Bangaii photo

"Umm, fish?" · #1 05/13/2007, 12:00 AM

Look what I found tonight!

adams0816 · #2 05/13/2007, 12:11 AM

Looks like a mouthful.

lion-clown · #3 05/13/2007, 12:12 PM

How did you get such a close up that is a great shot

"Umm, fish?" · #4 05/13/2007, 12:39 PM

Hi! Thanks!

Here's the original photo, reduced to fit the online experience:

To get the closeup, I just cropped around the fish and then I only had to reduce the size a little bit for the internet.

karid · #5 05/13/2007, 03:23 PM

I forget - you have an SLR-type digital camera, right?

"Umm, fish?" · #6 05/13/2007, 05:21 PM

Yeah, it's a Canon 20D with the 100mm macro lens. That shot was handheld with the built-in flash.

"Umm, fish?" · #7 05/14/2007, 09:43 PM

Day 3 (tonight):

lfduty · #8 05/14/2007, 10:13 PM

Nice and good luck!

karid · #9 05/15/2007, 09:24 AM

Looks kinda creepy :-) What is that in his mouth?

wantsalotta · #10 05/15/2007, 10:36 AM

eggs

"Umm, fish?" · #11 05/15/2007, 01:04 PM

You think it looks creepy now? The males hold the juvenile cardinals in their mouths for something like 10 days _after they hatch._ I'm really looking forward to seeing that!

How miserable must that fish be?

karid · #12 05/15/2007, 01:10 PM

I must say - he doesn't look very happy now.

Ooh...I'd love to see a photo of the hatchlings in his mouth if you can get one! That would be cool.

coralite · #13 05/15/2007, 01:37 PM

Hey Andy, congrats on the successful spawn. I will take some of them of your hands when they are ready.

"Umm, fish?" · #14 05/15/2007, 02:58 PM

Thanks! I'm hoping to document as much as I can of the process, basically so I have photos to refer to if there's a next time around.

coralite--Doh! Don't say that! I want no jinxing here. Knock on wood for me or something.

coralite · #15 05/15/2007, 03:08 PM

Oh you'll be alright. Whether or not you are successful, it will be a matter of weeks until they do it again.

G.SMITHII · #16 05/15/2007, 04:12 PM

man andy, you gotta let me come check out your tanks.

every couple weeks somethin in your tank is doin it.

man. thats fancy.

"Umm, fish?" · #17 05/15/2007, 06:29 PM

Sure! They're nothing special to look at right now, though. The big tank crash a few months ago really gave the valonia a big boost, so I've been trying to fight that. Add to that the fact that my RO/DI crapped out on me (I'm hooking up a Kold Ster Il unit right now, in fact) and made sure that I couldn't do any water changes. So, the tank's not looking stupendous at the moment.

But, there's nothing magical about breeding. Reproduction takes lots of energy. No animal's going to breed unless it has energy to spare. Feed to breed, baby!

"Umm, fish?" · #18 05/15/2007, 08:21 PM

Day 4 (sorry it's not very in-focus):

And a pic of my other Bangaii couple. (I was wrong about the eggs, though. None yet that I've seen.) They aren't very cooperative subjects.

"Umm, fish?" · #19 05/15/2007, 11:15 PM

I have a question. I have heard all kinds of bad things about keeping more than a pair of Bangaiis in a tank. I put seven juveniles in my 120, waiting for them to pair. I work at home and I have a six-year-old, so I'm home a lot, and I've been watching for fish in the corner so that I can pull them and place them into other tanks. Well, I'm still waiting.... There has been some fighting, but it's really been pretty mild. Now, they mostly stay away from each other, but tonight they were all on one side of the tank and I was able to get a photo. So, what am I doing differently?

By the way, please excuse the tank. I'm still battling Valonia and Bryopsis from my tank crash. I hate taking full-tank shots.

lion-clown · #20 05/16/2007, 11:33 AM

Wow that is a cool picture with the eggs in his mouth. Thats a lot of cardnials

"Umm, fish?" · #21 05/18/2007, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Thats a lot of cardnials

No kidding! I just got seven so that I could be sure of getting a couple of good pairs, but they don't seem to want to leave each other. I had five of them schooling earlier this evening, including the male that's holding and the dominant female. Crazy. Not supposed to work like this.

Anyway, here's yesterday (Day 5 since I found the eggs). He would not turn face-on:

Day 6:

Oddly enough, the cool artsy-looking gradient in the background is really just background.

"Umm, fish?" · #22 05/19/2007, 12:16 AM

Howdy! None of my egg photos turned out tonight, but I did get a good photo of them schooling that I thought you'd like:

And, completely unrelated, a fun photo of a pipefish:

"Umm, fish?" · #23 05/19/2007, 09:32 PM

My dude has gotten very camera shy. Maybe he was too freaked out by having a mouthful of eggs to notice much before and now he's used to the burden? FWIW, day 8:

I think it's really interesting that you can kind of see the eggs through the tissue of his mouth now.

This is another male who I suspect might be carrying, but the jury's still out:

mr evolution · #24 05/19/2007, 10:09 PM

Nice

"Umm, fish?" · #25 05/22/2007, 12:40 AM

Looks like the male's swallowed or spit.

It was only his first try, though.

It got really weird in cardinal-land there for a few days. It seemed like the female from pair #1 kind of lost interest in defending male #1 and was trying out new males for possible romance. Male #1 had to go out and find a new space and she brought a new male to the under-Euphyllia bachelorette pad. It seems like male #1 is back there tonight (and eating like a pig). So, maybe there's an even better reason to keep one pair per tank.