My bangaii is holding babies

[WmTasker]

My male bangaii cardinal has been holding eggs in his mouth for about 3 weeks now. :):):) Everyonce in a while he moves around and you can see little eyes looking back at you :):):)

Im just worried about my sixline wrasse eating them once he spits them out. Any suggestions? What sould I feed them?

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/32115image0003.jpg (http://www.120gallonreefs.com)

[thebrian]

I would try to plumb some other kind of tank into your current system with a filter pad of some kind over the overflow of it to keep the babies isolated so nothing can get to them if you intend on raising them. Otherwise, they'll likely be consumed by corals, fish, inverts, etc.

~Brian

[Bcollins111900]

Let me know if any of the babies make it and they survive to a decent sized. I want to get some bangais but have been hesitant as I want to get captive ones.

[thebrian]

Meant to talk about feeding also. I'm no expert on this, but everything I hear in terms of raising fish fry is that live copepods are the best source of nutrition for them early on. Some club members have had some success culturing them, and may be able to help you out in starting a culture. See the corareef.org local forum for more information on this.

~Brian

[geo]

Baby bangaii are large enough to eat fresh hatch brine shrimp. You will need to separate them. I used a turkey baster to gather the young. I would also get with Jason about his pod population. That would be a great way to feed them. Mine took about three tries before he has successful. I think he kept getting hungry ;) After that though they spawned like clockwork. What have you been feeding the adults?

[WmTasker]

geo

This is only the second time the bangaii has held eggs. But he is doing great so far. He ate or spit the first batch after 5 days. I feed the parents a mixture of frozen brine, mysis, and plankton. I might have to try the turkey baster. They didn't get hurt by using the turkey baster.

[Jordan55]

Just for fun.... I heard that the fry like to seek protection within the spines of an urchin. Many people have made urchins using a ball and poking sticks in to it. I heard the fish wont come near the fry and the fry stay in close. Seems like a good idea to me.