Breeding Rhinogobius rubromaculatus + some impressions on the species. Pic Heavy.

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happypoet

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I acquired 4 young F1 Rhinogobius rubromaculatus from Frank Greco on March 15.
They looked like this when I got them:


They turned out to be 1 male and 3 females. There are several color morphs, red, grey, & yellow. This is the standard variety, as far as I can tell. Most of the first-hand information about them is in German, so it's difficult for me to be 100% confident on some of this.

They are in a 29 gallon aquarium with 6 Rhinogobius duospilus. I added some giant martini glasses from the hobby shop in order to create additional territory for these bottom-dwellers. This set-up has worked very well, and they martini glasses are used.


The tank is unheated, and has ranged from 66 when they came to 78 now. Basically, my house temperature. They don't seem to be bothered in the least by the 78 degree temp. Filtration is a Fluval 105, arranged at the top to maximize surface-disturbance rather than in-tank flow (it has been rearranged since the above pic). The water is 7.8-8 ph, and is moderately hard.

They rubros grew very quickly on a diet of frozen bloodworms and live white worms. They also eat daphnia, live mosquito larvae, and adult frozen brine shrimp occasionally, but the bloodworms and white worms make up 90% of what they eat. They are around an inch and a half now.

Recently, I noticed the male working more often on his cave (a 3" long capped 3/4" diameter piece of PVC pipe located on one of the martini glasses). The females were getting fatter, and sometimes looked darker.
They very nearly bred, but didn't quite pull it off.




I was going on vacation soon, so I did nothing. When I returned, I increased feeding from 1 to 2 or 3 times a day, continuing to alternate between live and frozen foods.
Almost immediately, they showed breeding behavior. The male is on the left; the female is the dark fish on the right.




I removed the pair and placed them in their own 5.5 gallon tank with a sponge filter. It had a 3/4 inch and 1 inch diameter pipe. They chose the 3/4, and I removed the 1" pipe. These pipes had a piece of slate angled at the back rather than a cap. This will allow for more flow-through.



The pair holed up in the 3/4" pipe for 2 days. They came out only briefly when I fed, then immediately returned.
After 2 days, the female was ejected from the tube, and here's where we are now:




It's a small clutch. Around 20 eggs, which makes sense. They're still young fish, with quite a bit of room to go before they're full-sized.
So far, the male has done a really good job (we're on day 3). He'll dart out to eat if something floats right in front of him, and he'll come to the edge of his tube to threaten me whenever I look in.
I returned the female to the main tank, where she quickly went back to normal coloration:


I have read accounts that rubros won't eat their young, so on this first attempt, I am planning on leaving the male in with the eggs until they hatch, which should be around 10 days from when they were laid.
I had some small success with breeding Rhinogobius duospilus, but I lost most of the eggs and only managed to raise two fry up to juvi-hood (where they are now). I'm hoping to have more luck with these. I have not and will not add any methylene blue or salt with this first try. I'll update this regularly until I have healthy little juvies or nothing left!

All in all, these are just fantastic fish. I adore my Rhinogobius duospilus, but rubros are better looking and even more gregarious, and while the duos wash out a bit in warmer temps, the rubros don't even seem to notice. My goal is to eventually have a big enough colony of these that I can regularly give them to other hobbyists looking for a small fish with a ton of personality.
 
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Nepherael

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Looks great! Nice job, looking forward to the updates.
 

Slappy*McFish

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That's pretty interesting. Great photo-journal!
 

platytudes

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Love your observations and photos! Very interesting fellows...you must feel so smart owning these cutting edge fish. I believe they will definitely catch on in the hobby more in the future, they have so much to offer and their needs aren't terribly specialized.
 

platytudes

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Ugh, so it goes! Maybe you could tumble them manually? I don't understand why so many fish do this, it seems to go against evolution! These fish are like panda bears when it comes to self-preservation...
 

wesleydnunder

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Sorry to read about the eggs. Aside from that setback it really looks like a great set-up. I'd have never thought of using martini glasses to increase area. Awesome!

Mark
 
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