Pairing Salarias Fasciatas, the Lawnmower Blenny

Well I've managed to slink past one of the stumbling blocks in my attempts to breed the Algae blenny (Salarias fasciatas).

To be absolutely blunt to anyone out there that's wondering why I am attempting such a task I will state it now:

I am fully aware of the difficulties and my chances of success, I have accepted this and will forge on regardless.  New things arent found by doing everything the way everyone else does.

For those that havent been following along in my efforts on other sites such as the MBI I have decided to give a go at a fully docummented pairing, spawn, and captive breeding attempt of this species.  There have been pairing and spawning reports in captivity however most of these by luck and in large tanks, and none were carried out to produce fry.  (See Coral magazine Volume 5 number 2 April/May 2008 pp. 40 - 43 E. Thaler)

Sadly, my first attempt at obtaining a pair was prior to me reading the article, and my sexing of the specimens was innacurrate.  Both specimens were kept in separate adjacent sections of one of my tanks, where they could see each other through the clear glass divider.  After examining behavior for two weeks I introduced them to each other in the section that housed the male.  Unfortunately, both specimens were male and the introduced specimen perished during the first night.  As an interesting observation, the male that occupied the section was the aggressor and the introduced specimen did little to fight back.

I theorized four failures in my first attempt:

The first failure was in my sexing of the species, this has been for the most part remedied through self education and reading.

The second failure was in the introduction of specimens, I introduced the suspected female to the males tank, by doing this I shock the female specimen while leaving the male specimen with a "territory"  By introducing both specimens to each other in a new section I remove existing territorial bounds and both specimens are just as disoriented.

The third failure was in the sections aquascaping, which consisted of aragonite sandbed with no rock or other items other than a few gorgonian frag's in holding.  This gave neither specimen hiding places, and while it aided my examination of activities, it definately would not work for nesting or further spawning.  The new section has several peices of live rock as well as PVC pipe lengths set vertically to simulate barnacle shells (noted in above cited article) or other cavelike structures.

The fourth possible failure is one that I cannot easily overcome should it be one of the reasons (While I doubt this is the problem, I cannot rule it out until I am successful in breeding the species).  It is possible that the size of the broodstock section is simply too small, not lending enough space for territorial activity and avoidance on the part of either specimen. 

In any case.... moving on...  I obtained a new "female" specimen and began acclimation in the same way as the first.  Allowing both specimens to view each other through the glass divider and observing their behavior.  This specimens anal fins are more uniform and I am much more certain that it is female.  Furthermore, both species were much more subdued in their interactions with each other through the divider.  Last night I took this as a good sign and started the process.

With tripod set up, camera equipment at the ready, multiple nets and tubs in the event I need to "evacuate" a specimen, I moved both specimens to the new broodstock section.

Unfortunately for photodocumentation (but fortunately for the experiment) both specimens went into hiding and there was no interaction to photograph or videotape...  hrmm...  This morning, both specimens are intact and no aggressive behavior has been noted.  They both are still shy and not quite used to the new home, but have been spotted next to each other from time to time without any aggressive display from either.

With luck and crossed fingers, I will wait, document, and share.  My hope is that I can get these two to pair, eventually spawn, and expand on prior work by documenting the larval rearing processes of the species.