Bangaii Breeding Journal

Myka · #1 01-21-2008, 05:15 AM

Ok, so I spent like $30-35 on stuff to make an egg tumbler. I had to buy a whole undergravel filter kit just for the uptakes. LOL. Waste of $24...or maybe not if it works! HAHA!

So then I stripped the male of the eggs (it's day three holding the eggs). I had to open his mouth this time as he didn't spit as soon as I netted him like he did when he had fry last time. I used a short piece of airline tubing cut at a 60° angle, grabbed onto him gently (keeping him submersed in the water) then I used the point of the tubing to gently pry is mouth open and kinda bob him in the water a bit. He spat them out when I opened his mouth.

I put the eggs into my egg tumbler and realised my egg tumbler sucked!! Oh no!!! I had the egg tumbler built like this:

The air would go up past the eggs, but the problem was that a large bubble would form between the air stone and the netting for awhile, then a big blast of bubbles would go up, then it would build, and big blast. Well this was blasting the crap outta the eggs! So I built a new tumbler that looks like this:

Now the air doesn't pass by the eggs at all. I have it turned down so that the eggs rest on the bottom but are kinda hovering down there. I hope it works! Here's the eggs:

Myka · #2 01-21-2008, 10:28 PM

Oh ya, I figured I would note that those "Brine Shrimp" nets...don't work. The little BBS went right through it, and down my drain. Rrrrg...

How do you guys rinse your BBS before feeding?

Myka · #3 01-27-2008, 08:01 PM

Nothing overly interesting going on...

The runt Bangaii's are starting to swim around more, but are still way smaller than the others.

The eggs in my tumbler went from sinking to floating a few days ago. Not sure why. Now they aren't "tumbling" they are all pushed up against the top screen. I hope that will be ok. They seem to be growing. I am wondering about light though. The ones one the top of the ball of eggs are whitish, and the ones at the bottom of the clump are pink/orange. I'm wondering if the light is causing them to go white...I don't think they'd normally get light in the mouth of the male. None of the eggs seem to be dead...maybe I'm naive though. lol

fishmaster · #4 01-27-2008, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka

Nothing overly interesting going on...

The runt Bangaii's are starting to swim around more, but are still way smaller than the others.

The eggs in my tumbler went from sinking to floating a few days ago. Not sure why. Now they aren't "tumbling" they are all pushed up against the top screen. I hope that will be ok. They seem to be growing. I am wondering about light though. The ones one the top of the ball of eggs are whitish, and the ones at the bottom of the clump are pink/orange. I'm wondering if the light is causing them to go white...I don't think they'd normally get light in the mouth of the male. None of the eggs seem to be dead...maybe I'm naive though. lol

I don't know much about these fish or their eggs. I did however do some work in a small salmon hatchery years back. One of the critical daily duties was "dead picking". You would pick out any eggs starting to cloud or turn white. Whitening eggs are generally a sign of fungal infection. If they are infected, they will die or are already dying. If this is the case, you will need to remove them or the fungus will spread to the live ones. My clownfish will constantly pick at their eggs and pick off any that die. Just my 2 cents....

Myka · #5 01-27-2008, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishmaster

I don't know much about these fish or their eggs. I did however do some work in a small salmon hatchery years back. One of the critical daily duties was "dead picking". You would pick out any eggs starting to cloud or turn white. Whitening eggs are generally a sign of fungal infection. If they are infected, they will die or are already dying. If this is the case, you will need to remove them or the fungus will spread to the live ones. My clownfish will constantly pick at their eggs and pick off any that die. Just my 2 cents....

Ya, this is what I thought too, but these eggs still seemed to be developing normally. I just took a closer look, and it seems like the white ones are actually disintegrating, so I think you are right. I'm gonna pull all the white ones out right now. Also, upon close inspection, I see there are eyes developing in the orange eggs. COOL!

Myka · #6 01-27-2008, 08:35 PM

Aw...there are only 7 orange eggs. I guess I should have removed the white ones much earlier!!! The water quality in that little tank isn't the best, so I'm guessing that isn't helping either. The eggs aren't buoyant anymore, so I guess that's a sign that there are fungus infected eggs if they go buoyant.

Myka · #7 02-24-2008, 11:29 PM

So...all the eggs in the tumbler ended up turning white and dying.

I think the water isn't clean enough in there.

Mr Bangaii has his mouth full of eggs again as of yesterday. I think I'm going to let him hold them until they hatch. I don't think I'm really set up right to use my tumbler...unless I want to put that ugly thing in my display tank...which I just might do.

The babies are now 7 weeks old, and the only ones to survive are the two that looked good from the start. I figured that would happen. They are now eating only FD Cyclopeze, and seem to be doing quite well. I'm going to start mixing in some finely ground Formula One flake.