Hatching of Antennarius sp. (angler or frog-fish) eggs

[Synanceia]

Will like to share this with fellow anglerfish lovers: the successful hatching of a clutch of eggs. This is the second clutch produced by a compatible pair (have no idea which is the male or female cos the mating and laying processes were not observed). The first clutch was laid three weeks ago, but was ignored cos I was preparing for house-moving. This second clutch, interestingly, was produced after a supposedly stressful period of temporary holding: 23 Feb - fish moved to temporary holding tanks (possibly about one-tenth the volume of their normal holding tank); 24 Feb - tanks shifted to new apt and partially changed water in holding tank; 25 Feb - tanks set up and fish placed in them after an interval of 6 hrs (the water in the holding tanks was fouling and there was no choice but to place the fish into the newly set up tanks with the old rocks and gravel. My feeling was that one more night in the holding tanks would have resulted in casualties); 26 Feb - egg mass seen at night; 27 to 28 Feb - egg mass did not disintegrate; 28 Feb night - egg mass placed in a small plastic tank with strong aeration; 29 Feb - egg mass disintegrating but the transparent eggs can be seen dispersed throughout the water with a little black dot at the side ( probably embryoes); 29 Feb night - eggs hatched and the tiny 1mm fry can be seen under strong light with wriggling tails and yolk sac; 1 Mar - fry given to fellow enthusiast with experience in raising reef fish fry. The fry float on the surface when aeration is withdrawn, hence in the wild, they probably form part of the zooplankton at the top water layer.

This is not the first time that I have a compatible pair of anglers. My very first pair had produced a clutch of eggs every week for a month and I think the intense egg laying killed both. After the last clutch of eggs both refused to eat and died. Hopefully this current pair will not produce eggs so frequently (currently a three week interval between the first and second clutch) and will survive.

Will post if there are fresh developments.

[marinebetta]

Still alive.....

[iantoh]

way cool! congrats!

[illusionist]

cool stuff, do keep us posted! all the best in rasing the fry

[Achilles Tang]

This is amazing! How did you take the fry photo?

[markietan]

super cool stuff! take good care of the frys and keep us updated!

[Synanceia]

The top two pics are those of the compatible pair which produced the egg mass. The rest are tank mates (bottom right pic are two Inimicus sp.).