full term bangaii's

[acropora1981]

hello,

My bangaii cardinal is just about to release (day 23) and i snapped a reasonable closeup of the mouth with the fry visible, thought i'd share a few pics!

[FMarini]

Great Photo---
congrats as well, I hope your able to rescue a few fry and grow them up, I guess from your photo that the male is in the display tank?

BTW, I was also wondering if you have a higher resolution photo of the top image? I have an upcomming article on banggais that could really use a great photo like that, I'd cite you as the source and photog
Thanks

[acropora1981]

yes unfortunately he is in the main display...not sure i want to tear it down to get him. i have a fake urchin in the display to try to lure them towards it, as well as i have covered the recirc. pump intake so there is no way for them to get hurt save for all the other fish. The shot was taken using a 3.2 megapixel camera (i dont have a good camera), but i can send you the original (about 9mb) if you want, its probably much better.

[acropora1981]

they are comming out! here's the first one!

[acropora1981]

lots more now!!!



Also, observation: Bangaii cardinals like to release just after the lights go out. I hadnt read that one anywhere yet, but thats when mine did it (although doing it once isnt statistically sig...so just an obs at this point). Also i turned my pump off so it would be very very calm...then i just waited in the other room for a half hour, came back, and boom! scooped 13 more babies out (there are only 10 in the pic tho)...brings me to 14 so far.

[acropora1981]

Also, i just observed them eating already! There's freshly hatched brine in the rearing tank... amazing they start eating 20 minutes after being born!!! I'm up to 24 as of 3 minutes ago....this is awesome.

[acropora1981]

90% of them have moved into the fake urchin i made for them

[acropora1981]

here's a shot of them in the fake urchin (made from meat skewers and reef epoxy)

[guardrail]

congrats that looks like one amazing sight. they look like little stick fishes lol

[acropora1981]

thanks, you're the second person to see stick figures!

[billsreef]

Great pics.

[Schplitter]

Awesome!!!

[acropora1981]

well, all in all there are 26 fry in the breeding tank, i dont think i missed any. Today the female was already starting the mating dance again with the male, who started eating again this morning. I hope she gives him a few more days

[acropora1981]

heres a shot with a better camera!

[acropora1981]

hit a bit of a snag...my second set of brine didnt hatch for some reason, i aborted it at 30 hrs...i have another set that should be ready for tomorrow...how long can these little guys go without food? Its been about 24 hours, and it'll take untill morning to get the batch i started this morning ready...im quite worried!

[bangaii man]

hopefully the bbs have hatched for you by now, but in my limited experience I don't think they eat much for the first day or two depending how early they come out of daddy's mouth, but after that I think not feeding them for two days is close to the limit. and those little suckers are picky, one batch I had, I tried to start with frozen bbs from day one. It was hard to tell wether or not they were eating them and they started to drop after about day 3-4. I went back to live and some made it.

What kind of bbs eggs do you use. I used to buy the little viles, then my LFS sold me a large silver pouch that stays in the frig. and wow! what a difference the hatchout is increadible.

[acropora1981]

hey bangaii man,

Ya they seem to be ok, i managed to get another batch of brine hatched for this morning. They are eating now and pooping quite a bit so thats good. They went without for about...36 hours? but they're fine.

I use san francisco bay brand, but i decapsulate it and then keep it in the fridge. Basically i do what the company does for your fridge brand. I decapsulate, so they hatch faster (and w/o shells, plus higher hatch rate) and i store large quantities of ready to hatch decapsulated brine in the fridge in a saturated salt solution. less messy...anyway i think i over bleached the last batch (thats how i decapsulate) and the brine got damaged. I made two more batches and they're good, so im set for a few weeks worth of brine shrimp

[chris melb]

Excellent congrats, and that is a fantasitc pic of daddy with babies well done. I have one question how did you remove the young?

Did you net the male and place him in the larval tank with the surrogte urchin and wait for him to release them?

Regards

Chris

[blackthunda77]

i also have some of the same questions....i have a pair and the male should be releasing the fry any day now. i cant see hatched babies int he mouth yet but hes been holding the eggs for pretty close to 3 weeks now, and i know that they usually release at night. i have atinics that stay on till 12am while the halides turn off at 9pm.

"when the lights go out" does that mean when the daylights go out or when the atinics turn off?

how did you catch the fry because my pair are in the display as well.

if i go to buy bbs eggs, which are the best to get

what does decapsulate mean and how do you do it to the brine shrimp.

I hope someone can help me out because i should be expeting the bactch any day now.....thanks

[acropora1981]

hey, no problem i can answer all your q's.

I left the male in the display for the whole term, and he released the fry into my main display. Several days prior to the release I put a prefilter sponge on my one and only pump intake so they wouldnt get sucked in. then I basically just watched the male. The night of the release the babies were all clustered around the front of his mouth, so i decided that when the lights went off (in this case i dont have moon lights nor do i simulate dawn/dusk) that i would turn off the pump. When it was all calm, he released them all. They arent fast or anything and they almost all tended to stay out of the live rock, towards the surface or sides of the aquarium. I simply netted them out of the tank with a normal little fish net. I have only small wrasses and gobies housed with them (I dont like keeping tangs-its a PITA). So thats how that worked for me...

[acropora1981]

Now, onto brine shrimp decapsulation. Its quite simple. My method comes from Sprung And Delbeeks Reef Aquarium Vol. 3...but there are many links you can google brine decapsulation...

What I do though is soak about 3grams of brine shrimp in 300 ml of cold tap water in a gatorade bottle for an hour, stirring every few minutes. Then I add 180 ml of plain unscented bleach (try to find one around 4% or 5% sodium hypochlorite -basically any plain household bleach). Within about 7 minutes the mixture will change from brown, to white, and then to a yellowy brown. At this point you strain the brine shrimp through a fine mesh net (I use a sieve designed for rotifers), but you can use any very fine mesh net...it has to be around 100 micron or so i believe, or the brine with just go right through. So then I rinse the brine in tap water until most of the bleach smell is gone. Then I put it in a cereal bowl, add some tap water, and add a bunch of white vinegar(neutralizes any remaining bleach). I let it sit with vinegar for like 5 minutes, then I strain the brine out again and rinse with more tap water. The I get a new gatorade or water bottle and make a saturated salt solution in it. The decapsulated brine is put into the super salty water and stored in the fridge. when i want some, i just strain a bit out and put it in the hatchery.

I have a link with pictures, although the amounts they use are slightly different. But its useful to see the color changes (b/c it made me nervous the first time using bleach on fish food!!!) here's the link: http://www.killies.com/Decapsulating.htm

[acropora1981]

oh, and my male has another mouth full of eggs today!!! haha 4 days!

[blackthunda77]

Thanks acropora.... that helps alot. Im going ot go to the LFS today and see what kind of BSE the have. Thanks a bunch

[blackthunda77]

Well my guy just let go of the fry, well kinda. i kinda thought that he might be letting the fry go tonight or tomorrow so i set up the in tank breeding box(the knex type frame that is wrapped with the small mesh netting. i put it in the tank and turned off all the lights, then i managed very quickly to corner the male and got him in the net and he released the fry in the process. Luckily it was lat ein the maturation process and the fry were all developed and now there all in the holding box swimming around happily.I put a fake freshwater plant in the box for some cover and break up the current for them. Bad news is that my brine shrimp hatched yesterday and so they dont all die on me i put some int he tanks for the corals and anthias and the rest got dumped. my next thing to do is to try to get the brine shrimp to mature into adults and feed them to the other fish so i dont just thrown them away. anyhow....this morning i strted the other batch of brine shrimp eggs and some hopefully may be hatched b4 i go to work so i can try to feed them. if not ill i have to feed them tomorrow night when i get home and i know for sure i should have some shrimp ready to go. They should be ok till them without eating right?

[billsreef]

Might want the temperarily break the happy couple up so that the male can get a few good meals and regain some reserves after not eating for so long.