Pajama brooding

[pedromatic]

I have some Pajama Cardinals (Sphaeramia nematoptera) in my 90 and they are brooding, i.e. the male is keeping eggs/fry in his mouth. I have a 20g quarantine tank up and running with nothing in it at the moment. My question is, should I try to transfer the brooding fish to the QT tank for the sake of the little guys, or do you think the stress of catching and moving the fish would be a disaster? I'm pretty sure the little monsters in my 90 will make short work of the little ones once they emerge. Thoughts?

Pics and video to follow.

 

[bawla47]

way cool pedro! id transfer them if you could, but i wouldnt go the netting route. put a trap in the tank and catch him that way. it will be ALOT less stressful for him that way.

 

[pedromatic]

Here's a couple of pics. In this one you can see the fish's throat is distended from the mass of eggs/fry in his mouth.

In this pic the fish "spit" the mass out partially and then promptly sucked it back in, probably to aerate the eggs.

I took some video but the file size is huge. I will edit it when I have some more time.

 

[ashrem]

Sweet, how long u had em? I got three in mine 75 but they dont spawn, any idea how to sex em?

 

[pedromatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10391629#post10391629 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ashrem
Sweet, how long u had em? I got three in mine 75 but they dont spawn, any idea how to sex em?

I got 2 close to a year ago, then added another one a few months back. Originally, the 2 chased each other around, then when I added the 3rd, the original 2 chased that one. I don't know how to sex them, the all have longish dorsal fins, and all look pretty much the same. I just noticed the mouthful a couple of weeks ago, but wasn't sure until yesterday when I saw the male spitting the eggs out and sucking them back in (see pic #2).

 

[pedromatic]

This morning the male's mouth is no longer swollen and there is no sign of any fry, so I'm not sure what happened. Maybe he just said "*%&# this" and spit them out. Oh well, maybe next time.

Anyway, I found a pretty good article on breeding cardinals. It's about Banggai's but I'm sure they're pretty similar in their breeding habits.

 

[ashrem]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately the long banner on the second dorsal fin for males describes all 3 of my cardinals, lol! I may remove one or two and get replacements or remove them all.

 

[gasman059]

Maybe he just said "*%&# this" and spit them out. lmao

 

[scubasteve247]

sorry to hear pedro, he ate the eggs
thats what our bangii's do all the time now, he had three batches of fry and said scew this, the female keeps laying eggs but he just keeps eating them.

from my experience at the store, feeding is key, start using live guppies, there cheap and supper high in protein, its great for them. if you go through a dollar or twos worth a week i think your chances will greatly inprove, the male has to build up enough of a fat reserve to last him 2-3 weeks of brooding.

good luck.
kyle

 

[davester1]

pajama vs. bangaii

thats a pretty good link that pedro posted. My BC's have bred 4 times and produced 2 sets of fry. I took a hands off approach the 1st time and all were eaten in a couple of days. The 2nd time I caught the dad with fry in his mouth and saved 4, 2 of which i still have 2 months later in a holding tank.

3rd time, dad spit them out due to lack of food. Dad only had 1 day of time to eat before mom had eggs again.

In all that time, i have never seen them spit out the eggs and bring them back in. Our BC's have distinct orange eggs and does rotate them around alot in his mouth. a few weeks later, you can see tails sticking out, perfect copies of the parents.

Then over a few days, all are released but even mom likes the taste of them!

 

[pedromatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10401796#post10401796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scubasteve247
...from my experience at the store, feeding is key, start using live guppies, there cheap and supper high in protein, its great for them. if you go through a dollar or twos worth a week i think your chances will greatly inprove, the male has to build up enough of a fat reserve to last him 2-3 weeks of brooding.

I was catching and feeding them ghost shrimp from my waterway for a while and they were all gobbling them up. Maybe that's what triggered the spawn/brooding. But I haven't seen any ghost shrimp lately. Aside from that, of the 3 pajamas, only the only that is NOT involved in breeding eats frozen mysis at feeding time, the others only feed at night from whatever is in the water column and gets brought up from the fuge. I'll try the guppies. Thanks, Kyle.

 

[scubasteve247]

no problem pedro, best of luck to you,

ghost shrimp are just as good, and free for you, lol.
i do the same thing for my eel, i just go out back and scoop them up.

i agree with what you said about nocturnal feeding there eyes are huge and im sure there active at night. maybe try adding the feeders a hour after the lights have been off.