My two Yellow Assessor's may have spawned...maybe?

[bobbychullo]

I have 2 yellow assessors. i've read that they think yellow assessors are not mouthbrooders but...

i think the male is carrying eggs in his mouth. i thought something was wrong with him, he had this "mass of something" hanging out of his mouth. then i thought, "i havent fed them yet how does he have so much food in his mouth and why isn't he swallowing it." then i realized they might be his mates eggs....?

they are literally hanging out of his mouth...

both my assessors are sitting in a very small cave, which they never do together, they'll share larger caves they can swim together in but right now they are huddled in a small cave just poking their heads out.

If you have ever fed H2O's Reef Cavier (capelin roe), the eggs in his mouth are about the size of those eggs (maybe a mm or 2 across), hence why i thought they may be food but i havent fed the tank yet today lol EDIT: the eggs are a hairlarger than capelin roe and they are a pinkish white, at least they look that color under my lighting...

i really would like to get a photo but these guys hide if i get my face that close to the tank...

anyone else have any experiences like this...

[Angel*Fish]

That's very cool! Need pics! I hope you realize that we don't care a bit how much effort is required of you to get them. :lol:

[teemee]

That's very cool! Need pics! I hope you realize that we don't care a bit how much effort is required of you to get them. :lol:

+1. Congrats!

[bobbychullo]

he doesn't have the eggs in his mouth anymore. i read somewhere on the internet a few minutes ago that they suspected their assessor's of eating their clutch...

not sure if i caught him in the act of eating the eggs or not. when i first looked at the tank this morning it was like he had taken one bite of a hamburger and had the rest of the sandwich just hanging out of his mouth lol.

from what i've read, the folks that have had their yellow assessor's spawn observe them guarding the eggs and fanning them with their fins, not mouthbrooding....

[Angel*Fish]

C'est la vie - still wanting pics of your pair and not caring the lengths you have to go to.

Seriously, I've been thinking about having some. Would love to see some pics if you have them.

[bobbychullo]

i would love to get a pic of them.

the both play leap frog around the tank in the morning after i feed them IF i either lay down for a good hour or leave and then come back. almost impossible to get them to stay out once i am up tho. i swear they watch me sleep from the tank lol

i was thinking of leaving the camera in front of the tank for a while so they get used to it and see if that works...

they're the only fish in the tank. i do not have much experience with other fish but i can see these guys being easily intimidated by other fish, they need a lot of rock to swim amongst to be happy. i had to add a bunch of live rock when i got them because i could tell there wasn't enough for them (the small one was staying tucked in the back corner of the tank, not swimming much, was ok after i added the rock). i am not sure if i have male/female. i got one that was larger and one that was smaller, the big one definitely likes his space sometimes. the tank is a 34g solana, i have easily 30 lbs of live rock in there with lots of interconnecting caves and spaces, they find out new ones all the time. ive had them about 8 months now, they are happy and healthy little guys.

[bobbychullo]

here's a pic i got right after i added them, you can see the big guy (who is much bigger now, he eats a lot more than the smaller one) on the bottom. i had to sneak up on them lol...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=2370&pictureid=20893

[Angel*Fish]

Thanks for the pic. So they're pretty shy? What are they doing in that pic?

[bobbychullo]

hey angel*fish, they are just chillin in a cave like they usually do...

....i have determined that they definitely spawned! i'm pretty sure anyway unless my little one is dragging a bunch of capelin roe along with her for later lol

i just caught the small one, i assume to be the female but i do not know for sure, carrying a string of eggs in her mouth, they look just like the eggs the big guy was holding last week in his mouth. the eggs look to be appx. 2 mm in diameter and a pale pinkish color. they were held together by a stringy substance. they seem to move them around a lot which may be due to my small tank size and them getting nervous that i'm so close... ?

they were acting crazy this morning. they barely ate and the little assessor kept charging at the big one, which she never does. and she's been out and about a lot more and looked to be fanning something with her tail fin. maybe they are getting close to hatching? i don't expect any to survive and i am not set up to try and catch and transfer the larvae, which i have never done before anyway lol

i love these little fish :)

[Briniel]

Hi,

this reminded me of a post in a german forum where someone raised Assessors: http://www.meerwasserforum.com/thread.php?threadid=46082&threadview=0&hilight=assessor+maulbr%FCter&hilightuser=0&page=1

What he observed was that the male would regularly disappear for 5-6 days and shortly before he appeared in the open again, he was seen hiding in the rock work, "juggling" a ball of eggs and watching over it. His guess was that the male guards and fans the eggs and possibly keeps them in his mouth for the first few days before the badge becomes too big, although he never observed that.

I'm not sure how this matches your observings (especially since it's called "Assessor flavissmus - not a mouthbrooder!"), just thought I'd share. There are some nice pictures on the last pages of that thread of the assessors he managed to raise.

I'm curious to see where this will lead, even if you don't plan to raise them, maybe you can figure out what excactly they're doing :)

[bobbychullo]

that forum is asking me for a password so i guess i cant read it but i feel like i've read that article somewhere. there is not much on the internet regarding these guys.

i have read that the blue one's are the mouth brooders and the yellow ones are not. they seem to be just moving them from cave to cave, hopefully not because i just added a bunch of new corals lol. both of them have participated in moving the eggs, i think they may even share in incubating them as it seems only one is out at a time but i haven't observed it. i was thinking of calling someone at ORA and seeing what i need to do if they do this again to maybe try and raise some of the larvae. a guy at my LFS says he thinks i'd have to get the eggs out and incubate them myself although he was purely guessing.

all this happened right after a full moon by the way. i have a RKE with moon phase moon lights. i figured i'd share as much info as i can observe for anyone who may be interested.

i had found this, he references that article on the german forum. according to this article mine are very close to hatching which would explain the fishes unusual behavior

http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=157&t=6746

it is also like i suspected, the male is smaller.

[Angel*Fish]

That's so cool! Congratulations! I'd really like to have some myself. Thanks for posting all this.