Taking Banggais to the LFS, your experience...

[exodus]

After attempting to breed Tomato clowns for the past 2 years, I have found that it is a difficult undertaking. I have a pair, but they have yet to lay eggs. In addition, I have my own 'fry' on the way :) and know that I won't have time for the Tomato's once he/she arrives.

That said, Banggais seem a whole lot easier to breed and raise since you can feed them baby brine from the beginning. My question, though, has to do with once they reach maturity. I am concerned that LFSs will not be able to take in the Banggais because they have too many already. Although I would like to set up 10 more fish tanks, my wife would be quite displeased and we definitely don't have enough room for that. The best I can do is place the babies in a 10 gallon q-tank while they grow up.

So, here's my questions:

1) Do you ever have any trouble taking your Banggais to the LFS? In other words, do the LFS typically accept them as you give them?
2) How often do your mating pairs typically spawn and have successful broods? (I know that this can vary from about 18--30 days).
3) How many banggais could I keep safely in a 10 gallon tank with most recent babies in a breeder net and the more mature guys out in the 'open'?

Thanks for any answers you may be able to provide. :)

[gas4544]

I sold some juvenile Banggai's to a LFS for $5 each. they then promptly tried to sell them for $25 each. Stinkers. IF you do not have any place to distribute your babies, I do not suggest breeding them. Raising babies is labor intensive and you should be getting at least $5 per fish, although you probably will not get more than that.

I once had two overlapping broods and had to set up a second 10-gallon nursery tank. I suggest having a seperate nursery tank for each brood.

[exodus]

Not to be morbid, but I think if I ever had overlapping broods, I could take the surviving banggais and feed them to my hawk fish.

[Wild Card-inal]

Last time I checked, Bangaii babies can be kept together with weeks in between ages.

[Brad A.]

I've had success with selling the baby banngers to members of the local marine club. They are also great for trading.

As for the LFS, I will not go lower than $10 in store credit. Thus far I've sold or traded about 50 and have 30 banngers ready for market. My male card is carrying eggs. This next brood will put me over 100 banngers mark that I've raised.

I think it is worth raising the cardinals. I've been able to upgrade my lights and skimmer and other things the wife wouldn't let me buy otherwise.

There are about 6 or 7 LFS in my area so I spread the banngers around.

Good luck
Brad

[Sally]

My male bangaii had three broods within the last four months..he would release the eggs and then five days later be holding again. After this last brood I removed him from the tank the female was in because he was looking thin and I wanted to give him a rest. I started with the 10 gallon for the babies..and after the 3 broods (first two were small 5 & 7 fish only..that's all I found he may have had more). The last brood was close to 40 and I got a 30 gallon breeder tank...now that the older ones are getting bigger I am getting another 30 gallon breeder tank next week. . Believe me, there is no money in breeding this fish...if I break even I'll be happy. I'm only doing it because I believe in captive rasied fish and no LFS stores in my area carry captive raised bangaiis. It is labor intensive. Also, when my male released last week..I put some of the new babies in with the month old babies..and one of the one month old babies ate one of the new fry. So I had to remove them to a breeders net...I'm getting another 30 gallon breeder next week to put the new ones in. If you don't have room for them or a place to keep them then hold off on breeding them. By the way, how old are your bangaiis when you sell/trade them?? I have some that are 2.5 months old but they still seem too small to sell/trade compared to the ones I see at the LFS.

[Brad A.]

Labor intensive????Why?

The only hassle is during the first week when I feed newly hatched brine shrimp. After 1 week they eat selcon soaked frozen baby shrimp once or twice a day. You can feed more often and I guess they would grow faster..but why make it labor intensive. Breeding Bangaiis is easy. There is no reason they should be removed from wild reefs.

I hold the bangers for about three to four months and then sell/trade. Many people think they are "cute" and thus far have had no problem off loading these fish. Although there is one LFS that wants them bigger so I may hold the next two broods an extra month or so. Kinda kewl..one LFS wants 20 bangers for an urchin/banggai display. The owner said, "We want to carry your line of cardinals exclusively"..hehe..kinda made me chuckle has I didn't think I had a "line of cardinals" whatever...but to think that the LFS will sell captive bred cards instead of wild cards is very exciting!

I agree that if one has no outlet for giving away or selling the cards, it probably is better to hold off on breeding.

In short...the point I'm trying to make is that breeding cards is easy..almost as easy as guppies..literally
LAter
BRad

[gas4544]

I have successfully raised three broods - 22, 30 then 26 fish - before the female mysteriously passed away. I did not lose a single baby during the time they were in my care - just two from the first batch during shipping to a buyer in Hawaii.

I fed them 4-5 times per day and had them eating frozen brine and flake food by the 6th week after release. I waited that long to start feeding them frozen brine shrimp because I didn't want the little guys to choke on food that was too big for them. Small, frequent feedings is preferred to fewer larger feedings.

Ten-gallon tanks are cheap and easy to set up. I did not mix my two batches because the feeding requirements are different between new babies and 6-week old juveniles.

The last two broods have been distrubuted around the Puget Sound area. Last weekend, Mushroom Boy picked up a mated pair from the last batch of babies. They will be one-year old at the end of March. I also have one other mated pair from the same brood.

[Sally]

It is not that it is that difficult ...it is time consuming. Besides 4 fish tanks, working , going to school and 3 kids...I don't have a lot of free time. Raising them is not that dificult but pairing them up can be. It seems that some people are throwing together 3-4 fish and letting them pair up and the others die. My point is..if you are going to do that be sure you are able to get the others that are singled out, OUT of the tank...don't just leave them in there. The ten gallon tanks are cheap but I like to have a skimmer on my tanks because of the amount I feed. Just my .02

[exodus]

I would be putting the banggais into a 20 gallon and raising the fry in a 10 gallon. I could easily buy some breeder nets, and if I didn't have room for a particular set of fry I could feed some of them to my hawkfish and 'let nature take it's course' with the others. I could also put up partitions in the 10 gallon pretty easily (we all love Home Depot! :)). There are *plenty* of fish stores in my area... probably about 20 or so, so it sounds like I won't have a problem with selling them.

Don't worry, I'm not in this to make money... I just want to breed fish, that's all, and hopefully help out the hobby in return.

[aLittletank]

5-10 dollars per is what you will probably get. That is the range I have seen them for whole sale. If you were in my neck of the woods I would set ya up with the LFS I part time at. I do the ordering and find it hard to get tank raised/bred fish.

the big wholesalers dont carry them so if I do a special order to one that does I cant fill the rest of the order and the cost of shipping drives the cost of the fish too high and no one buys them.

so if your local stores should eat them up! if not they already have a local source or arent too bright ;)

HTH
Allen

[Wild Card-inal]

Any of you who breed Banggais and have babies that you plan to grow up and breed, I highly advise that you buy other Banggais so that the babies of those fish do not have birth defects. Birth defects include distended fins, lower immune system, and other undesirable traits. Of course, if you only breed from one pair of fish, that should be okay. It's only the inbreeding of offspring you should worry about.

The conquest of breeding these fish is pretty cool. At least I know where to look when I want to breed Banggais (which I in fact have a topic about it in this forum, don't know if you see it though...)

[exodus]

Thanks all, for all of your replies... I really do appreciate them.

[FMarini]

Hi Guys:
My experiences about taking captive bred banggai to the LFS are well documents (feel free to do a search).
I'm just really glad to see that LFS will take them, and are giving you something credit/money for them. IMO you wll never get what these fish are really worth.
Back in 97,98, 99, LFS would only give me $3/fish max, and wanted wildcaught one over my CB/CR banggais. I tried to supply 2yrs worth of banggais to LFS in Houston (over 300fsh/yr), and few places wanted them.
I found the baby banggais a better trading tool w/ my friends, and reef buddies. At least they would take younger fry, and i got something in exchange.
Apparently the climate is changing for captive raised fish.
here here
frank