My Banggai Cardinals Are Breeding
- Thread starter fsn77
- Start date
February 26: Stopped in to see if the male had released the fry before I left to go out of town for the weekend. Of course, no fry out and about. Go figure... he's holding onto them for the full 6 - 10 day period before releasing them. I'm hoping that once the fry are released this weekend, they are able to find enough hiding places until I get back.
March 1: I wasn't in the office today, as I needed to take the day off to get some work done around the house while my wife is away. I did hear that fry had started to be released finally! One of my co-workers (a Banggai fan and reefer) was able to snatch up 4 of them and move them into the fry tank. He also spotted that some of the fry were still in the male's mouth.
March 2: Now there's more fry... The male released the remaining fry, raising the total for this brood to a known 8, which is surprisingly what we were guessing all along (we thought 8 - 10). Only 2 of the 4 fry that were moved to the fry tank have been seen, but there's 4 - 6 fry still in the main tank. They literally are miniatures of their parents -- it's quite remarkable. Some of the fry are using the artificial urchin, while others are utilizing the thick growth of macroalgae that's been allowed to grow in as their release was anticipated. I'm currently thawing out some frozen San Francisco Bay Brand Reef Plankton (bright orange cube of very small plankton -- typically feed it to our corals) in hopes that they will eat it.
Even more surprsingly, the male already has another brood of eggs in his mouth! The poor guy didn't even take a break to eat... I'm guessing that he'll end up eating some or all of this next batch of eggs, or at least that he's instinctually smart enough to do so before he starves himself to death.
Off to try and feed them... And hopefully snap a few pix.
March 1: I wasn't in the office today, as I needed to take the day off to get some work done around the house while my wife is away. I did hear that fry had started to be released finally! One of my co-workers (a Banggai fan and reefer) was able to snatch up 4 of them and move them into the fry tank. He also spotted that some of the fry were still in the male's mouth.
March 2: Now there's more fry... The male released the remaining fry, raising the total for this brood to a known 8, which is surprisingly what we were guessing all along (we thought 8 - 10). Only 2 of the 4 fry that were moved to the fry tank have been seen, but there's 4 - 6 fry still in the main tank. They literally are miniatures of their parents -- it's quite remarkable. Some of the fry are using the artificial urchin, while others are utilizing the thick growth of macroalgae that's been allowed to grow in as their release was anticipated. I'm currently thawing out some frozen San Francisco Bay Brand Reef Plankton (bright orange cube of very small plankton -- typically feed it to our corals) in hopes that they will eat it.
Even more surprsingly, the male already has another brood of eggs in his mouth! The poor guy didn't even take a break to eat... I'm guessing that he'll end up eating some or all of this next batch of eggs, or at least that he's instinctually smart enough to do so before he starves himself to death.
Off to try and feed them... And hopefully snap a few pix.
March 2 (cont'd): Feeding the frozen plankton has created some difficulties, as the fry and the plankton are so small that I cannot tell if the food is being eaten. The fry dart towards it repeatedly, but I'm not able to see if they are actually eating it.
I did snap a few pix though... Sorry they aren't better... I really need to bring in my digital camera from home to get better shots. My camera phone isn't so great at capturing something this small.
March 3: Since it's not clear if the fry are eating the frozen plankton, I set up to hatch brine shrimp for them. They should hatch by tomorrow morning, so hopefully I'm not too late.
As many as 6 fry have been spotted in the 50g tank in the area around the artificial urchin, bringing the known total to 10 fry with 8 still alive. At this point, I've more or less given up on trying to move any more of them to the fry tank, as there's likely much more food available for them where they are than there is in the 10g fry tank which was only set up recently.
I did snap a few pix though... Sorry they aren't better... I really need to bring in my digital camera from home to get better shots. My camera phone isn't so great at capturing something this small.
Two pix of one of the fry in the 10g fry tank. That's a cinderblock wall behind the tank, with the seams being visible in the pic.
That's about as good as it gets for anything to indicate scale -- they are simply tiny.
That's about as good as it gets for anything to indicate scale -- they are simply tiny.
Pic of multiple fry hanging out in the macroalgae near the urchin.
March 3: Since it's not clear if the fry are eating the frozen plankton, I set up to hatch brine shrimp for them. They should hatch by tomorrow morning, so hopefully I'm not too late.
As many as 6 fry have been spotted in the 50g tank in the area around the artificial urchin, bringing the known total to 10 fry with 8 still alive. At this point, I've more or less given up on trying to move any more of them to the fry tank, as there's likely much more food available for them where they are than there is in the 10g fry tank which was only set up recently.
FSN77- very very cool...i love the urchin idea. Ive been thinking about getting some BC's for a while now...seeing those pics have given me another boost! have you started cultering rotifers?
Way to much fun! Bangi's have always been on my list, but it is difficult or should I say expensive to make sure you actually get a male and female.
Great pictures - please keep updating.
As far as visually seeing if they are eating have you tried some minor reading glasses. I am not a senior member yet, but well on my way. I keep reading glasses by my tank so it is liking looking through a magnifying glass and really zooms in. Someone around the office probably has some reading glasses you can borrow for a minute.
Great pictures - please keep updating.
As far as visually seeing if they are eating have you tried some minor reading glasses. I am not a senior member yet, but well on my way. I keep reading glasses by my tank so it is liking looking through a magnifying glass and really zooms in. Someone around the office probably has some reading glasses you can borrow for a minute.
I haven't started culturing rotifers. Instead, I decided to start hatching brine shrimp because I have access to a large supply of the eggs. I've read that as long as I feed the baby brine shrimp within the first 24 hours of hatching, they will still be nutritious, so I'm going that route for now. If I remember correctly, to culture rotifers, I also have to culture phytoplankton to feed the rotifers, which is a little more complicated than I can handle at the moment.
I think I lucked out... The two cardinals I ended up with were the only two in a tank at a LFS. I've known the guy that owns / runs the shop for a couple of years now, and he told me that he was pretty sure that they are a male and a female, due in large part to the fact that they hadn't tried to kill one another (although I suppose they could have been 2 females). To make things easier, he was selling fish buy 1, get 1 free that day. It really couldn't have worked out better for me. I think I paid $42 after tax for the pair of them.
Reading glasses... I hadn't thought of that. I'm sure there's at least a couple pairs of those around the office.
March 3 (cont'd): As a back-up since I can't really tell if the frozen plankton is being eaten, I started to hatch a batch of brine shrimp eggs. If you've done this before, you know how simple it really is and the only real cost is the brine shrimp eggs themselves. Because of how convenient it is for me, I opted to hatch them in saltwater with the same SpG of my reef tanks. I hope this will allow some of the baby brine shrimp to survive long enough to become more than just an instaneous food for the fry, especially in the fry tank (what I'm referring to is a few hours, not days or longer).
Fry count -- 2 in the 10g; 6 in the 50g
March 4: I'm beginning to think that not all of the fry are eating the frozen plankton based on today's fry count. Perhaps a couple have been preyed upon, but I'm not counting on that since I see no interest from the other fish in the fry during my office hours and I doubt one fry is looking to kill other fry at this point in their lives. I didn't put a heater in the brine shrimp culture, so no baby brine shrimp yet... They should be hatching in the morning.
Fry count -- 1 in the 10g; 5 in the 50g
March 5: Sure enough, plenty of baby brine shrimp this morning. Again, super tiny, nearly colorless food being eaten by very small fry, so I'm still not 100% sure the fry are eating. But, the fry are definitely chasing the baby brine shrimp, darting back and forth once I add them near the fry. I'm adding the baby brine shrimp 3 times a day while I'm in my office, again hoping that some are hanging around long enough to provide a somewhat steady food supply for the fry between feedings. Being a Friday, there's less people and eyes to count the fry for me. Here's what I've seen today...
Fry count -- 1 in the 10g; 4 in the 50g
your correct, you would need to culture both phyto and rotifers...and from what ive read its a little involved, but doesnt seem to be difficult. the rotifers are very small, smalller than the baby brine making it small enough for them to eat. the brine also doesnt contain as much nutrition as the rotifers unless you have gut loaded them. I really want these guys to pull thru for you and am anxious to hear your results. They are awsome looking fish.
Sorry for no updates... It's been a rough week. The canopy to my 250g fell over on one of our cats, breaking his leg. Two trips to the emergency vet over the weekend and then surgery to repair the brake on Monday... not fun (or cheap). I've been around a bit here and there, mostly just hovering when I have a few quick minutes.
To top things off, I've been out of my office each day except Monday... Busy week!
In short, the fry are doing reasonably well. Hatching of the brine shrimp has worked well, and the fry that remain in the main tank are growing noticeably faster than the one that was isolated in a separate 10g tank. I'm thinking that with the abundance of macroalgae in the main tank, the fry (which frequently use it for cover) are able to eat at-will and are feasting on the copepods that are living in the macroalgae.
I'll take my better camera with me to work tomorrow and see if I can get a few better pix for everyone.
To top things off, I've been out of my office each day except Monday... Busy week!
In short, the fry are doing reasonably well. Hatching of the brine shrimp has worked well, and the fry that remain in the main tank are growing noticeably faster than the one that was isolated in a separate 10g tank. I'm thinking that with the abundance of macroalgae in the main tank, the fry (which frequently use it for cover) are able to eat at-will and are feasting on the copepods that are living in the macroalgae.
I'll take my better camera with me to work tomorrow and see if I can get a few better pix for everyone.
