Catalina Goby

[clownfish75]

HI all

I may have a chance to get some Catalina gobies (Lythrypnus dalli) sometime soon.

I did a bit of a search on the net for info and found a report of them spawning, the larvae being 2.5mm at hatch but not being reared successfully. This report sounds old though.

Also discovered they are ment ot only like temps to 74oF (23oC) can anyone tell me if this is true or not? and what might be the best spawning temps for this species?

I also found a few titles of scientific papers one saying sex reversal

http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/content/full/208/2/120

similarly

St. Mary, CM. 2000. Sex allocation in Lythrypnus (Gobiidae): Variations on a hermaphroditic theme. Environmental Biology of Fishes 58(3):321-333

St. Mary, CM. 1998. Characteristic gonad structure in the Gobiid genus Lythrypnus with comparisons to other hermaphroditic gobies. Copeia. 1998(3):720-724.

St. Mary, CM. 1996. Sex allocation in the zebra goby, Lythrypnus zebra: insights gained through a comparison with its sympatric congener, Lythrypnus dalli. Environmental Biology Fishes 45: 177-190.

And very interestingly 2 papers on a fish with simultanious hermaphroditism, didnt think a fish would be able to do this

St. Mary, CM. 1994. Sex allocation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the blue-banded goby (Lythrypnus dalli): the effects of body size and behavioral gender and the consequences for reproduction. Behavioral Ecology 5(3): 304-313.

St. Mary, CM. 1993. Novel sexual patterns in two simultaneously hermaphroditic gobies, Lythrypnus dalli and Lythrypnus zebra. Copeia 1993:1062-1072.

Does anyone have a copy of these papers? alternatively i might get them in the next few weeks and post some info.

Any tips on any aspect would be great.

Thanks

Christian

[mano]

Catalina gobies live primarily in waters around Santa Catalina Island off of Southern California, but can range from Morro Bay to the Gulf of California. So, yes they will need cooler water. I'm not sure of what temps would be best to spawn them in but I would be very interested if you find out anything. Good luck!

Christine

[NicoleC]

74F would be the very top of their temperature range, and probbaly pretty stressful at that temp. California may be warm, but the coean water here is fairly cold even in the summer.

If you can satisfy the temp requirement, I understand that they are not hard to breed. Finding a market for temperate fish might be tough, though.

[GreshamH]

The Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) gets up in the high 80's surface temp, and they're found there as well.

[G_melacara]

I agree that high 70s to 80s would be in the very upper limit of their range. I have encountered many of the while diving off San Diego and the channel islands and it was always in 55-65 F water.