First Banggai (F2) fry

[Hypsophrys]

I have a pair of Banggai sourced from LiveAquaria - captive bred in Asia. The male has been incubating them for 20 days and today i basically chased him around until he coughed up 5 of them. 4 look to be in decent shape, the other not so much.

I have some B1 size TDO food, as will as some tigger pods, cyclop-eeze... They've been out for an hour or so - no feeding response that I can tell, yet.

I have them in a large "Kritter Keeper" with the grating just below the water line, attached with magnets to the front glass of the main reef. I'm hoping they don't decide to push themselves through the grating. One one of the magnets I have a big clump of Halymenia (the fuzzy kind) and at least one of the smart ones is hanging there. I would say I have three healthy ones, one questionable, and one not doing so hot - wondering if the male bit it.

So. What now? I have a sump refugium in another system I could put them in (in the kritter keeper or loose). But I'm not sure I want to try to acclimate them at this stage. I also have a 10g former hospital tank that I could dedicate for them, but have to figure out a lighting situation so I can keep macros growing and nitrates/phosphates under control. Also hoping no residual Metro/praziquantel in there that could harm them. The BioFilter is being kept alive with some dwarf cerith snails eating algae wafers...

For now, my big concern is keeping the water in their little micro- habitat clean, and getting them to feed. I feel my goal has to be prepared foods, preferably pellets (moving up from the TDO). But it's so hard to gauge any feeding response. They're the size of brine shrimp. the adults only eat frozen food and I'd like these to be lower maintenance. Certainly don't want them depending on live food.

Any advice, experiences, etc appreciated.

If I can begin to successfully raise them, I plan to give these away to local (San Diego) _responsible_ reefers in order to reduce demand for wild caught fish.

So, help appreciated.

 

[accordsirh22]

i would probably try baby brine first, id rather have them eating anything than not. then once they eat that, switch to frozen baby brine or crushed pellets or something

 

[Reefer54]

they, from all accounts i have read, HAVE to start on baby brine, rotifers, young copepods and the like. There are plenty of good articles that give extensive detail. they will not be ready for prepared for some time. i recommend culturing your own brine, and then gut load and garlic soak that for immune boosting. you can see much of this process on youtube with very little searching.

seperate the male and female....it has often been recorded that the female will harass the male to the point of death for not accepting a sequential clutch within days after spitting the first. It is not always the case, but at some point, the male NEEDS to renourish. My first pair (tank bred) had two clutches before the female harassed the male to death ( i couldnt catch him for the life of me, and im still bummed). I still have babies in my sump that have reared on available live foods in the sump. Of 27 young in two clutches, only 4 made it, most were eaten.

good luck, they are a wonderful site. if i had the available space, i would set up 5 more tanks for 2 pairs and a young rearing tank for the same purpose you see.

 

[Hypsophrys]

Thanks for the replies and well-wishes.

The 2 fry which didn't escape the kritter keeper are in a 10g. I have been culturing brine, and feed these for about 24 hours after hatching until switching to the next culture. I sieve them and soak in selcon and tank water before feeding. I'm also trying to keep a constant supply of Tigger pods available. They seem fat and happy, bodies are about pea sized. Minimal aggression so far.

My main concern is the next phase of feeding. I'm wondering if I need to plan to order live brine and nannochloropsis... I will try cyclop-eeze using some tricks to make it appear alive, etc, but with only 2, I'm not willing to accept the 50% losses people report using the "tough love" weaning method.

As for the parents, it's been 8 days of 3x feedings for the male. Probably eats 10-15 enriched PE (huge) mysis a day and has regained all of his weight. I'm also pretty sure he ate some of the first batch as he never became emaciated.

I expect he'll stop feeding any day now. Then what? I'm out of room.

I will post any updates and advice always welcome.

 

[Hypsophrys]

Hey, many years later, I just thought I would share that I raised these two fry into healthy adults -- but it was the last time I attempted it. It was just kind of all-consuming. I separated the male into the next tank over, where he managed to get along very well with the resident mantis shrimp and maroon clown/BTA. He and the female continued hanging out through the glass. The fry lived happily with their mom until I gave all my systems away in 2016.

You can catch them all in various pics here:

Reef System 2016

37 new items · Album by Non Sequiter

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[JohnL]

Thanks for the update. Congratulations!

 

[reefing102]

Welcome back and that’s awesome. Are you coming back to the hobby?

 

[Hypsophrys]

Welcome back and that’s awesome. Are you coming back to the hobby?

Thanks. Yes, but just starting up a humble little system. Not really sure where I'm going with it yet.

 

[reefing102]

Well welcome back! By humble I think we are talking 300-500 gallon? Technically it’s little when compared to the ocean

 

[Hypsophrys]

Lol I wish. I'm renting for the moment, and the guy is very proud of his original hardwood floors. I had to plead for the right to have a 20g. I don't think he'll notice it's actually a 32g AIO... And he'll hopefully let me off with a sharp glance for the 6 gallon bookshelf display fuge above it. I mean that barely counts as anything right?

 

[reefing102]

Nice! Depending where your putting it, could create a discrete leak tray to put underneath it to show you understand is concern? Idk just thinking out loud.

 

[Hypsophrys]

Nice! Depending where your putting it, could create a discrete leak tray to put underneath it to show you understand is concern? Idk just thinking out loud.

Thanks for the idea and interest It would take a big re-work. I've only had one significant spill, about a half gallon of RODI while I was setting up the ATO. It almost immediately disappeared down into what I assume is the crawlspace. No discoloration a few days later. Anything else I'm wiping up immediately. So anything I did would be for his peace of mind and honestly I think a big tray under the rack would actually make hime more worried that spills are a common occurrence, ya know?

I'll find out in a couple months when he comes to change the air filter lol.

I'm just getting started on a journal on NR. I may reproduce it here on RC at some point. NR was my home base from like 04 through 16 but most the familiar faces are gone and the site is a lot less active. Anyway I'll definitely ping you and John if I do.

 

[reefing102]

Sounds good and I can definitely see that opposite view point about the tray