Broodstock Tank For Banngai Cardinals

[Rockym]

I am picking up a breeding pair of BCs tonight. Last night I set up a 10 G for them as follows. Bare bottom, 10+ lbs. LR, heater, light, small Tunze powerhead, 1/2 water from my 210 reef, other half new Reef Crystals water. While I do have a few years reef experiance, this will be my first try breeding. I also have a breeding pair of GSMs that I may try in the future (all of their larva turned into fish food when they were in my reef, recently moved to their own tank). Any help on broodstock tank setup is greatly apreciated. Suggestions on fry rearing tank setup are also welcome. Thanks in advance.
Mike Mahoney

 

[bangaii man]

pm sent

 

[JetCat USA]

i keep my males in 10g setups with an air driven sponge filter, feed them a quality food and plenty of it to fatten them up (frozen Mysis and live adult brine) before rotating the female in with him. weekly water changes keep water quality in check till he's holding then they aren't necessary. I'm working on redoing my setup and I'm gonna drill the tanks and let them share a sump with the frag tank rather then the water changes, i think that'll be less stressful on the males.

on the fry i feed newly hatched BBS and some rotifers (which i don't think are necessary but there just in case) and i also keep them (brine shrimp) going in a 10g setup fed with live phyto and as the babies get bigger i throw in a mix of frozen Mysis and they do great off that.

 

[Steveabg]

Our Banggais have been breeding, and a dedicated breeding setup is definitely the way to go. Get a tank divider and a breeder's net. When the male is about to release fry (which happens about three weeks after his mouth is full and he stops eating) you will want to separate him from the female. Otherwise, the female will hover behind him and eat them as quickly as they come out). You'll also want a long spined urchin (the male will release the fry into the urchin, you can also make a fake long spined urchin with chopsticks and a ball of reef putty or something). IME, after releasing the fry, the male was too weak to even eat blood worms, so he probably won't eat the fry immediately, but you will want to separate him from the fry, as well. So, you'll want to be able to make three compartments: one for the female, one for the fry, and one for the male to rest after releasing fry. If you put the male and female together immediately after the spawning, she will have his mouth full of eggs again within days, and he may take them, but he'll spit them out in a few days.

If you do all of that, it will eliminate the most difficult part of the whole process that we discovered: netting the fry before the female eats them!

 

[MorandiWine]

I always strip out the fry/eggs at 23 days and throw them in a tumbler if they have not hatched. In theory it should reduce the stress on the male to just one time and you dont have to worry about catching the fry in the tank.

tyler