Banggai Cardinals: Love or War?

[wurking_girl]

I have what I hope is a pair of Banggai cardinals. They had paired up in the fish store and were sold as a pair, but I know that's not 100% certain. Their behavior has changed over the last day or so and I'm wondering if there is any way to tell if they are getting ready to mate...or kill each other?

I've tried to scrutinize their bellies for the 'one bump vs. two' and I *think* they look different from one another, but geez, those parts are teeny!:hmm4:

Thanks for any advice!

 

[DipG]

you will know if something is wrong because one of them will stop eating and thats when you take action i.e. take out the fish which is not eating else it will die. I was sold a pair by an LFS but both of them were probably were male because one of them use to attack another one and eventually one of the stopped eating and it was too for me to rescue. Then later i added another really small bangaii cardinal and placed him in the breeder box inside my main tank. The bigger one would come close and check her out eventually after a week i released the smaller one into the tank and luckily they paired up. Now they are always hanging out together and breeding but my male spits the eggs out after few days.

 

[wurking_girl]

I think the question is answered... One of them is not eating, but I can definitely see an egg mass in his mouth from time to time! Assuming we get that far, has anyone tried to raise the fry in the display tank? I do have a sea urchin in there... Also could probably try to catch the male and put him in the quarantine tank. Either way, I guess I will have to find a thread on what/how to feed them... Yikes! Didn't expect parenthood quite so soon.

 

[rlpardue]

An easy option is to plumb a small clear Rubbermaid container into your sump (9$ at Walmart). Once the male has been holding the eggs for around 22 days or so, turn on the lights suddenly in the middle of the night and gently net him and put him into the Rubbermaid. He'll spit out the babies within a few days, then you can re-introduce him into the main display. The female will love him when he gets back

 

[wurking_girl]

Thanks! I may give that a try... Do you know what the little guys will eat?

 

[Wolverine]

Sometimes when you try to catch the male, he'll spit out and then eat the eggs, so just be mentally prepared for that. Sometimes they just do that with the first batch anyway.

The last couple of times we had breeding pairs, we just took the darwinian approach and let the fry make it on their own.

 

[wurking_girl]

How did that Darwinian approach work out for you?? I have a nice, healthy sea urchin in there that was purchased for just this reason - to shelter little cardinal fish. Now that it's actually happening, tho, I'm feeling sort of maternal and responsible for the 'young fry'. I don't have any really aggressive fish in the tank, but the way they EAT, I don't think the little fellas have much chance on their own.

I guess we'll just use this first round to let nature take its course...

Thanks!

 

[Wolverine]

How did that Darwinian approach work out for you?? I have a nice, healthy sea urchin in there that was purchased for just this reason - to shelter little cardinal fish. Now that it's actually happening, tho, I'm feeling sort of maternal and responsible for the 'young fry'. I don't have any really aggressive fish in the tank, but the way they EAT, I don't think the little fellas have much chance on their own.

I guess we'll just use this first round to let nature take its course...

In a 46g tank with no urchin and no sump, we had 1 or 2 survive from each batch. They'd be around for a few days after release, and then would disappear for a few months at about 1/2" (body, not counting tail), and then would suddenly show up again at feeding time as if they'd always been there.