How to pair bangaii cardinals?

[RandyReefer]

I have 1 bangaii and want to pair it for breeding purposes... I have a 22 gallon reef. How should I pair it since you can't tell a male from a female?

 

[LouZ]

I have 1 bangaii and want to pair it for breeding purposes... I have a 22 gallon reef. How should I pair it since you can't tell a male from a female?

Thats not quite true....somebody will post the details....but it has something to do with the shape of the dorsal fins.....

 

[somosomo]

males have a subtly larger and more pronounced cheek area and lower jaw to hold the eggs.

 

[jarrod13]

I'm interested in this too. Does anybody have pics to compare the two? How big do they have to be to be able to tell them apart?

 

[Wolverine]

Thats not quite true....somebody will post the details....but it has something to do with the shape of the dorsal fins.....

Using that technique gives you an approximately 50% chance of getting it right.

males have a subtly larger and more pronounced cheek area and lower jaw to hold the eggs.

That's usually not noticeable until after you see a male carrying eggs, at which point you have a more surefire method anyway.

The first two breeding pairs I had broke both the jaw and the dorsal fin "rules".

The only truly reliable way to tell is to have a male carrying eggs. The most common technique to dealing with it at this point is to get more than one banggai, wait until you see two of them spending more time together, and then remove the others before they get killed. At an LFS, if you watch a tank that has groups of them, you can usually spot some that have paired off.

 

[RandyReefer]

Using that technique gives you an approximately 50% chance of getting it right.



That's usually not noticeable until after you see a male carrying eggs, at which point you have a more surefire method anyway.

The first two breeding pairs I had broke both the jaw and the dorsal fin "rules".

The only truly reliable way to tell is to have a male carrying eggs. The most common technique to dealing with it at this point is to get more than one banggai, wait until you see two of them spending more time together, and then remove the others before they get killed. At an LFS, if you watch a tank that has groups of them, you can usually spot some that have paired off.

I wanna try buying 2 more and put them in the 22 g with the 1 still there and 2 clownfish, and when 2 pair up I either put him in in of my other tanks or give him back to the LFS. Do you think I can try this, considering it's such a small tank? And how long does it usually take for 2 to pair off?

 

[Wolverine]

I think that would be reasonable to try, even if in that size tank. It can be variable time for pairing up; I've seen it happen in a few days, and I've seen it take several months.

 

[RandyReefer]

I think that would be reasonable to try, even if in that size tank. It can be variable time for pairing up; I've seen it happen in a few days, and I've seen it take several months.

Thanks I will try that, if this can help in classifying the sex in anyway,the bangaii I have looks more like an oval than a circle and has a long second dorsal. ( like a streamer)

 

[Wolverine]

Unfortunately, that doesn't really help much.

 

[RandyReefer]

Sorry for all the questions I just really want to do this without any trouble... What happens if the fish don't pair up?

 

[Wolverine]

With just two, IME, you just have two BC that just sort of coexist. If you have a male and two females, one of the females will usually get killed.