Question on Pregnant Bangai

[OrionN]

My male Bangai Cardinal is carring his first patch of eggs for the last 14 days. He seem to breath heavier than normal (befor start to carry the eggs). His mouth is really full and he is breathing visibly. Much more than the female (harly breathing at all). The rest of the fish in my tank are fine. Because of this reason, I don't think he is sick. Is he just trying to provide flow for the eggs? Is this normal for the male to breath like this when he is carrying eggs?
Thanks,
Minh Nguyen

[FMarini]

Minh:
it appears that your seeing a smalled mouth banggai and a huge mouthful of eggs. So i imagine the beathing and jaw movement maybe exagerated.
W/ that said, yes the male banggais increases water movement arond the eggs(do you notice him josting the eggs pack alot?), and will pick up his "breathing" as the fry start developing. also as you know the fry after about 10days are little fish w/ yolk sacs so they are physcially larger than a spheriod eggs and this also put additional strain on the mouth.
So I can tell yuo from experience that the male banggais will abort the fry if he senses any problems, i wouldn't worry about it yet
frank

[OrionN]

Thanks Frank. I will se if I can set up a 10 g tank to see if I can raise these fry.
I guess I need some brine shrimp eggs ASAP. If I am correct, he should release these fry this week sometime. I notice he got the eggs three weekend ago, about 16-17 days ago.
Thanks again.