Bangaii help!!!

["Umm, fish?"]

Okay, not the greatest timing as I am full-fledged in the middle of a move, but while moving one of the cardinals today, he gave me a present--and the present has eyes!

BTW, the daughter has seen them, so I can't let the hatch go.

So, it looks like 20-25 gorgeous, bright orange eggs with eyeballs looking ready to pop. Hatching today or tomorrow?

They are currently in a makeshift egg tumbler. I am bleaching out a 10 gallon tank that's half-full of broodstock water. I have created a much better tumbler out of a funnel attached to airline tubing. It's also in the bleach water at the moment. And a heater.

First food? I'm just about to start hatching some de-capped brine shrimp. Cyclopeeze? Do I need to get on the phone to REED's and see if I can get some rotifers in?

What am I missing? Do they need a dark-sided tank?

Thanks!

[scchase]

Not sure that I have heard many successes with them being out this early but assumign they hatch out they shoudl still have a very large yolk sac and not need food till this is almost completly used up which should be about a week or more but watch them closely just to be sure. After that they will take newly hatched brine shrimp no problem and can even be weened onto frozen BBS or cyclopeeze fairly soon.
Key is to keep the nutrtion high and supplement foods fortified with selco/selcon otherwise once they are older moving or stress them will result in a high death count. Other then that good luck.

[Reef'in Colorado]

I used to breed african cichlids. I would force the females to give up their eggs after just a few days in the mouth so that they wouldn't lose much weight while brooding. I kept the eggs in nets and kept strong flow over them. They did well and a good percentage made it to maturity. It sounds like you are already taking care of that.
I would probably keep them in a net breeder for a while once they are swimming. This will allow them to become proficient swimmers before they have to deal with powerheads or other challenges. It makes it easier to feed them too. I would try feeding cyclopeeze and ground mysis, maybe fry flake food too.

GOOD LUCK!!

I would like to be first on the list if you have any available in a couple months

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks, y'all! I was beginning to be a bit disappointed in no replies, but it was just that RC didn't send me an email.

So, maybe I won't need the BBS I have cooking now. That's okay with me, I was a little worried about these de-caps, they seemed a little off. We'll see if they hatch.

The babies are in their own tank, so no powerhead for them. Just an airline. Hopefully they'll hatch. I've checked on them a bunch and a couple of times the air was off. I'll see how it's going in the morning.

New developments:

Moved male #2 this afternoon and was graced with egg ball #2. Same stage developmentally. Egg size in ball #2 might have been a little smaller, but male #2 is also a little smaller.

We'll see. Both egg balls are incubating.

["Umm, fish?"]

Survival rate was horrible for what's hatched so far. The incubator needs some fine tuning. But ...







The BBS should be just about ready, so I'll fill the tank soon. I'm still waiting on a few eggs (7-8) to hatch.

["Umm, fish?"]

Unfortunately, it looks like mortality was 100%.

To be expected, I suppose, given the little attention I was able to give them. I think my problems were in incubation and possibly in water quality. Next time....

[gh0st]

Too bad it sounds like the move stressed the parents into spitting out the eggs early.

Ussually the parents do all the work for you, and the babies are pretty fully developed and good sized when the parents spit them out.

["Umm, fish?"]

As far as I can tell, this is the closest to full-term the parents have come. It's really a bummer that now's the time I had to move, as I think they were finally getting the hang of it. C'est la vie. I hope this doesn't put them off spawning, but I wouldn't blame them if it did. Well, maybe the top-down thing wil give them some privacy and there'll be fifty of 'em when I next try to move them.