My Banggai Cardinalfish captive breeding log

[Grenade Glass]

I just moved into my new house and was lucky enough to talk my girlfriend into letting me have a fish room (one of the extra bedrooms). I have a small mixed reef moved over and setup already. I had a extra 30 gal tank and I was thinking about doing some captive breeding. I have no prior experience in this and have learned completely through articles on the internet. I found a mated pair at Marine Oasis and setup the 30 gal with established sand and rocks. I created a cave like rock scape which allows the cardinals to hang out in the middle where there isn't much current.

They spend all day right next to each other, and pick at some meaty frozen cube food melted, in a cup with salt water and turkey basted into their direction. I also bought some brine shrimp eggs and DT's phyto. Today I put 1 package of brine shrimp in a 2 liter bottle with a air hose run through the cap, creating a nice flow throughout the bottle. Tomorrow im going to try to get the baby brine shrimp into another bottle and start feeding the DT's phyto to it.

The breeding tank has a couple of small frags of zoas and a green yuma, along with about 6 snails and 2 hermit crabs as a clean up crew. I have a couple of cell phone pics taken tonight with the flash. Bare with me, as I'll update tomorrow and take some real pics.

 

[jfl14609]

Nice cant wait to follow this. I found a baby last month and yesterday I noticed more eggs in his mouth

 

[solRNY]

Tomorrow im going to try to get the baby brine shrimp into another bottle and start feeding the DT's phyto to it.

awesome, interesting that you are feeding the baby brines... going to follow as well

our male has carried his eggs past 1wk now, so i think there will be baabies soon!

 

[Grenade Glass]

Here is my update, late at night, but just sat down with the time do write this real quick. First some pics of my new fish:

Full tank shot:

 

[Grenade Glass]

So as of today I have a 30 Gal tank setup with live sand and rock, a koralia 2, small heater and a charcoal filter/ surface agitator. For lighting I took a old 24" hood/light combo and gutted it out to retrofit 2x 65watt power compact 50/50 10K/actinic bulbs.

Temp is at 77*, salinity at 1.023, PH 8.2, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, Ammonia 2. Not sure where the Ammonia is coming from.. might need a new kit or maybe its just from the switch to a new tank. I'm hoping its not enough to injure the fish or start a cycle in the tank.


Here is a video of them:
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I drained the hatched brine shrimp into a bottle today and fed them some DT's, I let it sit for about 3 hours with light on it and then poured half of it into the cardinals tank and half into my reef. Needless to say everything has been on a feeding frenzy today. My next step is to try to grow the brine shrimp out a little bit. They were basically microscopic when they were poured into the tanks. I have read you can grow them to be much larger by feeding phytoplankton. is DT's sufficient? how long can they survive? anyone here have much experience with hatching brine shrimp here?

 

[gmneil]

my banggi's seem to breed more with warmer water i keep mine around 80,

 

[Grenade Glass]

my banggi's seem to breed more with warmer water i keep mine around 80,

thanks for the tip! I bumped it to 79 and last night before lights out I believe I saw a mating ritual. the female was getting up right next to the male and started to wriggle back and forth. This went on for about 10-15 mins, they would chase each other around the tank too, some strange behaviors. I hope the male has eggs in his mouth now... that would be really quick!

 

[Grenade Glass]

Well, today as I fed a blend of cyclopeeze and a melted cube of frozen food, the male would suck in chunks of food and immediatly spit it out. Did this about 8-10 times. I think this means we have our first set of eggs is this a good time to put him in the breeder net? Or should I wait until the fry are ready to swim?

 

[solRNY]

our male spitted out his eggs
is your male mouth unusally bigger?

 

[gmneil]

it took 3 sets of eggs for my male to hold them full term, research a diy egg tumbler this way if he spits the eggs they still have a chance, i was able to get 3 eggs to hatch and live usinr a diy egg tumbler made with a old pop bottle 1/2 inch pvc tube and an old powerhead

 

[Grenade Glass]

so here we are, almost 9 months later. My Banggais have mated many times, but have never held to full term until now! After about 4 unsuccessful batches in the 30 gal, I moved them into my reef. The mating rituals started right away, and after 3-4 more unsuccessful batches the male finally held to full term! He was making it to the 2 week point and then he would either spit or eat the eggs.

Anyways, last night I watched the fry exit his mouth. he had let out 2 fry over the prior 2 days escape, but the rest went last night. I have a total of 14 fry now!

He actually took much longer then the average 21 day mark, the first was released on day 25, second day 26 and the other 12 on day 27!

On to the pics!

the first one he spit out:

 

[Grenade Glass]

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Awesome!!! :thumbsup:

 

[Ashman1]

Cool

 

[NirvanaFan]

Nice. What temperature is your reef at? Do you think that had anything to do with the added days he took to release them?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

After about 4 unsuccessful batches in the 30 gal, I moved them into my reef. The mating rituals started right away, and after 3-4 more unsuccessful batches the male finally held to full term! He was making it to the 2 week point and then he would either spit or eat the eggs.

do you have a hypothesis as to why the male wasn't holding the babies long enough?

 

[NirvanaFan]

do you have a hypothesis as to why the male wasn't holding the babies long enough?

I'm not sure of the exact reason for his bangaiis, but from what I have read, this is common, especially for the first few batches. You really have to feed the cardinalfish heavily when they don't have eggs, because the male won't eat while he is holding them. It is common for the male to eat them if he gets hungry enough.

 

[RoscoPColtrane]

Nick, great to hear everything is going so well. Are you feeding solely baby brine?

My male is at day 23 and still holding.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I'm not sure of the exact reason for his bangaiis, but from what I have read, this is common, especially for the first few batches. You really have to feed the cardinalfish heavily when they don't have eggs, because the male won't eat while he is holding them. It is common for the male to eat them if he gets hungry enough.

bingo!

(But I wanted GG to answer!)

HUFA enriched mysids are a better choice than artemia

 

[NirvanaFan]

Sorry Gary, I thought it was a general question. Mysis are a great choice of food though.

You should be feeding the fish as much as they can eat at least twice a day with high quality foods. A frozen blend (my favorite), mysis, HUFA enriched brine, high quality pellets, etc.

From my reading, you can cut down the feedings to once a day when the male has eggs. You don't want them to spawn again as soon as he has released his last batch.