royal gramma nest site dilema

[lizardlady58]

I have a male royal gramma in a fifty gallon community tank. I say male because he has constructed a tunnel under some live rock and has adorned it with caulerpa. I purchased a female royal gramma a few weeks ago, I am thinking she's female because she is the smallest one I could find and I have noticed that her belly has become quite round. She is in my quarintine tank at the moment. There are plenty of hiding places for her in the fifty gallon if the male becomes too aggressive so I thought I could put her in with the male. Ideally, a tank of their own would be best, but room is limited at the moment. All my fish get a daily varied diet of brine shrimp, scallops, fish, angel food, mysid shrimp and once a week a feeding of squid. These are routinely enriched with hufas. Water quality in both tanks is perfect, salinity is 23, temp. is 78. I would like to try breeding these fish:just to observe their natural behavior, etc.first of all moving the male out of the fifty is out of the question, I don't want to tear my tank apart to catch him. My question is once the female is in the tank, should I put a pvc pipe in his burrow for easy retrieval of eggs, or will that disturb him enough that he would move his nest? Right now his burrow is accessible for me but if he moves it anywere else in the tank I will not be able to get at it. any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[lizardlady58]

After thinking about this problem, it occurred to me that probably the most non invasive way to collect larvae is to use a larvae snagger. I think I will give this method a try. The plans don't look too complicated.

 

[bigalulrich]

adding the PVC down in the males nest area may just spook him to another spot. you won't know until you try. In my experience the larval snaggers are hit or miss--especially in a community tank (lots of hungry mouths). Definitely non invasive, just be prepared for variable and potentially low yielding results. Any interest in retrieving the male and setting up a breeding tank?

 

[lizardlady58]

I would like to set up a breeding tank and eventually I will but at the moment I have no more room (but I am working on that lol).