Bangaiis in Xenia Refugium

[AquaTDV]

Hello all,

I've been reproducing Cardinals at home since the '02. Within that time I've raised hundreds of babies, and experienced varying degrees of success while attempting the different techniques and regiments. However now I seem to have found a pretty good recipe for success that might be a little different from the norm worth trying.
Once I've collected the baby cardinals from the display, or removed the male from the fuge in the event that I can catch him before he releases the fry. I feed a steady diet of nauplii made fresh every 2 days. I feed twice a day(morning and evening) and in between that time they hunt for copepods and other small meaty morsels that will grow and be protected in the forest of pulsing Xenia. I feel this gets them weaned off eating nauplii faster, and usually within a week I will see the babies begin eating the unhatched eggs as well as live nauplii. This is when I switch to Brine shrimp Directs "Decapsulated Brine shrimp" Which is loaded with protein and it seems to turbo charge their growth. Then after a month they will begin eating the same foods I feed the display above.

I know there are a lot of ways to be successful raising fry. However this way seems to yield me the best results, as well as provide a decent nutrient export for the system above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hMoLeuo-cM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnvf4z2EYXo

 

[Spyderturbo007]

My male had eggs which after awhile hatched and I was able to see the fry in his mouth. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to care for the babies and never even got to see one.

I felt bad that they were all eaten by the parents or became fish / coral food. I just didn't know how to care for them, let alone what to do with them once they got older. My LFS said they don't buy fish from hobbyists.

 

[AquaTDV]

My male had eggs which after awhile hatched and I was able to see the fry in his mouth. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to care for the babies and never even got to see one.

I felt bad that they were all eaten by the parents or became fish / coral food. I just didn't know how to care for them, let alone what to do with them once they got older. My LFS said they don't buy fish from hobbyists.

Keep at it I can't tell you how many babies had to die before I figured it out....What a shame the LFS doesn't buy captive breed fish from local hobbyists. I can't understand their opposition to this, its GREAT for the hobby. We are lucky our LFS seem to embrace this practice. I always tell them that I can share 50% of the profits with them, or I can keep 100% of it the choice is theirs.

 

[cutebarra77]

Hello all,

I've been reproducing Cardinals at home since the '02. Within that time I've raised hundreds of babies, and experienced varying degrees of success while attempting the different techniques and regiments. However now I seem to have found a pretty good recipe for success that might be a little different from the norm worth trying.
Once I've collected the baby cardinals from the display, or removed the male from the fuge in the event that I can catch him before he releases the fry. I feed a steady diet of nauplii made fresh every 2 days. I feed twice a day(morning and evening) and in between that time they hunt for copepods and other small meaty morsels that will grow and be protected in the forest of pulsing Xenia. I feel this gets them weaned off eating nauplii faster, and usually within a week I will see the babies begin eating the unhatched eggs as well as live nauplii. This is when I switch to Brine shrimp Directs "Decapsulated Brine shrimp" Which is loaded with protein and it seems to turbo charge their growth. Then after a month they will begin eating the same foods I feed the display above.

I know there are a lot of ways to be successful raising fry. However this way seems to yield me the best results, as well as provide a decent nutrient export for the system above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hMoLeuo-cM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnvf4z2EYXo

Very cool refug!!!
How is the setup like? Lighting? Wave maker?
How did you keep the xenia so happy and grow that fast? Did you feed them?

I really like your idea to use the xenia refug for fries rearing and seriously considering set up a similar for my 3ft fowlr tank with a pair or banggai and mandarins.

 

[GhostCon1]

That first vid my reactions were this: OMG SO TINY. Followed by: these guys look like little spaceships on a patrol/scouting mission in some deep space cloud. The music helped with that.

I have never seen so much xenia. That really looks like a different world and it looks really cool.

How on earth do you manage to catch the bangaiis?

 

[AquaTDV]

That first vid my reactions were this: OMG SO TINY. Followed by: these guys look like little spaceships on a patrol/scouting mission in some deep space cloud. The music helped with that.

I have never seen so much xenia. That really looks like a different world and it looks really cool.

How on earth do you manage to catch the bangaiis?

"little spaceships on a patrol/scouting mission in some deep space cloud" Thank you, I like that I can only imagine what it looks like from thieir perspective.

Fortunately for me all the babies seem gather in the same place once the male releases them. This makes it easy to suck them up with a turkey baster. However yesterday I rearranged the rock in the system to give the Gigas clam more room to grow. We will see if they will still gather in the same place. The male has another mouth full of fry, so I should know in the next few weeks.

 

[Raptor72]

That's an awesome fuge!

 

[AquaTDV]

Very cool refug!!!
How is the setup like? Lighting? Wave maker?
How did you keep the xenia so happy and grow that fast? Did you feed them?

I really like your idea to use the xenia refug for fries rearing and seriously considering set up a similar for my 3ft fowlr tank with a pair or banggai and mandarins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97_LEt9wkE

The Xenia is the systems primary filtration, and the skimmer is secondary. Only being used when I seriously alter somthing in the tank and I need a little extra filtration, or when I notice an abundace of algae growing on the glass from over feeding. I will run the skimmer for a week or so until the Xenia multiplies enough to turn the skimmer off again. I've been practicing this method for over a decade without a melt down.

 

[AquaTDV]

That's an awesome fuge!

Thank you!

 

[GhostCon1]

A turkey baster! Lol tiny tiny fellas

Do you ever sell them on here? I'd love to get some captive bred and raised bangaiis.

Also have the fry ever paired up when they got older?

 

[_shorty_]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97_LEt9wkE

The Xenia is the systems primary filtration, and the skimmer is secondary. Only being used when I seriously alter somthing in the tank and I need a little extra filtration, or when I notice an abundace of algae growing on the glass from over feeding. I will run the skimmer for a week or so until the Xenia multiplies enough to turn the skimmer off again. I've been practicing this method for over a decade without a melt down.

very cool...
I've seen some do this before as far as the xenia fuge itself goes. How well do xenia do for phosphate removal? (or are they more taking out suspended detritus?) I read one person who said he'd harvest some to trade to LFS, and could see his levels swing up during that time while they grew back in, then right back down. I'd love to add this type of filtration some day...

 

[AquaTDV]

A turkey baster! Lol tiny tiny fellas

Do you ever sell them on here? I'd love to get some captive bred and raised bangaiis.

Also have the fry ever paired up when they got older?

Unfortunately I only have a few months to remove the fry and prepare for the next batch, and at 3 months I don't feel the fry will be able to survive the shipping process. So I usually give them to friends, and sell the remainder to the LFS.

Yes, several of my friends have kept them long enough to produce offspring. I still get the biggest thrill out of that

 

[AquaTDV]

very cool...
I've seen some do this before as far as the xenia fuge itself goes. How well do xenia do for phosphate removal? (or are they more taking out suspended detritus?) I read one person who said he'd harvest some to trade to LFS, and could see his levels swing up during that time while they grew back in, then right back down. I'd love to add this type of filtration some day...

I think Xenia is effective at reducing DOMs, so in that respect it does reduce PO4. I also notice when I harvest Xenia it creates a nutrient surplus until the Xenia grows to replace what I removed, and the balance is reached again. However in a 9+ year old system PO4 does creep up after few months to .06ish (Hanna URL) I run standard capacity GFO for a week every 3 months to bring it back down to <.03. Now I also have 3 large clams (20" Gigas, 9" Squamosa, and 8" Maxima) that do their fair share of removing NO3 and PO4. Because I plumbed the Xenia fuge directly from the display I do tend to get a bit of detritus build up in that tank. So once every 1 to 2 years I need to siphon the detritus out. This is also due to the fact that the baby Bangaiis desimate pods and other detrivores that would nomally aid in detritus removal.

When dealing with a natural dynamic filtration source, like an ATS or Xenia the filter grows to meet the demands of the system. As opposed to skimmers which loose efficency over time because of any number of reasons.

 

[cutebarra77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97_LEt9wkE

The Xenia is the systems primary filtration, and the skimmer is secondary. Only being used when I seriously alter somthing in the tank and I need a little extra filtration, or when I notice an abundace of algae growing on the glass from over feeding. I will run the skimmer for a week or so until the Xenia multiplies enough to turn the skimmer off again. I've been practicing this method for over a decade without a melt down.

Very nice DT. and I super like your giant clam. Awesomely huge...

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I would like to know the kind of lightings and wave motion used for the xenia refug.

and do you feed the xenia with any coral food?

 

[AquaTDV]

Very nice DT. and I super like your giant clam. Awesomely huge...

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I would like to know the kind of lightings and wave motion used for the xenia refug.

and do you feed the xenia with any coral food?

Sorry about that

The DT has 3-2" adjustable drains. One of these is plumbed directly into the Xenia fuge. The adjustable drain allows me to control the flow to approx. 150-200 gph through a 2" hose. So there is very little flow, and almost no movement is generated from the inlet tube. I rely on the rhythmic pulsing to provide the movement. The slower the flow the better IMO, just enough to for a steady supply of unfiltered DT water.

Lighting is a single 10K Plus-rite 150watt DE. I've tried many different bulbs over the years and they seem to grow the best under these. Which is great because they are only $20 on ebay. I have been using the same bulb for several years without incident. Also I run the fuge on a reverse photo cycle from the DT.

I feed the display tank Reefroids, Decasulated brine shrimp eggs, and homemade fish fish food several times a week. I don't directly feed the fuge, it will get everything it needs from the DT.

Here is a pic of the sump, macro, and Xenia fuge. Nothing glamorous, just functional.... Kinda like me

 

[cutebarra77]

Sorry about that

The DT has 3-2" adjustable drains. One of these is plumbed directly into the Xenia fuge. The adjustable drain allows me to control the flow to approx. 150-200 gph through a 2" hose. So there is very little flow, and almost no movement is generated from the inlet tube. I rely on the rhythmic pulsing to provide the movement. The slower the flow the better IMO, just enough to for a steady supply of unfiltered DT water.

Lighting is a single 10K Plus-rite 150watt DE. I've tried many different bulbs over the years and they seem to grow the best under these. Which is great because they are only $20 on ebay. I have been using the same bulb for several years without incident. Also I run the fuge on a reverse photo cycle from the DT.

I feed the display tank Reefroids, Decasulated brine shrimp eggs, and homemade fish fish food several times a week. I don't directly feed the fuge, it will get everything it needs from the DT.

Here is a pic of the sump, macro, and Xenia fuge. Nothing glamorous, just functional.... Kinda like me

Thanks for the quick reply.
Those were very useful information for me to try out.
Interestingly, most online info says xenia needs medium to high flow. Maybe the combined pulsing movement in your refug is strong enough.