Peeping Banggai Fry

[john miller]

Lost another one last night right after the above post, two overnight and one during the transfer, so the current total is 10. Looking back at my notes I should have moved them around day 19/20.

They have been moved into the 20 long that I have been cycling. I put a 5ml dropper of freshly hatched BBS in there so they have a good supply of food floating around. So far I have seen a few of them picking at them every once in a while. They are still getting use to the flow. In the other tank there was very little flow. There isn't much in this one right now but still more than they are use to.

When I first moved them in the stayed in groups of five just like I took them out of the breeder traps. Over the last couple of hours there has been some intermingling and a few of the more adventurist ones have taken off on their own to explore.

It's pretty cool to watch one of the little guys swim just below the surface going end to end.

Pics tomorrow.

 

[miketay89]

I hope that your luck will get better with the increase in water movement and space.

 

[john miller]

Lost one yesterday so I'm at 9. That one didn't seem to notice that all those little specs floating around were food. It was very thin. Feeding is quite challenging. I cut all the pumps off and offer the BBS like before, out of the eyedropper, but now they just watch them float to the bottom. The only good thing is since they're in their own tank now they have a constant supply of food available. Most appear to have full bellies so they must be eating little bits all day.

I now firmly believe that aggression was the issue before. There has been some chasing and darting around since the move and I can now see that two of them seem to be growing faster than the others.

I have one that has definite problems. I noticed it when it was first spit out. I has curled fins and has problems staying buoyant, so it jerkingly swims up at a 45 degree angle and is constantly moving. I'm surprised it's lived this long. It is smaller than the others but so far they don't pick on him. My grand-daughter named him "jerky swims-a-lot".

Still trying a mixture of frozen brine, mysis and cyclopeeze and having limited luck. They will sometime strike it when it comes out of the eyedropper, but never the second time. Aggravating little cusses.

 

[john miller]

I was informed his name is "jumpy swims-a-lot", calling him jerky would be bad manners. :lmao:

I'm vacuuming the bottom every other day cleaning up the frozen food I'm trying to feed. Should I be adding anything for the BBS that are left in the tank after feeding?

 

[Clownfishfan]

Awesome thread , defiantly following along!! I'm very sorry @ John Miller I have the exact same luck with fw guppies and platies I feel your pain.
This thread has made me even more impatient with my banggai who needs a mate .

 

[john miller]

4 weeks old today, so photo bomb time.

Here is "jumpy swims-a-lot" so you can see what I'm saying

And his normal swimming stance (he's in the back)

You can never get all of them in one pic but this one was close

They have figured out the flow will bring the BBS directly to them in this corner

And finally the main aggressor of the tank, far right in the lead, and by far the largest. The only one he doesn't bully is jumpy.

 

[miketay89]

It would be good to add a little phyto to the tank to help keep the BBS more nutritious.

 

[Clownfishfan]

So cute ! How long does it take to get them to sellable size? How much and where do you sell them?

 

[john miller]

It would be good to add a little phyto to the tank to help keep the BBS more nutritious.

Thanks. I do a search and see what I can get mailed in. Living in the middle of nowhere does have some disadvantages.

 

[john miller]

So cute ! How long does it take to get them to sellable size? How much and where do you sell them?

This is my first batch so I'm really not sure. I have read that the 100 day mark is a good gauge to use though. Not really worried about selling right now, just keeping them alive is hard enough.

 

[john miller]

Well I finally ordering and got in my brine shrimp eggs, Oh man what a difference using a quality product makes. No wonder I was having problems keeping up. Compared to this first hatch of quality product my old product had about a 5-10% hatch rate. Needless to say I have plenty now.

I've also got in some golden pearls 300-500 & 500-800, hatchable decaped brine eggs & some live nannochloropsis micro algae to dose the tank to keep the BBS alive a little longer. Question about this: The way I'm using it how much should I dose?

Here's a few I took tonight. They are at 5 weeks.

Group shot, or at least the best I could get.

This is 4dot. He (assuming) is a BA, and he (again assuming) knows it.

Then there are these two, 4dot and buddy/mate/friend? They are never more than 6 inches away from each other.

And finally one with jumpy, always moving to the beat of a different drummer.

 

[Clownfishfan]

How large are they now and how often do you feed?

 

[miketay89]

Nice pictures. They are looking good.
5-10% man you were working. Haha you are in heaven now.

I would put just enough phyto in so that you can tell it was added, and then only add more when the water has cleared. Probably twice a day.
Are you going to start a phyto culture, or just use what you have bought?

 

[john miller]

They are about 3/4" and I'm still feeding three times a day, 7:30 am, 5:30 pm & 9:30 pm. The last pic shows about what concentration of brine I'm looking for when feeding. So far doing it that way has kept their bellies full and not fouled the water.

With that old hatch rate I was using every single one and sweating it a lot of days. Wasn't really planning on starting a culture but I may have to since I don't know what I'm doing I only got an 8 oz bottle. I guessed tonight and only added 20 drops. The tank was cleaned tonight so most in there now are the freshly hatched so I'll add some in the morning.

 

[john miller]

Well a different problem showed up this morning. All my freshly hatched BBS were dead. I had such a substantial hatch rate that the container I had them in must not have big enough. So it looks like I'm going to have to figure out a new plan. There were still some in the water column when I left this morning and I have some decapped that will be ready when I get home so I should be good. I'll try some other foods tonight before adding the BBS.

 

[john miller]

Hatch rate now, oh yeah!

That's 750ml of water in front of a 60 watt bulb.

New setup that is working so far.

That's a 5.5 gal tank I had sitting around, the two 1 liter hatcheries and an acrylic hex that fits perfectly in the 5.5. That little light and the closed top on the hex keep the temp at a constant 78. After 12 hours I'm still enriching with Selcon and putting in some live phytoplankton. Not enough to make it green but just enough to BARELY tint. Only been in operation a few days but so far so good.

 

[Clownfishfan]

Great ! I hope I am able to do that well.

 

[edandsandy]

Very impressive!

 

[miketay89]

I hatch mine about the same way as you are, except I use a plastic tub instead of an aquarium. Using the heat from the light bulb is the way to go.

 

[john miller]

What's amazing is that 9 fish smaller than a dime can eat the majority of that in 2/3 days.