My female goby began holding June 29th, and today I noticed that no one had their buccal cavity full. Darn!!! I missed it. I thought I had another day or two to get Dad into the paternity tank. Darn!!!! So I'm peering all around, hoping to catch a glimpse of a baby, and lo and behold, I see one baby hiding way at the back of the tank in a crevice. Cool. Dark little thing with a longish body. I wonder if I have any more survivors. I hope the little guy can find something to eat back there.

Kim, I have got to find some spaghetti rock!! I've never seen it out here. Is there any other name that it retails by, so I could ask my lfs to stock it?

my gobies only ever spit 3-4 babies per brood.... so one 'survivor' is like 25% baby servival rate :D

That's a bummer, but the baby should find plenty of food in the rocks esp. if you have any algae on the rocks.

Whenever I let my WC E. cyanostictus spit in the tank, the parents seems to eat the young ones.... I stripped my male on a recent spawn (even though I'm usually opposed to stripping) and got 8 of them! They have spawned since and I did not strip. The male held to term. They're cool little fry aren't they? Little stripes and already behaving like gobies. Congrats!!!!!

Would you believe I have another holding goby today? These fish seem to be prolific. Ok, so for the next time, do I "strip" the father, or is there another way to prevent him from eating the fry as soon as he spits in his paternity tank?

Kelly, you may have more babies hiding out...They can be pretty ingenious when they want to be!

These fish teach us something every day, don't they?

I don't know if the spaghetti rock goes by any other name or not...I'm pretty sure it is man made??? That is the only store I have ever seen it in up here, and now they've gone out of business, so I don't even have a way to check on it for you. It is really fantastic for fry hide out, though...One piece of ours is hysterically funny to watch...(Yes, people, I'm watching a rock...) There are fry popping in and out of every tiny hole on it at feeding time! I really wish I had bought more of it.

Kim

I'd love to see a pic of the little guy! Congrats on the successful spawn and good luck with future ones! Practice makes perfect!!!

Unfortunately I haven't seen that little fry again. He is either a really good hider, or has already been eaten. My intake pipes don't have prefilters on them either, and it's a possibility that could've done him in too. On the plus side, one of the gobies is holding again, so eventually I ought to be able to time this right. I don't relish the thought of taking out rocks to catch a holding goby, but I'll probably try it at least once to see how doable it is. I do have a MONSTER size net, so I'm hoping that may make it easier.