Bangaii second food?

[David M]

Hi Frank, I knew you'd look You too Stephen I have never had much luck getting them off live bbs and always seem to lose few when I finally get tired of giving it too them. I end up waiting until they are big enough to eat adult bs and then switch to frozen, then phase in Hikari mysis (small), then finally PE. What if anything is a good transitional food? I can't get them to eat cyclops, they swim into the "cloud" and get all excited but don't actually eat it. These are 4 weeks old, not yet large enough for adult artemia.

 

[Coraldynamics]

Yup, I'm Busted!

I mix the cyclopeeze in with the bbs starting around day 8 or 9 then by the time the bbs is gone from the water column, they are eating the cyclopeeze. I use decaps bbs from SeaHorseSource, and as the bbs are thinned out the bellies of the bangers are turning bright red.

 

[FMarini]

damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn busted too.
this is a tough transition period, and many refuse to switch over to frozen foods. Like Stephen i used to mix in other food types (shaved shrimp in w/ the live BBS) and slowly reduce the % of live BBS and increase the amount of shaved shrimp. Alternatively i did have some luck using prawn eggs mixed w/ the BBS. Unfortunately there was NO cyclopeeze when i was doing this, but Decap BBS mixed in w/ cyclopeeze might be the ticket

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI Frank et al.

I had the same problem, lost my entire batch of Banggais in week 7, they were still only eating live bbs, then I had to leave for a few days. My neighbor fed dead bbs, no success.
I tried feeding them cyclop eeze, but they just ignored it, haven't tried shaved shrimp.
How do you prepare shaved shrimp, put them in a blender and press the magic button? I really don't know.
Frank, you are mentioning prawn eggs. Where in the world are you getting them from?
I talked to a breeder in Germany, he puts his Banggais on frozen lobster eggs after week 2 but I haven't found them in this country yet. It is really strange, frozen Lobster eggs are so popular and readily available over there, but here nobody has ever heard from them.
Any help is highly appreciated


Jens

 

[spk]

Hi there,

Interesting topic. So far as a second food, I go straight to frozen, I try to keep them on NHBS for as loong as I can, they grow quicker, and then move over to frozen before LFS time.

When I used cyclopeze, I ended up losing a couple of the smaller group, so I returned to NHBS. Since the move from NHBS to cyclopeze and then back again, I seem to have a problem getting them to grow. It is almost a stunted growht rate right now. They are definitely smaller. I do have frozen NHBS that I use when I am in a pinch.

Jens, I am interested in the Lobster Eggs, any chance of putting me in contact with the German breeder. I am actually off to Munich next week and may be able to find these. I have search for other types of second food but nothing else to try. There are a couple of folk selling de-cap BS eggs, that will not hatch, but the quantities are rather large for a try and see.

Dave, the NHBS seem to work the best and the grow a lot quciker on it.

thanks

Steve

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Steve

I am from the far other end of Germany, so I can't tell you much about good LFS in Munich, but every better shop should have Lobster eggs. I will send an email to a friend of mine, perhaps he can come up with an address. The breeder does not speak English.
Regarding the NHBS, as long as I am at home this is not a problem, however I have to travel a lot. I am so happy that my neighbour does the feeding and general maintenance when I am not there, but I can't let her doing Artemia cultures and enrichments twice a day.

Jens

 

[David M]

How do you prepare shaved shrimp, put them in a blender and press the magic button?

That would basically give you a goo similar to library paste :lol: You make a "Martin Moe Shrimp Ball", take whole table shrimp shells and all, wad them into a ball like you were making hamburger and place it in a plastic bag in the freezer. When you want some use a fine cheese grater to shave off tiny pieces. Martin says to do it into ice cold water so they don't clump up but I just use tap water and it works fine. I grate a few days worth and keep it in the fridge in tupperware. I actually hadn't thought of trying it with the bangaii's, I'll see if they go for it.

Hmmm... wonder how long that ball has been in the freezer Maybe I'll take a trip to the grocery store

 

[spk]

David,

That sounds like a good idea. Must give it a try some time. perhaps next time my better half is not around.

Jens, thanks for the information. Where abouts are you as I travel a lot and it would be good to meet up for coffee if you are around at the same time.

I have managed to get Vikki, my other half, used to the idea of growing NHBS, and I mix all the stuff she needs ahead of the time. I use de-cap eggs so it is a couple of drops from a bottle, vs the manual process.

Steve

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

@ David M: Thanks for the advice on the shaved shrimp, I will try that.
@ spk: Regarding my location, please see my signature. You should feel really lucky to have a better half doing that kind of stuff. I live in a long distance relationship (ca. 3000 miles between us) and my neighbour is psychology professor with too many students and colleagues that study this subject instead of going to a shrink. I am so happy to have her, but her time and energy for this subject is limited.

best wishes

Jens

 

[David M]

Slightly off but since we are talking about feeding baby bangers I just wanted to make sure everyone is hip to the "time release" bbs feeder. These month olds I have are growing faster than any before and I think it's because I started using a trick I learned at SDC. Take a small bottle (mine is a spice bottle) with a plastic cap and drill a 1/4" hole in the cap. Load it with concentrated bbs, screw on the cap, bleed any air out and place it in the tank. The shrimp will slowly emerge from the bottle throughout the day, mine lasts a good 8-10 hours. You can adjust the rate by adding holes or making a smaller one instead. Anyway the bangers just hang out at the bottle cap and graze all day long, they are growing like weeds

 

[spk]

David,

Have heard about the use of a 35mm film canister, plastic of course, and this works really wonderfully.

Ok, some more details here please. Do you hatch before you place in the bottle, or are they just eggs in the bottle?

This is definitely something that I will try. see if the 5 babies I have left actually start to grow a bit quicker. Although one of them is gigantic, the other are relatively small.

Steve

 

[David M]

Yes live shrimp, not eggs. Cysts don't swim so well, though for them to get thru the little hole :lol:

 

[spk]

Hmm,




But.......

If you place eggs in the canister then they hatch and swim free. That way they are always fresh and if you are using cysts then the shells stay in the canister.

He he he he

Steve

 

[David M]

I think that the cycts would just lie on the bottom and not hatch without circulation. There is that "hatch & feed" product but most people feel there are water quality issues with hatching in the tank. Besdies, we are talking about bangaii's here, no need for nhbs and in fact I think it's better to give them older/ fortified bbs.