Whether or not you fail in this first attempt, if you’ve got a breeding pair then I’d say you could have a decent chance of success long term.
I’m honestly not sure how to tell if the eggs are fertile early on, but as they mature you should be able to tell using a microscope or a camera with a really good zoom (you should be able to see the developing frogfish babies in fertilized eggs like in the link below - from what I’ve seen of larval Antennarius sp. specimens, the eyes would likely be the easiest part to see distinguish).
Assuming you have fertile eggs, the advice I would give is this:
- if possible, get some Parvocalanus crassirostris pods too (rotifers are great, and I would expect the larvae to go for them, but some fish larvae are picky and prefer pods over rotifers - having both seems like a good way to ensure you have good, small foods for them, and Antennarius pictus was cultured using Parvocalanus nauplii, so it seems likely to be a good food source for them). Artemia and other larger pod species would likely be good to have on hand too for the larvae as they grow.
- Get various sizes of very fine sieves so you can control the size of the feeders being offered to the larvae as/if needed.
- Add phyto directly to the larval rearing tank. It’s a good method of ensuring that the feeders are gut-loaded and healthy, and it makes them easier for the fish to see (better feeding/survival rates are typically observed with this method).
- Observe and note information about the larvae (things like how big the eggs are, how big the larvae are, when the larvae settle, when coloration comes in, etc.) and the larval behaviors (stuff like if they are attracted to light, how they react to light, if they are attracted to certain colors, what feeders they eat and what what sizes of feeders they eat at what days post hatch, what kind of substrate they prefer to settle on, are they cannibalistic, etc.).
- Watch for developmental bottlenecks and issues with your rearing methods.
- A lot of people run into feeder issues their first few times breeding, so I’d have a backup plan in place to be able to get some feeders quickly if you find yourself needing some.
That’s all the advice I can think of at the moment.
For info I would like to know:
- What are your water parameters in the broodstock tank?
- Broodstock tank setup? (Tank dimensions, flow info, lighting strength and schedule, is the tank exposed to natural light at all, etc.)
- Is there anything you can think of that may have triggered the spawning? (Anything that has changed recently, even if somewhat slowly - water temperature, lighting, water changes, etc.)
- What are you using to gut-load the feeders for the broodstock?
Exciting stuff - let us know if they turn out to be fertile!
Edit: forgot the link:
Frogfish (Antennariidae): Reproduction of frogfishes: Mating Behavior, Baby and juvenile Frogfishes, special photos and illustrations
www.frogfish.ch
