Hmmm Mum & Dad fine ….Now what?!?!

[Wreck Ferret]

OK, it would seem that of the three Apogon cyanosoma - (Orange striped cardinalfish) that I purchased a few weeks ago we have a "bond pair" and just to cement that relationship one is carrying a mouthful of eggs….

Now can anyone point me to some links on how to proceed IF they go full term & how to catch & raise the young?!?!?!

What is the length of incubation for these eggs?

Are the various texts/posts & notes on the Banggai Cardinal applicable here?
Catching the male (who I presume is carrying the eggs) is not an option as these fish are in a reef setup.

I suppose in other words….HELP!!!

Ian

[FMarini]

Ian:
sounds like things are happeneing quick.
First i would check the breeders registry for any entries on breeding of this fish (do a search for the breeders registry).
Second i can answer most of the questions you bring up on Apogons.
1)- many apogon and pterapogons mouth brood, and ONLY banggai cards retain the fry for one additional week after fry hatch. Whats does this mean to you...well it means that your fish will release free swimming planktonic larve around day 8-12.
2)- I say free swimming planktonic larvae becuz these fry will be the size of baby brine shrimp, (slightly larger), and these fry will be released at night directly into the water column.
W/ that said....i do have one friend who had sucess w/ raising a few of his orbic cardinals offspring and he did it by keeping the cardinal pair in his refugium. The refugium had an established sand bed, and was full of calurpa, he was also able to isolate the refugium (water flow) from the main tank and ran sponge filters in there for both water circulation, and gas exchange. To my knowlege he removed the female after they bred and only left the male in, until he released his mouthful. i also recall him stating that he never saw any of the fry until they were 1 week old.
So I suspect that if your able to capture these fry and feed then somethin on the ordeer of rotifers(and smaller) you might have some success intially.
Hope this helps
frank

[Wreck Ferret]

Frank,
Thanks for the reply, looks like the first few batches will be free food until I get the infrastructure together.
I checked the Breeders Registry but was unable to come up with anything, I tried searches on the Latin and common names.

Ian

[Wreck Ferret]

Thursday AM eggs have been released..?

Now either they were at full term, which means that I missed most of the incubation and will have to be more observant
or
The female was carrying the eggs and the male refused to take over
or
The male aborted the batch for a as yet unknown reason?

The mouth did look full/swollen so I am going to plumb for option one. The only puzzle is that the egg carrier sometimes chased the partner!?!?

just rambling....

any comments on likely options.

Ian