Any Information on Pajama Cardinal (Sphaeramia nematoptera)

[GregDoug]

I picked up a pair of Pajama Cardinal (Sphaeramia nematoptera) today with a mouth full of eggs. I have bred bangaii's before but never have had pajamas before. I cant find any info on raising the babies. I think they are smaller when released so perhaps rotifers are first foods... but like I said, I cant find anything on the registry and cant find anything on RC..., any links or experiences please PM me or post here. Thanks

 

[Juck]

Rotifers until about day 8-10,,, then BBS just like clowns. They produce a lot more eggs than Bangaii's and take a LONG time to grow-out.

Been a while since I raised a batch but they hatch way quicker than the Bangaii cards,,day 6 or 7 as I recall,,, I used to strip the eggmass from the male after a couple of days as he kept eating them,, I made a simple egg tumbler.

 

[mwp]

FWIW, the larvae of my Apogon leptacanthus are pretty similarly sized to larval Greenbanded Gobies, but they are still smaller than the gobies. "Rotifers" may be only a partial answer, "S" or "SS" strain might really boost survival. Not to shamelessly promote, but Dan at seahorsesource.com added on S Strain starter cultures to his live food offering recently. The SS Strain I have definitely improved my luck with larval Greenbanded Gobies vs. my attempts with only L-Strain.

FWIW,

Matt

 

[FMarini]

ditto- what the group says,
unlike pterapogons (banggais), apogons (like pyjamas and orbics) release free swimming planktonic fry around days 7-12. Way eariler than the banggai and way smaller in size. Infact Matts prolly right on the $$$ w/ the suggestion of a smaller rotifer.

 

[GregDoug]

thanks guys, I will try some rotifers enriched with greenwater and see how things go. I may put some in a refugium and see how those goes too.

 

[clownfish75]

Hey Juck

did you manage to rear some, i did have some spawing fish once, but never tried, was it as simple as rots fromt he get go? what sort of survival did you get?

Christian

 

[Juck]

Hi Christian,

Yes, I raised a batch last year.

I just used regular b.plicatilis rotifers fed on Instant algae. The first batch must have had 200 eggs in it easy,,, but they hatched 10 days earlier than I was expecting (I figured they'd be like Bangaii's) and they all got turbulenced to death in the egg-tumbler.

The second batch was smaller,, maybe 100 eggs,,,, I got 31 to grow-out. After 4 months they were still really tiny,,, less than an inch. I failed to secure an airline one night and they all died when the line popped-off the airpump.

You can tell when the eggs will hatch as they develop black-eyes the day before,, I think it was day 6 or 7.

I tried another couple of batches but something always seemed to go wrong,,, like my rotifers would crash or they'd hatch a day early,,, then (like a big idiot) I moved the pair to a different tank and they stopped spawning. They started again but I'm into clowns now so I gave them away.

There's a guy over at RDO who helped me out when they first started spawning,, his screen-name is 'Guy' and he's been raising PJ's successfully for quite a while.

 

[clownfish75]

Thanks for the tips Juck, good to see someone doing something other than clowns (so sick of them). I was lead to believe that they needed wild plankton to be reared successfully.

you did no enrichment of the rots, just the nano concentrate? did you do anything special to combat bacteria or enrichment of artemia at any point?

forgive my ignorance what is RDO? does anyone have alink for it?

Top job Juck!!!!!

thanks

Christian

 

[Juck]

I didn't enrich the rotifers with anything other than Instant Algae. I didn't enrich artemia either. I fed artemia and Cyclopeze until the part where I killed them all.

I didn;t do anything special,,,, 5g larva tank with parental water,, into 10g grow-out at about 5 weeks. I was a bit if a water-change freak (still am),,, 25% every day without exception.

Apart from feeding artemia for longer, I didn't rear them any differently that I rear my clowns now.

RDO = Reefs.org

Good luck

 

[clownfish75]

thansk for the tips.

Christian

 

[FMarini]

guys-
"Guy" is guy warsaw or used to be here. if you search this forum for "GUY" as a screen name you'll find his posts, he is awesome w/ fish and has been successful w/ many fish type

 

[clownfish75]

HI

I had some Pj Cardinals hatch last night, i think it was approx day 10-11 from fertilisation, at approx 27oC.

they are very hard to incubate in a egg tumbler as they are much lighter than royal grammas and i assume dottybacks (never tried).

given nano algae paste and rots.

cross your fingers for my guys.


Christian

 

[GregDoug]

Christian, keep us updated, I will try a hatch if you have success

 

[clownfish75]

Checked out one under the microscope.

3.5mm long at day 2 and appears to have something green in its gut, like the nanno paste in the water, added a little pavlova paste too this morning.

haven tobserved high mortality yet.

Christian