My Banggers have landed!!!!!

[ReefMD]

I'm so excited, I just had to tell everyone!
Pappa spit out one a few days ago and I have been watching for the rest. Anyway, there were seven in the holding tank last night and about twenty this morning. Pappa still looks like he has more in his mouth. I'm watching him closely and will move him when his mouth looks empty.
Of note, it looked like the banggers were striking at the prawn eggs this morning when I fed them! Yahoo!!!

My other pair, the juveniles, lost their first attempt, but I was prepared for the disapointment. Oh well, maybe next time.

Tim

I'll try to get some pictures tonight and post them ASAP.

[FMarini]

Tim:
WooHoo:
Great deal.... excellent news about the prawn eggs. We need some measurements on how big the fry are, so we can equate a size fry and the prawn eggs

Use the lapriscope to get some great shots from inside the mouth.
Can't wait for the photos
frank

[Atticus]

Since you are in the OB\GYN profession did you get to do an ultrasound on the father to see the babies??? :D Good Luck with your banggers. Travis

[ReefMD]

Here are some pictures, sorry for the poor quality. The banggers just will not hold still for their newborn pictures.

[ReefMD]

One more out-of-focus picture for your enjoyment.

[ReefMD]

Last one, I promise. I think the final count is around thirty, but they are sure hard to count as well as take pictures of.

Tim

[Atticus]

Wow, 30 is a pretty large batch. What do you feed your adults and how many times a day do you feed?

[ReefMD]

I feed mysid shrimp about four times per week and marine cuisine the other days. I only feed once per day. There are days, when I'm on call in the hospital, when I don't feed at all. Both parents seems to be fat, except pappa right now, and happy.
I will be feeding the male mysid shrimp twice per day over the next two weeks to fatten him up for the next round.

Tim

[Sally]

ReefMD: How is it going with the prawn eggs? A great LFS here is going to be getting some prawn eggs next week. I have some 3 week old banggers that I am about to wean on the prepared foods. I may hold off till I get them the prawn eggs as I think they may be more nutritious than my homemade foods (shirmp, scallop, clam mush). My male is holding again and this next batch is going to get the prawn eggs from the get go. Did they start to eat them immediately? Have you ever given them baby brine shrimp? What are you thoughts on weaning from BBS to prawn eggs or should I go right to my homemade prepared foods. My last 3 broods took my homemade prepared foods after a little coaxing.

[ReefMD]

Sally,
As far as I can tell, they are striking at the prawn eggs from day one. Since this is my first batch, I cannot tell you what do do in terms of weaning off BBS or prawn eggs to your homemade preparation. I have never fed BBS. I plan on feeding prawn eggs for three to four weeks and then wean to something else. I may make a batch of homemade food myself.

[FMarini]

Tim:
Seriously, we need some measurements, can you entice a bangger close eunf to the tankwall that you can make a quick "guestimate" of size???

If you have gone thru the old threads you'll see that only certain sized banggers will eat the prawn eggs intially, and if the banggers are too small(we don't know what this too small is) they don't strike.
If any pass on (god forbid) please take an accurate measurement for sure
thanks in advance
frank

[ReefMD]

Frank,
My Bangger breeding station is made up of three 16 gallon rubbermaid tubs in series. They are in a stack three tall and each tub drains to the tub below it. They are initially fed from my 75 gallon reef and overflow to a common sump.
Since the tubs are plastic, they are somewhat opaque and thus pictures through them are always fuzzy. If one, god forbid, does pass on, I'll be sure to take very exact measurements and post them here. I'll try to give an accurate guesstimate as to their size as soon as I can.

Tim

[cyclist1]

This is actually cyclist1's wife - I'm doing most of the baby work now.

We have been looking (albeit not with great gusto) for prawn eggs, but no one will carry them. Sigh. All of our broods so far have started easily on day one (or two, if our birth predictions are off) with enriched BBS. Surprisingly, our last brood was pretty easily weaned to mysis, beginning at about day 10. We just kept offering it, and after about 10 more days, they were completely weaned, with the bigger babies weaning first. I just hold a chunk of the block underwater and grind off a bit. (They go crazy for it now)

ReefMD - how do you do it? I'm finishing my first year of med school, and know that you have even less time! Congrats on the new brood!

Danielle