Banggai Breeding

[liptonbrisk]

Once you introduce a pair of Banggai's into a new tank, how long before they breed?

I'd like to know because if these fish are so hard to sex, how long do you wait before you know that you've got 2 females.

Joe

[joezkool]

Well, I'm not the expert, but I can share experiences.
I bought a pair to start, and after about 2 months or so, once the fish matured, the bigger one punked the smaller one. I never really knew whether they were 2 males or 2 females. I got rid of the small one, and after a year, I decided to go for try #2. This time I was successful. They bonded. They didn't do much but hang out for about a month & a half, and just last week, they began to breed. Thats when I found out I had a female from the start, and bought a male for her. As most say, its hit or miss, there is no good way to sex them. As babies, they will just hang out, but a mature fish will know if you introduce him/her a opposite sex fish, and try to mate, if the fish you introduce is mature as well. If it is a same sex, sound the bell, theres gonna be a fight. My best advice is to watch a group of them at the LFS. Males will punk males, females will punk females. That is if they aren't babies. I watched a group closely and after about a half hour, I picked my "female" which turns out to be a male (I thought I had a male from the start). I lucked out, and got a pair now. Good luck man. Hope I could help.

Joe

[Sally]

Once i introduced my male (I didn't know it was one at the time) it took 14 days for them to breed. Sally

[JabberJaws]

First its hard to tell the males from the females, But even harder to breed because they are so slippery to hold on too!
(JOKE)

[Heavenly Damsel]

I am looking for a pair of captive raised Banggai Cardinals....they are hard to find. I have purchased 4 from the LFS, all died within 3 days. Owner thinks they are being cyanide collected, they have not been able to keep theirs alive either...my kind of luck. I purchased 1 online, not stated as tank raised and it would not eat either. Does anyone know if this is a problem any where else? Also do you know where I can get a captive raised pair? I am really frustrated at this point. Thanks for your help.

[Sally]

If you can get to the Atlanta area I have them. They are not paired because they are juveniles.. Mine are extremely hardy and take prepared foods.

[Heavenly Damsel]

I have an Aunt and Uncle in Toccoa who are meeting me in Asheville june 16th for a family reunion. E-mail me at tpritchard@ncnets.net so we can work out the details. I appreciate your help. Since they are juvenilles I would like 4 if you have them. I have several aquariums I can move them to if they become agressive toward each other as adults.

[FMarini]

Inlandaquatics.com sells both individuals and pairs
frank

[topjimmy]

Greetings all,

I just bought a pair after watching the show tank at the lfs for about 30 min, I picked out two I thought were male and female(people at the store thought I was nuts) They spent the first day together, now it seems as if they stay at opposite ends of the tank, no chasing yet...I would say total length of each fish is about 1.5 inch. Both are about the same size. How long do ya think till I can tell for sure if they are two male?

Thanks,
JimC.

[FMarini]

TopJimmy:
Its impossible to sex these fish (okay slightly impossible), they also seem close to being young (read sexually immature) by your sizing.
Sexing of these fish is purely a guessing game. if you do a search in this forum alone for banggai sexing you'll find over 100 methods on how-to sex. Everyone of the methods has NOT held up to scrutiny.
W/ that said
I can only tell you from how your banggais interact.
here are a few observations
1)-multiple banggais will hang out as a schoal until 1 male become sexually mature
2)-pairs hang out all the time
3)-two female when placed into a tank the same time will get along fine.
4)- an established female will kick butt on any newly introduced female
5)- 2 male banggai will frequently get along if introduce together, however they will not hangout
6)- if you have 2 fish and they spend daytime hours part and nite time hours together these are not a pair.

HTH
frank

[Heavenly Damsel]

I want to know the source of any banggai's I buy in the future. I am tired of buying them and having them die. If a store manager thinks these fish are being cyanide collected after 20 yrs experience in the business, I have to wonder. Since I have had 5 die from not eating, I only am interested in captive bred from a reliable source.

[Atticus]

What are you trying to feed your banggaii? They are picky eaters, so this may be part of your problem. Travis

[Heavenly Damsel]

Live brine shrimp. That is what the LFS told me to feed. I also tried flaked food. What do you feed?

[Atticus]

You feed live baby brine or adult? Baby brine are much too small and a banggaii will not even look at it. I feed mine a prepared mixture of frozen shrimps, fish, and other tasty treats i find to throw in the blender. I began caring for banggaii by feeding frozen mysis shrimp or Omega 3 enriched frozen Brine Shrimp. Adding selcon or another HUFA enrichment additive will also help in giving you a healthy fish.

[Heavenly Damsel]

Adult brine shrimp. Actually I have been reading Eric Bornemans new book and think I will try making some of his coral food mixture. It sounds like something my fish would love as well.

[FMarini]

Heavenly:
AS I identified eariler inlandaquatics.com sell all captive bred fish.

Second brine shrimp (at least the ones you buy at the LFS) are totally depleted of nutrients(so much so that A Calfo calls them bags of water shaped like shrimp). If you gonna feed live brine of shrimp ensure you enrich the shrimp prior. Here is alink to a bunch of my banggai articles
http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml
in the first article is a how-to enrich and gut load these food to make them more nutritonally complete.

Second don't feed anything only one food, I would always mix up foods, banggai like meaty foods, i have never seen one turn down frozen mysis shrimp. They can be pigheaded toward eating cube or flake food, but as i always say a hungry banggi is a brave banggai...meaning starve them for a few days then feed them the cubed, meaty foods-they'll catch on.

Eric's recipe is also a good one.

frank

[Heavenly Damsel]

I have read all of your articles about Banggai, thank you for writing them. I am going to buy some of Sally's fish. We had a local breeder who lost interest in breeding about 6 months ago. Nothing against inlandaquatics, I just want to get Banggai's from someone who is breeding them so I know for sure they are tank bred.
I am a little miffed at the LFS. With 4 SW tanks you can imagine I spend a little money there. They could have mentioned the problem they were having with the Banggai's before I bought the second pair.
I am hesitant to buy fish online, our local FedEx man is very rough on the boxes. The last corals our club ordered were all beat up. Several bags were broken and some of the corals were pulverized. Fish would not survive this kind of treatment. Fish would stand a better chance in the snail mail....IMO