my bangaii's have "done it"

[destroyer]

Got home last night to find one bangaii with what looked like a pretty bad case of haemorrhoids and another with a massively extended jaw - so with any luck I might be a father (uncle?) in 20 days or so! Have done a fair amount of reading around the web on how to raise the young but as most of the info seems to be American I would really appreciate the views of some more local reefers...

1. I understand brooding can last anything from 15-30 days (and that he might eat the eggs/young in the meantime...) but what is the best way to capture the young if/when he releases them? Like the idea of making a fake urchin with miliput and toothpicks - but does this really work? Would be tricky to try to catch the male as there isn't much room to swing a net around in there...

2. Would it be best to raise the young in my sump - the final compartment of which is only accessable? Would this allow a high enough concentration of food to be maintained? Or should I get a small 5-10 gal tank and raise them in this? In which case... what should I use as a filter? I have an air powered sponge filter but perhaps a small internal power filter would be better? (presumably with the filter matured in the main tank first).
Or... perhaps the smaller tank plumbed in to my sump some how - drilled at the top for an overflow and fed by a small powerhead perhaps?

3. Is live food the only option for the first days? Can you buy frozen nauplii? How soon until larger food can be taken?

A lot of questions I know but would really appreciate any help/advice any one can give. Have a really bad pic of them at it which I will try and upload this eve with any luck.
Tom

[destroyer]

Picture of the haemorrhoid stricken female below.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q4/DSC0011c.JPG

[Eddie S]

I think it looks like she still has a string of eggs for the male to pick up. They should drop of soon or he will pick them up and try to brood if he has room.

[destroyer]

Hi Eddie, this was a picture taken yesterday and it looks like the male has since taken the last of the eggs. Can you help with any of the questions in my first post?

[dark_stranger]

The male will swim behind the female & scoop up the eggs.

Tom, I will pop back later to help with your initial question, but bit busy at the mo.

[destroyer]

Ah excellent... will be waiting...

[dark_stranger]

Got home last night to find one bangaii with what looked like a pretty bad case of haemorrhoids and another with a massively extended jaw - so with any luck I might be a father (uncle?) in 20 days or so! Have done a fair amount of reading around the web on how to raise the young but as most of the info seems to be American I would really appreciate the views of some more local reefers...

1. I understand brooding can last anything from 15-30 days (and that he might eat the eggs/young in the meantime...) but what is the best way to capture the young if/when he releases them? Like the idea of making a fake urchin with miliput and toothpicks - but does this really work? Would be tricky to try to catch the male as there isn't much room to swing a net around in there...

The male will release the babies on/around the 28th night.

You have several options when getting the babies, 1) wait for the babies to be released and catch them. You could do this by waiting by the tank for a few nights & hopefully be there for release or wait till the morning and catch the survivers. 2) Catch the male pre-release and place him in your sump or another take & then once released you have the babies in a controlled environment minus predators. 3) Wait till the 26th/27th/28th night & catch the male in a net & keep lifting him out of the water, resulting in eventually spitting them out in the net to add into a tank/bucket of tank water.

The babies will use anything for protection, such as corals, rockwork even nem's. Anything to prevent hungry fish getting them.

2. Would it be best to raise the young in my sump - the final compartment of which is only accessable? Would this allow a high enough concentration of food to be maintained? Or should I get a small 5-10 gal tank and raise them in this? In which case... what should I use as a filter? I have an air powered sponge filter but perhaps a small internal power filter would be better? (presumably with the filter matured in the main tank first).
Or... perhaps the smaller tank plumbed in to my sump some how - drilled at the top for an overflow and fed by a small powerhead perhaps?

How you raise them is personal preference. I use to raise them in a seperate nano tank, but this prevented me from raising multiple batchs. I now have a multi tank setup. A sump would do, but you would have to be careful of the flow. When i had my nano i didnt have a filter, but simply done water changes to reduce phosphate, etc simply some live rock a very small powerhead & thats it.

3. Is live food the only option for the first days? Can you buy frozen nauplii? How soon until larger food can be taken?

Live food is the only way at least for the 1st couple of weeks. Saying that rasing baby brineshrimp is easy. Simply a jam jar of tank water, in a warm/light place (kitchen window) and a bottle of shellless brine shrimp eggs. Leave for 24hrs and you have bbs to feed the babies. After a couple of weeks try frozen artima in the morning and eventually they will take them.

A lot of questions I know but would really appreciate any help/advice any one can give. Have a really bad pic of them at it which I will try and upload this eve with any luck.
Tom
.

[destroyer]

Great, thanks a lot Stuart. I'll have a go at catching the male on around the 26th day and getting him to release the young as you suggested. Do you enrich your brineshrimp at all? How often did you feed them? I suppose I could set up a very slow drip feed from a culture bottle.
Thanks again
Tom

[dark_stranger]

no worries. With regards to raising the bbs, i dont enrich, but may do one day. Fortunately the misses normally feeds the babies several times a day.

[destroyer]

OK last question this evening: where do you get yr brine shrimp eggs from? Can't find any shelless ones...

[dark_stranger]

its called decapsulated artima eggs. I have tried to find a sponsor that sells it, but couldnt, but you can find it on ebay or most fish shops.

[chiptoxic]

This may be what your looking for
http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalogue/brine-shrimp-eggs-and-hatchers.asp#product622

[dark_stranger]

Thats cheating as i was trying to refer a sponsor :D but thats the stuff i use

[destroyer]

Do you use the Waterlife ones of the Hobby ones?...

[chiptoxic]

well i know its cheating but its where i got some from so i knew they supply it. I have only just started using it myself really but i went with "Hobby Artemix Salt & Egg Mix 195gm" i also got some "Hobby Liquizell Brine Shrimp Food" and "Hobby Mikrozell" at the same time i ordered the eggs but not sure why as i already had some kent marine chromaplex and microvert that i think would be just as good to use.

[dark_stranger]

i simply use the waterlife make.

[destroyer]

Hold the phone... noticed yesterday that the male had a much less distended jaw and this evening he was eating again, so looks like he ate the eggs. Rats! Still, gives me a bit more time to get everything together ready for the next batch...