Banggai Cardinals Spawned

oceandude

Member
Keep your chin up. It takes time to get it down to a science. I have to give you major props for tank breeding one of our endangered species! Awesome in what you are doing.
When I bred them I attempted to follow this procedure I had read years back and it worked good.

  • If you have the male in a breeder, remove the male back to the main tank once the fry have been released. The fry will look almost identical to their parents—just way smaller.

  • Because the fry are immediately capable of eating, start an intensive feeding regimen of nauplii—the larval stage of brine shrimp (Artemia salina)—and microscopic aquatic animals known as Rotifera (more on these in a later article). Copepods make another good food source for the fry. Start with small amounts of prepared foods and frozen foods as soon as they will take them.
    During this period, some of the fry will grow faster than others, and these larger fish will eat the majority of the food (to the point of chasing the smaller ones away). For this reason, some aquarists spilt the fry into separate like-sized groupings at this point.
    Depending upon your tank inhabitants, reintroduce the surviving young Banggai Cardinalfish to your main tank. As juveniles that should form a tight protective grouping and there shouldn’t be undue interspecies aggression. As they get older, however, you will need to separate out the young adults—consider giving them to friends or even selling them back to the local fish store for store credit.
*good luck and I admire your efforts to keep wild ones where they belong instead of becoming extinct.
 

al&burke

Active Member
Thanks for that - I appreciate it it very much. I don't know what it is about baby anything - I have baby chickens, baby guppies, goldfish, I was taken a 55 gallon goldfish down and in the last 1/2 of water I noticed a whole bunch of fry, out came the baster and I saved about 30 of them, curious to see how they grow. Baby son he is 10 now, not much of a baby - but thanks
 

bang guy

Moderator
I had my best success using prawn eggs as a first food. It has more nutrition that BBS and since they never learn about live food there is no weaning them off of live food. If prawn eggs are unavailable (ask around) then frozen Cyclop-Eeze is an excellent second choice. Keep the BBS handy though because not all batches of Banggai will hatch large & robust. The weaker hatchings will need more coddling and BBS will always be readily consumed by baby Banggai.
Avoid flaked fish food for Banggai at all costs.
Fantastic results you're having, congrats! :)
 

al&burke

Active Member
Thanks Bang Guy - What is the difference between cyclop and cyclops eez. The LFS is supposed to be getting some oyster eggs as well, I want to be ready next time.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Cyclop-Eeze is a commercial product made from a cold water copepod that is rich in HUFA (Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, I think). I don't know what a Cyclop is. I would guess some type of copepod since they only have one eye.
 

al&burke

Active Member
That sounds like those old one eyed monster movies. I did see cyclops eez the other day - I will have to pick some up.
 

oceandude

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bang Guy http:///t/387644/banggai-cardinals-spawned/60#post_3442610
I had my best success using prawn eggs as a first food. It has more nutrition that BBS and since they never learn about live food there is no weaning them off of live food. If prawn eggs are unavailable (ask around) then frozen Cyclop-Eeze is an excellent second choice. Keep the BBS handy though because not all batches of Banggai will hatch large & robust. The weaker hatchings will need more coddling and BBS will always be readily consumed by baby Banggai.
Avoid flaked fish food for Banggai at all costs.
Fantastic results you're having, congrats! :)
Absolutely. S-type rotifers are perfect for the first feeding stages of aquacultured marine fishes too.
 

al&burke

Active Member
UPDATE - bad news - I lost the female Banggai, I notice that there was only one for the last couple of days, the female is no where to be found. There goes my dreams for raising fry. I am currently looking for another female but the LFS only has some that are half the size of my male. Hard to tell if they are female.
 
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