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Breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish

S

saltwater4life

Anyone have any experience with breeding Banggai Cardinalfish?
I plan on getting 2 for breeding just for the heck of it and then once i'm ready I'll probably try clowns but anyways has anyone bred them or tried to. if you have could you give me some tips i mean i'm 99% sure i can do it since i wont be rearing eggs just babies they shouldn't be as hard.
Hopefully i will be posting some baby Banggai pictures :D
Thanks
Nick
 
N

nagel

I've bred them, and also clowns. Bangaiis are much easier, for sure.

For starters, finding a pair isnt always easy. Not sexually dimorphic, so males look just like females. Some say that males have a longer dorsal fin (if it hasnt broken off or been chewed) or a more "bulldog like" mouth (which I will agree to, but only on males that have carried before, if they havent carried eggs, the jawline looks more like a female to me). So, buying captive bred, you're never sure if you have both sexes, and buying wild is a crap-shoot because you are maybe 30% sure of the sex, AND wild caught tend to have some type of parasite.

Treatment fo the parasite is well detailed on RC, so I won't go into that here, its rather long and boring.

As for breeding them, if you have a pair, and feed them well and keep them with peaceful tankmates, you will see them hanging out together. Soon the male will do the "shimmy" to the female, and within a day or so, he stops eating. For THREE weeks usually! (hence why you feed them REALLY good when they do eat). Males carry for 18-24 days, avg being 21-23 days. Babies are identical miniatures of the parents and will eat BBS right away. My trick to getting them to safety was when I saw eyes peeking out of pappa's mouth, I would wait till 2 hours after lights went out, turn on the lights (blinding the fish for a few seconds) and catching the male and tossing him in a breeder net. You dont have much time, and probably only one chance, so make it count. The stress of being caught will sometimes cause the male to spit out some babies. If you can, move them to another breeder net, and let pappa finish spitting out the rest. After he spits them out, he is HUNGRY, so feed him several times a day after you get a brood. The females can be a bit pushy, and the male can be carrying as fast as 7 days, but thats not the norm. Obviously you should start to see the importance of a good diet, especially for the male.

If you have any specific questions, post 'em and I'll see what I can do.
 
S

saltwater4life

wow thanks ;)
knew some of that stuff but your tips helped
there going to be in a tank alone. So you used the breeder net have you heard or tried the long spiked urchin one? where you wait for the male to spit the baby's in the spikes and then get them out?
 
N

nagel

I've kept them with long spined urchins, aka Diademia urchins.  But never with the parents.  Pappa is SOOO hungry after spitting them out, I didn't want him in the tank with the babies any longer then he had to be.

Basically, after I did the breeder net for catching the babies, I would move pappa back to the parents tank, and put the babies in a 10g tank with the urchin connected to the main system.  It really is amazing to see them all cluster around the spines.

Remember, the babies are small, so there are lots of other predators you wouldnt normally think about (pods, worms, etc.. all can be a threat to your newborns), and in a functioning reef tank, there's LOTS you don't see.
 
S

saltwater4life

wow thx so you move the dad to the 10g inside the breeder net then net the dad out and put him into the mate tank and you have the urchin in the 10g rear tank? hopefully i can set this all up after Christmas ;) Oh do you feed the dad right after you move him back to the mate tank?
 
N

nagel

I usually would put pappa in the 10g, yes. Less stress on the babies then (all you need to do is flip the breeder net to free them). After birth, pappa goes back to the main tank, and yes, fed him HEAVILY. Imagine how hungry you are after a day without food, now try 21 days.. LOL

I had a few diademias, in the display, and in the rearing tank. Unfortunately I lost my original pair when I moved (they didnt survive the move :( though most other stuff did)..
 
S

saltwater4life

Alright Thanks so much! i guess I'll be getting more info before i can start since my mom said she doesn't want all these tanks in my room... so i guess maybe over the summer ;)
 
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