banggai cardinal

[Alejandro1]

Hi,
I recently noticed that my banggai cardinals may be breeding. The smaller cardinal (female) has a redish bubble like form under its bottom fin. The larger one (male) seems to have some stuff (the eggs or fry) in his mouth. He won’t eat. It seems like he is doing something with it too, moving it around in there. How much longer should this last? It must have started about 5 days ago. What next? Will my other fish try and eat them, if successful? I have a tomato clown and dottyback. This came as a surprise. I recently acquired them- about 1 month ago.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

It definately appears that papa is carrying eggs. The eggs will hatch in about three weeks. The male will hold them in his mouth for an additional week or so. If you want to keep them you'll need to get them into another tank soon after they are born. Everything in the tank that would eat an adult brine shrimp would find the baby Banggai equally delectable.

I'll try to find Frank Marini's article on Banggai fry. It's excellent.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a great place for Banggai info.. http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml

 

[FMarini]

Hey:
guys pointing you in the right direction, my articles on how-to are an excellent start. Also check out www.rodsreef.com.

The red stuff under the female is more eggs, the male can really only hold about 40-50 eggs, and if the female has more then she'll release them and they become tankfood.
read the articles....you've got plenty of time
good luck
frank

 

[Alejandro1]

Hello,

Its day 23 since I noticed that my banggai cardinals had mated. In preparation I purchased a small plexi “breeding separator”- a box that would fit into my tank with very small opening to allow water to circulate- so that I could place the male before he released the fry. I haven’t noticed any fry yet peering out of his mouth. He still isn’t eating and is obviously caring the fry at the moment. Should I go ahead and separate him at this time into the container or wait a bit longer? Once he has released the fry should I immediately move him back into the main tank? Will he immediately eat up the fry? What if I am not home at that particular moment? When capturing him to separate him should I do this with a net?

Now about the potential fry. . . I don’t have baby brine to feed them. I was considering mashing up- between my fingers- brine into a pulp and feeding this. What do you think? Hatching brine shrimp seems to be highly demanding- am I incorrect? I’ve seen brine eggs sold at the store and assume that this is what you buy and hatch. Are their any other alternatives? What about that other food mentioned in the article?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Alejandro1]

I have now separated the male. In the act he released 10 fry. I have them both in a small of the shelf plexi glass breeding box that fits into the tank. It has a divider which I have used to separate the male from the fry. He still has more fry in his mouth. The size of the side the male is in is about 4x3x3 inches. He can’t swim around too much but seems comfortable. Maybe I will buy another container tomorrow to separate them more and allow the male to use the full size of the container 8x3x3. I tried the mashed up brine. It just looked like dirty water. They didn’t seem to eat. Are they premature? Any suggestions. Should I buy brine eggs tomorrow and start hatching them?

 

[houston]

Try frozen baby brine shrimp. I have been 100% successful in getting my fry to accept the frozen as their first food. Petsmart carries the frozen bbs. I feed them the bbs for 5 days, then switch to frozen daphnia for three weeks. After that, alternate between frozen adult brine, mysis, cubes, etc. Don't worry if the fry don't eat right away, especially since he spit them out when you caught him. My male takes up to four days to spit them all out into the reef, and the first out (and transferred to the refugium) don't eat until I've caught some more of their sibs and put them in with them.

My poor male got suckered into holding their fifth clutch this morning. I hope he swallows

- he needs a rest!

BTW - anyone in the Houston area want a couple of young bangers? I have two batches in the refugium right now......

 

[White-Queen]

So what's the scoop on your first "litter"(?) of babies, Alehandro?
You have to keep us posted.

Angela <><

 

[dbman]

What kind of success rate do you have on raising the bangaiis to adulthood?

 

[houston]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dbman:
<STRONG>What kind of success rate do you have on raising the bangaiis to adulthood?</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Take into account that this is only been going on for 5 months! I haven't done the numbers, but I generally capture (rescue) about 12 - 20 fry from the reef during the 4 or so days the male is releasing. Before leaving for work, I just check the LTA where they congregate and use a 1/2" rigid tube attached to flex tubing to siphon them into the breeder's net in the 'fuge. The previous batch has to be dumped into the 'fuge before I siphon the new ones.

I lost the most the first time (2 or 3, I think), chasing the little guys with a turkey baster and the gravel siphon and before rigging up the 1/2" siphon. I also have found some in the sump filter sock - beaten to a pulp from the high flow. I also have lost up to 2 after release into the ~40g 'fuge as well. I don't think any losses (capture or 'fuge release) were due to nutritional complications - more likely bumps, bruises, and predation.

One warning - always observe the fry after transfer of any type. They can startle enough to 'faint'. I tried to wait it out to see if it was a ploy to avoid predation and if they would swim away once the 'threat' had passed, but I gave in and 'saved' the couple that fainted. I have no idea if it helped or if I was lucky not to have killed them, but I used the turkey baster to suck them up and sort of wafted them up and down (very gently) in a current in the baster itself. Their gills began moving after about 5 'wafts', and they swam normally immediately afterwards.

Anyway, I took the first two batches to Keith's Aquatic Designs after they ate adult frozen brine for the first time. They certainly weren't large enough for the typical LFS and were really too small even for the frag set-up at Keith's, but I had another clutch that needed to be released into the 'fuge and was headed out of town for a week. The second two clutches are in the 'fuge now - well, one set is still in the net. The loose ones ate adult brine this morning (junk food - just experimenting) and the less than week-olds ate daphnia. All look very healthy. Do realize that the older bangers that are loose in the 'fuge can and do eat all types of plankton that circulate down from the reef. Others may not have the same results from this feeding regime because this source of extra food may be missing/reduced in their systems.

The male is still carrying his new clutch. Amazing - he is beginning to look like a pair of eyes sitting above a double chin, all of it framed with some long fins AND NOTHING ELSE. I wish I could catch one of the pair and force some abstinence

.

 

[todd22]

This whole fish breeding concept is something I definitly want to try. I was wondering if one of you with breeding cardinals might part with a couple of small ones that I can raise and "hopefully" breed in the future. It would be greatly appreciated.