pajama cardinalfish breeding

[Geronimo]

Are there any cardinalfish breeders here? I have a mated pair (miraculously put together by myself). Every once in a while I will see the male with a mouth full of eggs. They are currently in a 58 gallon reef. What setup could I move them to in order to raise the fry? TIA for any help.

[FMarini]

Hi:
Well I've bred a few cardinalfish in my time(primarily banggais), as far as pyjamas and orbic cardinal, yes there are a few reports on the 'net. The most recent threads I've seen about this is at the breeders registry(which appears down this week), and at the reepkeepers email list http://www.escribe.com/pets/reefkeepers/ (do a search for pyjama cardinals). Anyway there appears to be a fairly large difference in raising pyjamas and banggais. Pyjamas unlike banggais DO NOT retain the fry once it hatches therefore the fry will be released as a free swimming plankton sized fry, whereas banggais retain the fry until its about 25mm in length. Pyjames will release the fry around 10days. The key to rasing pyjamas would be to place the male in an enclosed refugium type set-up, and allow him to release the fry into this unit, and hopefull you'll have enuf zooplankton in it to support the growth of these almost microscopic fry. The fry are about the size of rotifers, and therefore for 1 week you'll have to cross you fingers. After this rotifers will work, then baby brine, (approx 30days until pyjama fry are large enuf to eat babybrine.
The bigger problems is that once the male releases the fry they become tank food.
Hope this helps
frank
PS if you want info on banggais
http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml

[Geronimo]

Thanks Frank. It will be a while before I can provide a proper setup, just doing research now. If you don't mind I will email you from time to time to ask questions, it seems you are pretty well educated on the subject. Nice to know for the time being there is constant fresh live food supplied in the tank!