Bangaii Cardinal Breeding Story (long)

Fat_Ed

New member
I posted a couple of days ago offering up 16 8-week old bangaii cardinals for adoption. The response from this board was overwhelming, and thankfully all of the little guys have either found new homes or will shortly. As one of the moderators pointed out, I may have been putting the cart before the horse a bit (to mix animal metaphors), and I probably should offer a bit of info on my breeding experience in the hopes of assisting others, so here goes:

I bought a pair of tank bred cards about two years ago from a LFS in Brooklyn to complement my 50 gallon reef, which has been up and running for 7 years. At the time, they were less than a year old and could not really be sexually differentiated. However, I got lucky, and the male soon developed the characteristic bulldog jaw. I feed everyone in the tank a mixed diet of mysis shrimp, Formula 1 and 2, Prime Reef, Deli Flake, Omega 1 pellets, and occasional live gutloaded artemia.

Fast forward to late June. I noticed that the male (Gila) stopped eating -- unusual for a very active feeder. At first I was a bit concerned, but he seemed perfectly healthy and would chase the food but stop short of actually swallowing it. I correctly concluded that the pair had bred, and the male was now holding eggs in his mouth. In late July, my wife and were delighted to spot little dark eyes and mouths poking out of Gila's mouth. Determined to raise the youngsters, I sprung into action and went on a research/shopping spree. I bought:

1) a brine shrimp culturing aparatus -- an empty two liter bottle hooked up to an old air pump through a screw-on connector;
2) two hang-on hard plastic breeding tanks;
3) a long spine urchin (which is where the babies would naturally hang out in the wild) -- this was a big mistake, as it never served its intended purpose and probably cost my jawfish an eye. I gave it back to the pet store;
4) a bottle of pods and roto-feast -- also mistakes. The fry chased around the pods, but did not eat them and they continue to ignore the roto-feast;
5) premium artemia eggs and algae paste from brineshrimpdirect.com -- both great purchases; and
6) a handful of feeder clips to suction the breeding tanks to the glass and plastic plants, because what fish doesn't feel more at home among plastic plants?

At first I intended to let the male release the fry into the tank where they would hopefully find the urchin. After a restless night, I thought better of this approach and decided to catch Gila instead and release him into one of the breeding tanks. This was no small feat in my reef, as you can imagine, but after a half-hour or so the poor exhausted half-starved fish gave up and I caught him. Within seconds of being placed in the breeding tank, he spat out 17 little cards. I immediately removed him from the breeding tank and allowed him to swim back into the reef.

I fed the babies artemia hatchlings gutloaded with Selcon and/or algae paste 5x a day to start. I have ratcheted this down to 2-3x feedings per day. They grow like weeds, seemingly doubling in size every week. Of the original 17, only one died -- the runt of the litter -- after about a week. I started weening the fry off of live artemia after about 7 weeks, mixing in frozen bloodworms into the food, which the braver (or more hungry) would slurp up like licorice sticks.

Sometime over the past month I noticed that Gila had stopped eating again. Yikes. About a week ago I noticed the telltale tiny eyes poking out of his mouth. This time, I put off catching Gila, and this proved a mistake. My wife woke me up at 4:00 am with the news that a handful of newborn baby cards were now swimming huddled up against their older siblings' breeding tank. I managed to catch three of them and placed them in the extra breeding tank. A fourth has taken up residence in a small tunnel next to my one-eyed insane jawfish (Terrence) where they make the strangest pair since Charlotte and Wilbur. I'm sure there were others that were either eaten, sucked up in a powerhead, or fell victim to one of the myriad hazards of a reef tank. And that's where we stand.

If you have any questions about breeding Bangaiis, I would be happy to pass on any advice that I can give you if you email me at ryan_sudol@hotmail.com. Good luck!
 
that is great. i am setting up a rotifer, brine shrimp and phyto culture center now so that I will be ready to try and breed some of these also.

but pics would be great.
 
Great job!! I have a pair of spawning banggai and have only managed to raise one brood so far, no success in catching the male since then. He's been holding again for about a week, so I may try again in a few weeks. I did find one baby banggai in my sump a month ago though. I'm guessing he's about 2 or 3 months old and I can't figure out how he managed to survive the ride to the sump (the display is on the ground floor, the sump in the basement!) and the lack of feedings. He'd managed to survive off of pods and whatever flake made its way down to him. He's very skittish though, no luck in catching him yet so he is king of the sump for now (it's a big 100-gal sump, so at least he has plenty of room!).

You had much better success than I did though. I managed to raise 8 to a size big enough to trade, losing the rest during the transition from live to frozen foods. :( I may try the frozen bloodworms, didn't try that.
 
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