Bangai Cardinals

[welshsteve]

Hi all,
I am looking for a bit of advice on these Cardinals I have 2 in a nano reef along with a pipe fish , one of the cardinals has become quiet and has a swollen mouth , are these mouth brooders? if so how long to they hold their young. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Cheers Steve

[Kev s]

Steve,

Everything you need to know is HERE (http://www.raingarden.us/banggaimanual.pdf) and HERE (http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/f_marini_020799.html)

Good luck with it.

Kev

[welshsteve]

Thanks for the speedy reply mate , loads of good info to take in there.
Cheers Steve

[dark_stranger]

Congrats, the one with the now square jaw is the male & will be carrying the eggs for about 28 day. You may have noticed both your cardinals getting jiggy before hand and this consists of the female approaching the male from behind and shaking her arse at him. Anyway, the male will carry the eggs for about 28 days, but around about the 22nd day the eggs will hatch and the babies will live in the dads mouth. At this time you will start seeing the babies look out of the dads mouth. All this time the male will not be eating. on or around the 28th day, during the night the male will release the babies into the tank. The babies will then dart in to rocks in holes or corals for protection. You may find that as the male is inexperianced he may spit them out or swallow the eggs. Saying that, once they have done it once, it will be a regular thing. Once the babies are out of the males mouth, feed him up as a few days/weeks after the female will start doing her dance again and remember he hasnt eaten for about a month. The male will release anything ranging from 9 or 10 to 40'ish babies.

Good luck.

[SCOOB]

may be worth making a long spined urchin to home them. hefty lump of milliput with a load of cocktail sticks stuck in. i've made one ready as i'm hopeful this will happen to me :)

[dark_stranger]

may be worth making a long spined urchin to home them. hefty lump of milliput with a load of cocktail sticks stuck in. i've made one ready as i'm hopeful this will happen to me :)

I wonder where you got that idea from? :D

http://www.reefpark.net/forums/uploads/post-2109-1152009860.jpg

[welshsteve]

Thanks for all the good advice guys

[SCOOB]

I wonder where you got that idea from? :D


HERE (http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=153368&highlight=urchin) as it happens :p

[dark_stranger]

lol, fair cop. And I bet it took you ages trying to refind that thread :D

[lolonbob]

Steve,
Congratulations on the imminent delivery. We're now awaiting our second batch of babies some time in the next 2 weeks. The first set are now around the 5 week mark.We didn't see it as it was at silly O'clock in the morning, but the father gave birth to 8 young. We think because of the position of the urchin 4 didn't make it and were found on the filter material. The other 4, however, are happy as .....well, a bangaii eating baby brine shrimp can be. After about 2 weeks in my main tank I removed them to a nursery tank with the help of a turkey baster with a big opening. Now about the size of a 10p piece and growing.
We may try them with live food this time home (I work offshore) as they have been on cyclopeeze, kent zooplex and frozen up until now.
If you have any tips we would be glad to hear them. We've read a lot of articles on the rearing of bangaii's, but not spoken to anyone that has actually done it.
Good luck with the youngsters, and if we can help in any way just drop us a line.
Cheers
Bob

:D :D :) :D :D