pinkish (when in a bowl outside of the tank in sunlit room) and in the lighting of the tank (compact fluorescent--white and actinic) a more greenish/yellowish coloration. The colors are extremely slight. Please remember that this was a species only tank with GSPs only. The only other creatures are a large turbo snail, several to few add more back to several hermits and snails. If these are hitchikers from the live rock they do not look like any pods that I have ever seen. These have gotten to a size larger than pods. They definitely swim in a 'tadpole' like motion and appearance unlike any pods I have seen. I do not know that they are GSP fry. If anyone knows what they are we are open to any input. The videos being posted on YouTube may spark some response as well. Again thank you to all who are following along with us with these little guys.

Hope to get you better closeup quality. I have ordered a set of screw on macro lens for my digital SLR and my digital video cameras. I tried the magnifying glass but the glass we had was not in good enough shape. I may be able to find a good quality magnifying glass this week and take some shots.



The last video was now ready on YouTube

This last video is the poorest of my video skills and shows the dirtiest spots on the front of the glass tank. I had just fed the tank so spilled a bit down the front. But I was getting some shots more clearly of a couple of larger fry.



And in response to the question whether we can tell the mother. My understanding is that GSPs do not show any external gender differences. Interestingly the adults are frequently swimming in two separate pairs since being moved to the new tank. I also have a question for some of the veteran members. I have seen that many members have discovered that spawning has occurred when a puffer comes up missing. My understanding is that some puffers the male becomes aggressive towards the female during or after spawning and can injure or kill her.

Since I discovered the fry when one puffer went missing, does anyone know if this occurs with GSPs.

Also since I know people will notice my math. We started with six GSPs. One went missing and the fry were discovered when searching the tank for the missing GSP. Unfortunately during this whole process, we lost another puffer friend to a horrible freak accident. Well not a puffer but a human leading to a puffer accident. The filter cage was left off of the inlet to the filter and one GSP tried to escape (I guess he watched the Nemo movie too many times) and was found deceased in the filter. We have of course corrected this. If I didn't bring this up I knew someone would ask how we went from five to four adult GSPs.

Any information on how to further raise these fry is welcome. Although I know we are on completely new ground here in that it apparantly has not successfully been accomplished in captivity previously. Hopefully we can keep this going.

[Pufferpunk]

What SG are they in now?

[OraLacerta]

I think you did a very good job capturing those tiny things on camera. I can't get a decent photo of my 5" long puffer at the moment...

Like PP said it is really hard to tell what those are (and we cannot see in the video that they have eyes) but they do appear to have spines running to the back of a tail. I guess we will see with time whether or not these are indeed GSPs. I hope that mom/dad didn't die as it would be a shame to lose both of the breeders.

It seems so odd though that these juvenile GSPs would spawn; they look so young to me with their crisp polka-dots dots and light greenish-yellow skin.

[PuffTheMagicFishy]

The li'l critters do swim like puffers, using their tails as rudders.

[Rocker]

I know they are a different species and we have no accounts of the GSP fry but they do not show any resemblance to suvattii fry in shape, swimming or behaviour. Time will only tell. Congrats anyway !

[manutius]

ARGHHHH!!!! I can't see the pics. Will have to try at home instead of work

[Myaj]

I'd really hate to be a downer and its too hard to tell...

But they look more like shrimp than fry to me. The way they move, the shapes. Are you sure they aren't tiny, clear looking shrimp? I have a ton of them in my sump and they move just like that, very fast, very darting, and from what I can see the body shape looks right.

I would assume you'd be able to see legs though, if they were shrimp? They sure look like they are running along surfaces and swimming like a shrimp, not like fry.

[manutius]

Firstly congrats on great videos you have done very well to capture them. At first I was on the fence and then i thought they could be puffers in the first two vids however the last video reminded me of something I used to keep many years ago. The species I kept were called Triops though the type I kept were FW. I am now coming down on the side of a small marine crustacean but thats as far as I will go for now. Gonna try and dig up some info

[OraLacerta]

Now that I look at the last two videos again they do behave an awful lot like shrimp, following the substrate or decor as if running on legs. The last video with actinic lighting looks like shrimp darting around upside down on the underside of that LR.

I hope we're wrong as it would be amazing to have some fry...

[Corvus]

Pretty sure these are no fish fry, but would enjoy to be proven wrong.

[manutius]

I agree with oralacerta, I thought it looked liked running along the gravel too, hence it retminded me of my triops

[mustangsherman]

Hi everyone,
Well the critters in the tank are definitely not GSP's. I think that they are some kind on shrimp, however I'm not sure what kind. They are a pinkish color with obvious legs. It would have been cool to have babies but on the positive side of things, at least the GSP's will have something to chase around the tank for entertainment. I will do a water change and then put the puffers back in. Probably this weekend.
Thanks for everyones help. Hopefully, one of us will be able to successfully have some little GSP's.