New Broodstock
New Broodstock
Been awhile since I've done anything other than feeding my current bangaii's so after a few months of inactivity, Travis has helped to jumpstart this project once again. He and I recently recieved 4 new 8 week old juvi's from a fellow reefer in New York. While our original plans called for many more babies to obtain an appropriate amount of broodstock, these 4 should at least ensure each of us will have a breeding pair. I'll have pictures available tommorrow or shortly thereafter so in the meantime here's the skinny:
Bangaii's arrived Monday, 2 were unfortunatly DOA and the other 4 were kinda sketchy but seemed to have pulled through the shipping ordeal and have since been acclimated and settled into a 42g Hex tank (luckily me and jess were lazy about taking this tank down, so it was in prime condition for use as a larger holding tank.)
Immediatly after introduction to the tank, 3 of these fella's ran straight for the DIY urchin I had previously made. Suprising since all my bangaii's previously seemed to have been scared silly by this thing. These new guys love it! Eventually the 4th baby came out and started hanging out in the urchin along with his brethren.
None were eating anything i tried, even baby brine shrimp would not temp them. I attributed this to the stress of the whole move. Who knows, maybe oklahoma is just too quiet compared to new york. I had the same trouble when I moved here from Arizona, lol. But after a few days, they have started to nip at the newly hatched baby brine. Unfortuantly this didn't set right that they would only occasionally nip at them but wouldn't gourge themselves like all my others have. So plan B comes into effect. i took the smallest of my other two bangaii's, one from a previous spawning, and about 5+ months old now I think. Anyways, he got stuck in with the babies, and even though he's twice their size, he swam straight to the urchin and the little guys just follow him around like he's the big brother of the group. I then started added cycloppeze soaked in Garlic Guard (seachem) and some Selcon. Naturally my little fella would go nuts eating as much as he could and it took only a few feedings for the babies to start trying as well. They still don't go after the food with the same gusto as the older fish, but they are at least making the effort now. I"ll continue the cycloppeze and brine shrimp until they are old enough to fit the pellets in their mouths. I'm sure this change in diet is exciting to the older bangaii, he's been on Microcrabs, nutrafin, thera A, and loads of other foods for awhile now.
So to sum up, 4 new babies, starting to eat better, and all looking good at the moment. still too small and young for any kind of sexing attempts but hopefully here in a couple months they'll get with the program.
fwiw, the oldest of my bangaii's is still in the 55g all to himself now that his tankmates are all gone. I don't think he's minding at all though, he really didn't show any interest in the other bangaii I removed from his tank. pretty sure this guy is a male, which will help in sexing the babies once they are older.
Anything you'd like to add Travis? And as mentioned, I'll get some photo's up soon for ya. Got several of them all swimming together and playing in the urchin. Too cute. Sure did miss the pitter patter of baby fins in the house.
