Ways to slow down breeding cycle?

[PamBrent71]

We have a pair of diamond gobies that we got as juveniles. They are breeding about every couple weeks. While the miracle of life is nice, they get extra territorial for about 6 days each time. The female keeps trying to pick fights with the blue jaw trigger and the sand piling gets a little extreme.

Is there any trick to slowing the frequency of their spawning? Our clownfish love the snacks (they chow down on the babies) so it's not all bad ... but launching a thousand or more baby gobies every 14 days is nuts. We have zero intention to raise these things bc it is incredibly time consuming, expensive, and likely to fail. Maybe light cycle timing could impact it?

 

[gobyvin]

Hi,
I have kept a breeding pair of yellowhead sleepers (same genus) before, raising young is very difficult. I had no success with larvae past day 4. The only way I think you can slow a healthy industrious pair’s breeding is to not keep them as a pair. One other way might be to prevent them from having ANY way to create a cave/burrow, but this is cruel too, as they sleep in one every night.
Any other way might be a little cruel.
Gobies in this genus are very short lived in the sea, due to this furious spawning cycle they keep, I imagine. There are good scientific studies of them in the wild that track individuals habits.
Maybe remove the trigger?
Once acclimated and eating heartily, they spawned every 13-14 days like clocks for me. The whole process was hard on the male, and he was the first to die. Only a year in too. I suspect that the males have space to escape a very fecund partner to re-stock their supplies better in the wild. The female I had was like a damn drill sergeant, and greedy at feeding time. She used to bite and subvert his attempts at feeding at times, between clutches. The poor males of this goby species starve for the egg incubation period while they fan and guard the egg mass. 9 days. So I used to feed crazy heavy in between to keep the poor guy alive!
Very entertaining species to keep, but brutal to maintain as breeding pairs in reef tanks with inverts that get dusted constantly.

 

[PamBrent71]

Thank you for the insight. We have discussed the idea of splitting them up ... and I'm fonder of the male (he does seem to get the short end of the deal, plus he is just a nicer fish to the rest of the fish). I cut back their sand bed, not entirely of course, but they have building materials to make 1-2 dens now, not the 3-4 they had before. They do keep the sand super clean but I think a breeding pair is too much Goby for me.

 

[gobyvin]

Sounds like a good compromise. I had mine in a 180, and they pretty much ruled the tank with their activities.

 

[Ortizdrz]

If you do decide upon splitting one I'd be willing to purchase.

 

[Aquatic Nerd]

I'm not sure what conditions gobies typically breed in. But I'd imagine a change in temp and/or length of day would throw them off.

 

[gobyvin]

I'm not sure what conditions gobies typically breed in. But I'd imagine a change in temp and/or length of day would throw them off.

I agree, but think once they get going they just continue. I think the degree of change you would need to make might not be something all the tank inhabitants want to endure. Typically, the breeding cycle starting in captivity is a sign you hit a sweet spot and you should keep up with what you are doing! If all the tankmates agree that is...

 

[PamBrent71]

I agree, but think once they get going they just continue. I think the degree of change you would need to make might not be something all the tank inhabitants want to endure. Typically, the breeding cycle starting in captivity is a sign you hit a sweet spot and you should keep up with what you are doing! If all the tankmates agree that is...

Thinking about how the vote would go ...
2 clowns: Yes! Snack bar every 2 weeks!
Female Goby: Yes!
Wrasse: Snacks are nice, even tho she is a witch when they are baking. Yes.
Blue Throat Trigger: No! She gets mean AND keeps building dens in my territory.
Coral Banded Shrimp: I'm with Trigger, she is a bully and that's MY job.
Male Goby: I dunno. Rather not. No. Don't tell her I said that, she'll bite me again.

Corals and nems would be divided based on being in lower half of the tank (subject to sand movement) or upper half (no sand issues, but loads of little snacks as the doomed babies swim toward the light).

Good thing a reef tank is a benevolent dictatorship and not a democracy. Just imagining the debate makes me yearn for a simpler hobby.

 

[afboundguy]

When I was researching breeding clownfish I came across a lot of literature that said lower heat slows it down. I keep my tank around 75-76 degrees and consistently the clownfish have a longer breeding cycle compared to the typical norm...

 

[Greg Hiller]

Not sure I'd recommend it, but I've noticed if fish are not fed well they will stop breeding.