Cardinal babies survival story

[Armando]

On March 5 I took the time to transfer the Cardinal male to a hatching tank and have him drop the babies there. Since then I've been painstakingly raising rotifers and baby brine to feed the babies.

Yesterday, after 25 days, I looked at the overflow on the main tank and found 2 babies hanging there. They were either dropped before oe r after I transfer the parent. They are the same size as the other ones in the hatching tank. I have not fed the main tank rotifers or baby brine. Only fish goo.

I wonder what they have been eating there...

Problem is... I can't get them out of there. Breaking down the overflow would be a lot of trouble...

 

[~Flighty~]

what do rotifers look like under a microscope? are they the tiny green ovals that spin around? If so, I have them living on my glass and I bet a bunch of them live in your overflow where you don't clean.

 

[Armando]

you don't need a microscope. with a 10x magnifying glass you can see them pretty well. Not sure if I'd say they're green. It's more like tan, orangish. They look like this.

 

[~Flighty~]

Oh. Tha's not what I have. I wonder what the green buggers are?

 

[PenMan]

We have been fishing the babies out of the overflow for the last year. A brine shimp net works well for catching them, We have had them go from the overflow, throught the plumping and into the fuge. Guess that we lose the ones going into the sump. The ones in the fuge are just eating pods and the fish goo that goes throught the system.

 

[JustDavidP]

I've got ONLY two baby Banggai from my last hatching. I can no longer get the male out of my display. He's smartened up and bolts as soon as the canopy is opened. he spat them out into the display on the predicted night. I tried to get as many as I could, but the other fish were better than I at that job

I siphoned BOTH of those babies out of my overflow with a 3/4 inch hose. Your babies may be too big for this. The other option is to take apart the overflow plumbing and "flush" em out.

I fed ONLY baby brine to the last batch for the first week and they all lived. I didn't worry about rotifers. Dr. Frank Marini (understood authority in marine breeding with a specialty in Banggai) also never fed rotifers. The fry are hatched "reef ready" and can eat brine from the first day. After a week, I had them eating both brine and cyclopeeze. After a month, I weaned them off the brine all together.

I've got these two in my offline fuge. They are FAT and happy, and I've not put any brine shrimp in there. They are eating pods and cyclopeeze already. They are no more than a week old.

Jeff Beck (Stangs) had one in his fuge for years that he never fed. These dudes are truly ready to roam from the day they leave daddy's mouth. I, personally, would feed them a proper diet of gut packed brine and wean them onto other foods. Although they are tough, and could fare well on their own, we owe it to the "hobby" to do what we can to ensure high rates of survival. ESPECIALLY after seeing what happened to their natural environment over there. I've still not seen the final "evaluation" on the lagoons after the tsunami.

D

 

[Armando]

Dave I'm trying cyclopeeze but they are not very happy.

The adult pair is not doing "the thing" for now. I'm not sure if it's because I kept the male in a separate tank for a week so he could eat. Or did they forget how to do it?

 

[JustDavidP]

Armando...

I found that they will only accept other foods if you "mix it in" with the baby brine. Once they take a few mouthfulls by accident, it "grows" on them.

As far as the pair goes, studies show that the female should become gravid within 8 weeks. The male should then end up carrying every 8 or 9 weeks. Of course, separation of the male would probably delay this, as will the fact that they are still a young, breeding pair.

Mine carried "every other" clutch for the first 1/2 year. Now that I can not remove the male, he carries every 8 weeks or so. This can become a problem if he does not have time to eat, and recoop between clutches of fry. They tend to become old and haggard fast in this situation. I personally would keep them apart for some time and allow him to get into better shape. There's no reason for letting them go every 8 weeks unless you are intentionally starting a massive breeding project. I for one, got sick of cooking naupuli for the babes and am now at the point where I'm letting "evolution" happen This may change once I'm feeding seahorses. I may as well keep the BC's going too if I'm going to have a constant "hatchery" going.

Dave

 

[Armando]

Happy ending!

The water on the tank went up (i'm adjusting the flow these days) and it was enough for him to move back from the overflow to the tank