Banggai baby aggression

[Brooke]

I'm starting to see some aggression in the babies born on 9/24. Is this normal? Are they getting to an age where they need to be seperated? Could I assume the ones acting most aggressively towards one another are the males? There are 6 of them together and two really stand out as the aggressors.

Thanks for the input-
Brooke

[FMarini]

Hi brooke;
are you one of the mods over there at the reeftank??.. I've seen your posts recently and it seems you've got a nice pair of breeding banggais (mortimer or something like this-I recall you've named them) .
If i may... should people ask about banggai info you could direct them to http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml or brian congers site, as they contain most of the same articles on how-to raise/breeding/raise the young.

Okay to your question...
Your banggers(my word for banggai babies) are two months old. I really don't think that they are pulling dominance yet as none of them are sexually mature(so far the earilest reported (confirmed) spawning is 6months of age, so at the very least sexually maturity is reached at 6-8month.)

I suspect what your seeing is food squabbling, and second space limits (territorality). I observed food squabbling when i raised a group or two in breeders nets where the space was extremely limited. But depending on how your tank is setup and how the fish position themselves may allow just enuf or too little space.

So can you assume the aggresssors are male?
good question and one i would say most likely yes, but i will place the caveat that i have recieved reports from a few peple where the female fish beat the snot out of newly introduced banggais. So my first inclination is to say yes.

IMO if you see any kind of aggression displays w/ these fish i always tell people to remove the submissive fish first, and as a last resort the dominant fish (why? becuz when you remove the current dominat fish the next highest dominat fish will stand up). If you've got the space yes remove them.

Last point. Hopefully you are familiar w/ the current success we're having(the kings we)in feeding bangger w/ prawn eggs instead of baby brine shrimp??? seems like we might have a decent food substitute for the banggers here.
hope this helps
frank

[Brooke]

Thanks for the feedback, Frank. Yep, I'm the same Brooke from TRT. I'm actually the owner/administrator/founder of The Reef Tank. ;)

I do have quite the pair, don't I. I named them Mortimer and Morticia. The poor male is still holding this batch of eggs after only 2 days of rest. I really wish he'd spit them out and eat!!

The big babies are in a 38g tank that is divided. Their parents are now on one side and they are on the other. They have plenty of room..I suspect it's the food squabbling you mentioned. The ones that show aggression are the ones eating just about anything I put in the tank. I was able to wean them off of live nauplii with the frozen prawn eggs, but they were never that interested in them. Most of them are eating homemade frozen seafood mush now and freeze dried copepods (they love these!).

Interesting on the sex/aggression issue, because I'm almost 100% certain that the adult female killed the 3rd banggai that I had initially. (stupid to buy 3, now I know better!) For some reason, though I think the babies that are being aggressive are male...but I could be wrong..they might be the females?!? I agree totally on getting the submissive ones out first..that makes total sense after seeing what happened to our 3rd banggai. (I did try to remove him from the tank, but was unsuccessful.)

One more question...since these guys are eating prepared foods now, are they ready to go to new homes? What time frame do you recommend? Is diet a good way to measure their readiness or is size the main issue?

Thanks Frank. I appreciate your help.

Brooke

[Brooke]

Originally posted by Brooke
One more question...since these guys are eating prepared foods now, are they ready to go to new homes? What time frame do you recommend? Is diet a good way to measure their readiness or is size the main issue?

Frank...or others. Any feeback on this??

Thanks-
Brooke

[FMarini]

Brooke:
Sorry i didn't see the 2nd question tucked in there....
To me both size and eating prepared foods are required to sell them off. If the fish is too small it will not effectively compete in most people tanks againist other fish (instead it will either hide in the rockwork or be eaten).Second is prepared food diets, if the fry are eating dead prepared marine foods then this is great, they will begin to grow expontenially, and be able to compete for food.
For me I used to hold onto these fish for 3 months, but recently seeing how large the banggers are, 2months might be more than sufficent.
Its your call really.

frank