bangaii cardinal babies DIED

vanrynd

Member
We unfortunately netted our first male tonight, Maybe too soon. As soon as we got him alone in a breeder tank, he 'coughed up' all the eggs.
We did stress him out pretty good chasing him around the live rock. (I learned from your post how to do better next time)
Question
When you mentioned "see the eggs in the Male's mouth." What do you exactly mean by that? Actually see the eggs, or , just see the 'swelling'...in his mouth.
Now that the eggs are released, can we just put the male back in the tank, and hope the eggs hatch?
I am a first time breeder, and only by accident. I am looking for advice on how to mantain the eggs, if possible.
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
I am not sure if you can save the eggs or not, that would be a question for bang, my recommendation would be light aireation, keeping the eggs rolling gently. They will hatch in about 14-21 days, but the thing is that i am pretty sure that the male usually holds the babies for an extra week or so after they hatch, spitting them out about day 28. I am not 100% on this since my male refuses to carry the eggs to term. He has had eggs in his mouth a total of 13 times in the last 11 months, but he keeps eating them. I just took out my odd male (i had 2 males and a female) so hopefully he will carry them to term now.
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
As for catching them, I tried this method on Tuesday night and it worked out really well, get the tank as dark as you can, typically the cardinals will be the only fish out on your reef at night, after the lights have been off for a little while, turn on the brightest lights you have (typically your MH) it will temporarily blind them, its kind of funny they swim in little circles, this makes it extremely easy to catch them without much stress.
 

bang guy

Moderator
The eggs can survive outside the mouth but they need constant waterflow and not too much rubbing against a container.
A breeder net with flow coming up from the bottom can work. I built an incubation chamber with an inverted 2 liter pop bottle, some nylon screen at the top and waterflow coming in the neck of the bottle. The screen is to allow the water to leave the bottle but not the eggs.
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
hey bang, I finally got my 3rd cardinal out, the little male, i am sure you remember my situation, do you think that my male will quite eating the eggs now, remember i am the guy whos cardinal eats the eggs after 4 days every time. I know its not caused by nutrition as he is fed well with mysis. My cardinals are fed at night when everyone else is sleeping to ensure they are getting good nutrition, a mix of mysis, and other frozen and fresh foods. They seem to prefer this feeding method, no competition for food this way.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Sounds like it's possible. I know that the stress of multiple males in the same confined area can cause them to spit the eggs from stress.
 

bronco300

Active Member
thanks again for the fish! he is in there and moving around so its a good sign i think....my firefish are very intimidated by them and run away when he comes into their territory.haha....now to find a female
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bronco300
thanks again for the fish! he is in there and moving around so its a good sign i think....my firefish are very intimidated by them and run away when he comes into their territory.haha....now to find a female
good, i am glad to here that he is doing well for you, they have some at that lfs by you, the uncles place, they are young, but the bigger ones may be big enough to determine a female from a male you should check it out
 

anthropo

Member
well this is the second time around for babies and i've taken bang guys advice. I put them in a breeder net and have been feeding them cyclopeeze even though they don't seem too enthused to eat it. i'm going on day 6 and so far so good. i havn't had one death out of 20 babies and they seem to grow pretty fast.
THANKS bang guy
 

apawiper

New Member
I´m having the same problems of Fishgeek01 had. I have only one male and one female, and the female have spawned 3 times, one per month. The first time the male held the eggs one week, and the second and third time only two days!
Male and female are pretty big, so I guess is not a feeding problem. They eat one or two times a day: one smaller with brine shrimp or mysis or red larvae that I give to the other fishes during day (they prefer mysys and red mosquito larvae) and the other one at night with pieces of frozen shrip or mussel, one or two each other.
Also I have noticed that my male doesn´t feed the next 2-3 days of losing the eggs, he seems not to have his mouth in good conditions for eat.
And some strange thing is that I heard sometimes some sound that comes from them. I think that one of them, probably the male, makes some sound when he feels frightened or stressed or a territorial situation... I don´t know sure why this sound... and I don´t have a pistol shrimp ;)
Something similar is documented here: http://members.chello.nl/hp.huber/after%20breeding.htm
Hope you could help me.
Thanks!!
 

bang guy

Moderator
apawiper, your male isn't getting proper nutrition, that's why he's eating the eggs. He doesn't eat for a few days after the eggs are gone because he just had a huge meal.
 

apawiper

New Member
And what kind of food do yo recommend me to give them?? And how many times per day??
Also, do you know anything about the sound that seems to make him in stressed or territorial conditions??
Thanks a lot.
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
i am still having the same problem, its been over 20 broods, and he still won't carry to term, spot feeding hasn't helped, nothing has... I have no room for a seperate tank, nor the resources... Outside of a rearing tank...
What to do? Any suggestions from anyone out there... BANG?
Will a pair allow more than one female to be in the tank? Maybe one of the two of them is not fertile... ?
 

anthropo

Member
my male keeps having babies and so far i have only been able to get to them once before he spits them out when they're done developing. once he spits them out it's pretty much free food for the rest of the tank. i have luck with mysis, formula 2 flake and i also feed ocean nutrition angel formula for large angels.
 

apawiper

New Member
Fishgeek01, all the people have recomended me to feed them more. I feed them two times a day: one with lights with the other fishes (artemia, mysis.. small pieces) and one at night with good pieces of frozen fish. So if you only feed them one time a day, I will suggest you to feed them more. This month I will try to feed them one more time, 3 times a day. If this doesn´t work, I´m going to buy a small tank to put them into it. If that doesn´t work too, I will try to buy another male to put it with my actual female, but this is very difficult because banggais are very difficult to find here, and then you have to --- them...
If you still have the two males, the stress could be the reason. Is known that with stress, the male will fail. That´s why I´m going to get out my lysmata shrimp because she usually goes to the banggais cave. I´m cleaning my reef of possible stress causes.
That´s what I wil do. Hope I could breed them. Now it has become somewhat personal
 

fishgeek01

Active Member
Its personal for me too at this point. I have removed the smaller male, he has been gone since november of last year, I feed 2 times a day, plus cyclopeeze for the tank once every 2 days, i mix variety of foods, but the cardinals are a little picky. The only other thing I can think of to do at this point is to set up another tank. He is currently holding eggs right now, i watched them breed yesterday evening, lets hope he does it this time
 
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