Woohoo, Bangaii Cardinal carrying babys

[afsportsguy000]

No pictures yet! Guy was stubborn wouldnt face me. I think it just happened within the last few days. Ill try to document it as best as I can. I also have a urchin which I read will also help protect the babies.

 

[jamesdong009]

Sweet find. My old pair would consistently have babies as well. Although not at all impossible, having the fry reach a manangeable size without a proper setup is pretty hard. However, I think I read on the BRS where a member found some babies in his sump.

 

[MrX]

Sweet!

I'm hoping the pair I got at babies from Kiah (Michele) is actually M/F and they breed at some point. They were born in February and are still hanging out together so I hope I got lucky.

Are you planning on doing anything to help them along? Have you done any research on doing it?

 

[frank180reef]

if u want to raise them u should see if or where u can get some live foods, baby brine should work,

maybe get one of those floating mesh tanks ........................best of luck

Frank

 

[afsportsguy000]

As of right now I don't have any plans to raise them. I am more or less going to see what happens and maybe watch the process the first time so the 2nd time I can attempt. I have yet to do any research so that may also change my mind on raising them.

 

[afsportsguy000]

Here is a pretty good article I found. I do have a 10 gallon tank and a few things sitting around so I may attempt it

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/f_marini_020799.html

 

[higorc]

I used to have a pair that had babies all the time. After the second batch of babies I started trying to raise them. I always succeeded with at least 2-4 babies per batch.

The hardest thing was keeping an eye for when they got dropped by the dad and scooping them out of the DT and into my fuge before they either got eaten or sucked by a powerhead.

One trick I learned was to have a long-spine urchin in the tank so they could hide between it's spine until I was able to get them out.
It worked really well. The babies always went to it as soon as the dad dropped them off. Usually any stragglers would be swimming close to the top of the water around the back corners of the tank.

Good luck raising them!

 

[afsportsguy000]

Wow thats awesome! Yea, I dont have a very spiny urchin I avoided one due to the frags I have and them just taking them out. What did you do to raise them? I really dont want to spend a lot of money at this point to do so. However if Its cheap enough it would be awesome to try.

 

[higorc]

Wow thats awesome! Yea, I dont have a very spiny urchin I avoided one due to the frags I have and them just taking them out. What did you do to raise them? I really dont want to spend a lot of money at this point to do so. However if Its cheap enough it would be awesome to try.

I put them in my fuge and fed them Brine and Mysis shrimp and crushed up flakes. Most of the time they were just hunting pods on their own though. I would see them going crazy chasing things around the refugium glass.

If you have a well stablished refugium they should find a lot of food. Make sure there isn't any strong powerheads and that they can't go into the other parts of the sump (if you have a sump/refugium).

If you don't have a refugium in ur sump you can get one of those plastic tubs in Target or Walmart, a powerhead (I use a MJ 1200) and some bulkhead type things (don't know the name, but u can find it in Home Depot in the kitchen sink parts area) and pump the water from the sump into the tub and let gravity take the water back to ur sump.

Make sure you make 2 return holes(with some kind of net/grid to keep the babies from falling back into the sump) and set the tub a little higher than your sump. Put some chaeto and/or LR loaded with pods, maybe some sand in the tub and u have ur self a "refugium" for the babies for less than $10 (if you have an extra pump/powerhead laying around of course!)

 

[afsportsguy000]

Unfortunately I don't have a way to tie anything into my main system and I use a Canister Filter. I will have to do some research and find the best way to make this successful.

 

[jokersplayground]

you can take a small plastic ball cut it in half, then drill holes in it and put black zip ties through the holes and they will not know the difference. and you dont have to worry about it moveing and knocking everything down

 

[NewReefer4]

Our pair mated and the male carried eggs 3x but we were not successful at the hatching process. We recently lost the male, and the single female seems lost. Or it may just be us....
What is thebest way to reintroduce more Banggaii, and how many? The article states that sexing the Banggais is possible at maturity but it seems difficult to match the jaw or second dorsal to a identity.

 

[afsportsguy000]

I always saw the rule introduce in odd numbers. Although I may have a bangaii to sell as he is the smallest and the other 2 just make sure he stays hidden. So 3 did not work out well for me and I think I just got lucky with the 2. I have only had them since July so I got really lucky if babies are coming already.

 

[MrX]

you can take a small plastic ball cut it in half, then drill holes in it and put black zip ties through the holes and they will not know the difference. and you dont have to worry about it moveing and knocking everything down

In hopes that my pair of Banggais is M/F and breed I went and did this. Here is my faux urchin:

 

[afsportsguy000]

I am going to make one of those this weekend should be right in time for the babies.

 

[higorc]

In hopes that my pair of Banggais is M/F and breed I went and did this. Here is my faux urchin:

That's a good idea. But I would use something harder/sturdier instead of zip ties. Something like tooth pics for example. Zip ties are flexible and any fish could reach in between them to get the babies. I would also put them a lot closer together.