Breeding Pair of Bangaii's - WOO HOO!

[Myka]

Yes!!! I finally found a breeding pair of Bangaii Cardinals! The male had eggs in his mouth at the store, and he hasn't spit them out or swallowed them yet. Just finished acclimating an hour ago.

SO STOKED! :D

Male's on the right...if you look close you can see his distended jaw (don't mind the coralline on the glass lol):

[i have crabs]

i just lost my male he was holding eggs for a while longer than he should have and ended up dieing so i think thier was a problem, but i did have a few batches survive prior to that

[Reef_kid]

that makes me mad.... lol

i have had so many bangaii cardnals
and i never get a breeding pair....

the last ones i had a few months ago i was so excited for...
got eaten by my sea anemone!!

it will be exciting when they hatch!! take lots of pictures:)

cheers
dave

[Delphinus]

Time and again I keep hearing about losing the males. They just don't eat when they're holding eggs/brooding fry so they literally starve out. The problem is they mate again so soon before he's recovered that eventually he just literally dies of exhaustion. I'm sure there's mention of this if you do any reading or research but just thought I'd mention. If I was ever try to breeding them one day (and I might .. just ... not today, that's all :lol:) I was thinking what I'd do is find a way to separate them. Maybe something as simple as an eggcrate divider .. so that they're still together, just, you know, ... not "together."

[EmilyB]

I just kept having spawn after spawn, but I left the babies. Dad usually ate half of them and got his strength up quite quickly...

[banditpowdercoat]

I just kept having spawn after spawn, but I left the babies. Dad usually ate half of them and got his strength up quite quickly...

DDAMN...EEEW...DAMN...YUCK...did I say eew?/

[Myka]

Ya, I hear a lot about the male starving himself to death. I will have to keep up on feeding him. He's in good condition now, but he hasn't been holding his current batch for long. I'm kind of hoping he'll either swallow it or spit it out so I can fatten him up better, but I kind of hope he won't because I don't want him to get in that habit! It's hard to tell right now because his jaw isn't hugely distended...but I'm not too sure he still has them this morning.

[i have crabs]

if he eats thier is no egg's
average time from start to finish is around 5 weeks, im quite shure id be dead if i didnt eat for 5 weeks, by the 4 week mark you can see little eyes looking at you and by week 5 they get spit out, i tried to move the male into a seprate tank wich stressed him out and he would spit out the eggs everytime. i think the key is to wait untill just before they are gonna get spit out anyway then catch him but dont use a net use a container of some kind, i used a net once and ended up with a bunch of premi's and only one survived which took his dads spot in the tank and is buddy buddy with mom im preaty shure thats wrong but do fish read the bible?

[Doug]

My male had a pair of females that really kept him going. :lol: Lost of room in the 225, so the females seemed fine with the arrangement. I kept the male well fed with mysis shrimp and my tank was always full of breeding mysid shrimp, including in the rubble in the 30in. deep overflows.

I had a couple of the young make it in there and survive and grow, eating the baby mysid & frozen Cyclop-eeze. I sold them all shortly after, so not sure how long the male would have made it at that rate.

Here is a pic of when they were young, courtesy of some of my old pics @ AP. I just purchased three tank bred young ones and thats how they ended up.

[Myka]

if he eats thier is no egg's
average time from start to finish is around 5 weeks, im quite shure id be dead if i didnt eat for 5 weeks, by the 4 week mark you can see little eyes looking at you and by week 5 they get spit out, i tried to move the male into a seprate tank wich stressed him out and he would spit out the eggs everytime. i think the key is to wait untill just before they are gonna get spit out anyway then catch him but dont use a net use a container of some kind, i used a net once and ended up with a bunch of premi's and only one survived which took his dads spot in the tank and is buddy buddy with mom im preaty shure thats wrong but do fish read the bible?

HAHAHAHA!!!

Lights aren't on for another 15 minutes. I'll try feeding them then, and see if he eats. He wasn't eating at the LFS (mom was), and it was obvious his mouth was full. I'm anxious to feed him to see if he's still got them. I would be very surprised if he went from LFS to acclimation container to my tank still holding eggs. If so, then he's a die-hard!

I don't have many predators in my tank (just a Perc and a tiny goby), so I'm just going to leave them to do their own thing regarding breeding and see if any survive in the tank by themselves. This way I can watch them, and figure out their patterns as well, so when I decide to intervene hopefully I'll have them figured out.

My male had a pair of females that really kept him going. :lol: Lost of room in the 225, so the females seemed fine with the arrangement.

Oh weird. I've never heard of that before!!!

[Doug]

^ HAHAHAHA!!!

Lights aren't on for another 15 minutes. I'll try feeding them then, and see if he eats. He wasn't eating at the LFS (mom was), and it was obvious his mouth was full. I'm anxious to feed him to see if he's still got them. I would be very surprised if he went from LFS to acclimation container to my tank still holding eggs. If so, then he's a die-hard!

I don't have many predators in my tank (just a Perc and a tiny goby), so I'm just going to leave them to do their own thing regarding breeding and see if any survive in the tank by themselves. This way I can watch them, and figure out their patterns as well, so when I decide to intervene hopefully I'll have them figured out.

In the wild, many of the young hide in the spines of long spined urchins. I have seen several threads of aquarists making phony urchins for the young to hide in. I would have to find the threads to remember how they made them.

[Myka]

So I fed them and the female ate, but the male didn't. With the lights on now I can tell he still has the eggs. I can't believe it!

[i have crabs]

thats good just keep an eye on him untill you can see little eye's looking at you.

[Myka]

Well his mouth is only getting fuller! I'm assuming they are growing...? I haven't been able to see whether they are eggs or little fish yet though. I think he's somewhere around day 16-21.

[fatpuffer]

Can you strip the eggs or fry similar to mouth-brooding cichlids. I used to have some yellow labs (electric yellow cichlid) and I stripped the fry after a few weeks.

Not sure with the sw version though.

Js

[Myka]

Strip them? I'm assuming you mean get them out of his mouth? I couldn't do that to him!!! Poor guy.

[fatpuffer]

I found with my yellow lab cichlids, i had close to 100 percent survival rate after I stripped. If I let them spit in the tank, I probably had lower than 10 percent due to fish eating them.

Jonah

[Myka]

How do you do this? Catch the fish, squish his mouth so he spits, then put him back?

Sounds like rape in a dark alley to me...poor fish!!!

[i have crabs]

cant see that going well with a cardinal but what do i know about raping fish?
you should see little fish about the 4 week mark

[fatpuffer]

This is a common practice in fw. I am not sure if it will work with sw. I had a two inch yellow lab that I stripped. Worked perfectly fine. I am not really following how it is rape but hey everybody is entitled to their opinion.

With the yellow lab I just caught the fish and open the mouth under water in a ten gallon container. The fish remains in the net only the head is out. That is how i stripped my cichlid. Some people do it differently. It took me less than one minute to do it.

SW fish might be a bit too sensitive for the process though. Cichlids are fairly hardy fish.

Js

EDIT: You can also increase the survival rate by taking the fish out and putting it in a 5-10 gallon on its own so when it spits out the fry, there are no predators.

[fatpuffer]

Just quickly googled this. This guy used a tumbler to hatch the eggs. Its pretty interesting

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/coral-dynamics/11101-baby-bangaii-eggs-hatching-video.html

Js

[Myka]

This is a common practice in fw. I am not sure if it will work with sw. I had a two inch yellow lab that I stripped. Worked perfectly fine. I am not really following how it is rape but hey everybody is entitled to their opinion.

With the yellow lab I just caught the fish and open the mouth under water in a ten gallon container. The fish remains in the net only the head is out. That is how i stripped my cichlid. Some people do it differently. It took me less than one minute to do it.

SW fish might be a bit too sensitive for the process though. Cichlids are fairly hardy fish.

Js

EDIT: You can also increase the survival rate by taking the fish out and putting it in a 5-10 gallon on its own so when it spits out the fry, there are no predators.

Well, it's like raping the poor guy of his instinctual habits. I just don't see it as right. Thanks for sharing, but I don't think I'll try it.

I will likely let him just spit this batch on his own. I am setting up a 65, so I'll be moving my reef to that one. I think the Bangaii's will stay in the 33 (or maybe I'll get a different tank for them), and will have a tank to their own with no predators (besides themselves! haha).

[Myka]

Just quickly googled this. This guy used a tumbler to hatch the eggs. Its pretty interesting

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/coral-dynamics/11101-baby-bangaii-eggs-hatching-video.html

Js

Oops, missed your post on the first round! Thanks for posting this! Very interesting!!!

[Myka]

Ok, I've been reading about stripping the eggs, and using an egg tumbler, and I am becoming more open to the idea. :) I'm not set up to do it for his batch though, so maybe the next one...?

[fatpuffer]

If you can, maybe you can separate him just before he spits so that all the babies will be in a safe area.

Good luck...sounds like a fun project.

Js

[Myka]

I have a third Bangaii Cardinal who is in my 10g "quarantine" tank. Once I find a home for him I will have somewhere to put the babies, but right now I don't.

[fatpuffer]

Sweet...get rid of that cardinal in the ten...lol.

Js

[Myka]

I put an ad up...no one seems to wants him. Might have to take him in to the LFS.

[banditpowdercoat]

I want a cardinal for my 45g, but I am a while away from filling with rock, atleast a month, then hte cycle time :(

[Palster]

I put an ad up...no one seems to wants him. Might have to take him in to the LFS.

I am interested in this fish (if you still have it) and live in Kelowna. Sent you a PM.

[Myka]

PM replied to. :)

[Myka]

BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I netted the male to strip him, and he spat them into the net for me. :) One got squished in the process, but there are 13 little bangers that suck at swimming!

The male is pretty stressed out over the ordeal... :(

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k43/Myka82/Aquariums/BabyCardinals.jpg

[VFX]

Congrats :biggrin:

[Palster]

Congratulations, that is very cool! Make sure you keep us posted on how you make out raising the babies. I am still on for Weds. to pick up the other male Bangaii. :biggrin:

[Myka]

Congratulations, that is very cool! Make sure you keep us posted on how you make out raising the babies. I am still on for Weds. to pick up the other male Bangaii. :biggrin:

I think it is a male. By no means am I guaranteeing such! Thanks for taking him. I need the room for the babies. Hoping I can raise them to sale size. :)

[i have crabs]

mine would eat frozen baby misis right away if you havnt got any live ones goin yet,also feed them like 5 times a day.
one batch my male spat out where still to young to swim good and mostly got picked off my bristle worms so beware depending where you have them

[Doug]

Way to go. :D. Good luck with the brood. As mentioned, mine ate
Cyclop-eeze but I believe they ate baby Mysid shrimp first.

[Myka]

I shot a blast of newly hatched baby brine shrimp soaked in Selcon. I think the babies ate a bit. I'm not going to be able to feed them 5x a day as I work 8-6. Hopefully they'll be ok with 2-3x feeding. The quicker I can get them on Cyclopeeze the better. I have them in one of those "net breeder" things, and the baby brine go right through the net...

I'm going to have to figure out a better way to do this for the next batch.

Also, need to figure out a fake urchin for them to encourage swimming.