Banggai growout idea

[ichthyogeek]

So...this just popped into my head after being filed away for a long time. Obviously, this wouldn't work out for most fish species, but for the banggai cardinal, I'm curious if it would work or not.

Grow out some brine shrimp in a suitable sized growout tank. Make sure there are enough adults to produce more than enough NHBBS per day per baby banggai. Since artemia can withstand very high salinity levels, keeping them alive shouldn't be a problem. Make sure the tank gets lots of Isochrysis, Tetraselmis and Nannochloropsis for a somewhat balanced artemia diet (more algae species if possible). Add a fake urchin, a tray of Caulerpa, and some sort of detritivore like a bristleworm or amphipod species. Add the brooding male banggai. Wait for banggai to start eating adult brine shrimp, then remove from growout tank. Start weaning banggai fry after they're old/smart enough to start taking prepared. Because Artemia have so many instar stages, the whole layover period of weaning from brine shrimp to bigger foods shouldn't matter, should it? Filtration would be done like any other fry tank, with a "drip changer" as described in Wittenrich's book. And since the banggai fry (now subadults) know that artemia are food, it shouldn't take too much effort to get them eating frozen artemia--> frozen mysis --> pellets, right?

I feel that I'm missing something here...what do y'all think? would it work?

 

[kizanne]

I think it would work great I'd modify so that a fake urchin would have a bright light beside it. That way the nhbbs are attracted to the babies

 

[tannersmith2000]

Hey I hear ya OP. I just think it's way too easy to hatch BBS and feed directly to baby banggais. I have a pair that breeds continuously. I have reared so many baby banggais that I am almost bored with them (ah not really Remember to supplement the BBS with selcon of some other additive for proper DHA nourishment.

When male is about to release, I make him release prematurely by catching him with a net bec he holds onto the fry longer than normal. I pretty much release all my baby cardinals in the sump and let the strong survive. I always end up with two or three making it to adults by virtually providing little to no care.

 

[Boom]

Ichthyogeek, if you do try that setup pretty please share the details!
I have successfully co-cultured Tigriopus c. with Artemia and many rotifer "blooms" all last summer outdoors with very little effort. It started when I had accidentally transferred artemia nauplii still trapped in a net to the copepod vessel. I kept the population going by always throwing back gravid females.

I've considered adding emerald crabs, a few hermits, snails and amphipods to the mix this spring. Like you, I think the benthics won't consume enough pelagic larvae to have great impact on the populations until they spawn too. Only the strong should survive to be collected or reproduce.
Our own customized food web for in situ or "careful neglect" larval rearing.

 

[Boom]

I pretty much release all my baby cardinals in the sump and let the strong survive. I always end up with two or three making it to adults by virtually providing little to no care"
+1 If your sump harbors amphipods and worms, I would imagine that provides a constant supply of food, too.