My Bangi has babies in his mouth

[FunkyParrot]

Well, after sorting my tank out things are improving.

I'm certain one of my Banjai Cardinals is holding babies in his mouth.

I purchased three off driveway Mike a while back. All three used to swim around together.

Now, the largest one is sheltering under the reef clean system in my tank (basically egg crate below the live rock).

His bottom jaw appears to protrude slightly when compared to the others. Further more his left gill looks a puffed out. He won't eat anything.

His partner (female I assume) is now suddently very protective towards him. She has taken a dislike to the third Bangi and will chase him accross the tank if he comes anywhere near the daddy!

I've got a book on Marine Fish breeding and the signs I have described sound 'textbook'.

I'm not really going to have a lot of time at the moment to rear these.

Would anyone nearby be interested?

My book recommends using a load of wooden skewered stuck inside a ball of milliput to imitate an urchin. Has anyone tried this? Do the young when released from the father hold up in such a contraption?

My book says the father can hold onto his young for up to 21 days without eating. Apparently, sometimes the father will eat the young if he gets stressed.

Cheers

Al

[muscleflex]

where's the pics?

[FunkyParrot]

lol, I'm at work at the moment.:)

[FunkyParrot]

sorry, just realised I posted this in the wrong section. could a mod move it to the breeding section?

Cheers

Al

[muscleflex]

lol, I'm at work at the moment.:)

me too! :p
hurry off home and take some pics!

[Sazmo]

Congratulations.
If no one takes them its well worth trying to raise them yourself. The dad does all the work and they can be fed straight away with artemia so you dont have the worry about rotifers and such regular water changes.
Fake urchin didnt really work for me but the young loved just hiding in algae.

[reefdemon]

great news :whoo:you will have to keep us updated to what you decide to do would love a go myself to raise them sadly no space to try YET;)

[FunkyParrot]

The 'strange' behaviour has only recently started. I've been reading the book "The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide, to marine aquarium fished" (last years christmas present to me ) :)

Pretty amazing to learn the male Bangi will keep the youngsters in his mouth for 21 days. I have taken some photos and will upload soon. To be honest, you won't see much at the moment - his jaw line does look larger than the others.

Think I may have a go at rearing these myself. I didn't realise it was possible to get them feeding straight onto frozen. Pretty amazing what can happen in our home tanks.

But, it is early days yet. :o

[Macca]

The 'strange' behaviour has only recently started. I've been reading the book "The Complete Illustrated Breeder's Guide, to marine aquarium fished" (last years christmas present to me ) :)

Pretty amazing to learn the male Bangi will keep the youngsters in his mouth for 21 days. I have taken some photos and will upload soon. To be honest, you won't see much at the moment - his jaw line does look larger than the others.

Think I may have a go at rearing these myself. I didn't realise it was possible to get them feeding straight onto frozen. Pretty amazing what can happen in our home tanks.

But, it is early days yet. :o


Good Luck FP! :D

[Sazmo]

Sorry if it was my post that misled you but they really need freshly hatched food but its so easy to do. Just an upside down coke bottle with the bottom chopped off and an airline. The little shrimp hatch in 24-48 hours and can then be given to the little cardinals.
I think bangaii babies have to be the cutest young you will ever see.

[FunkyParrot]

Heres a picture of the father.



http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1247

[FunkyParrot]

After two and a half weeks, the 'father' Bangi started to eat food and swim around the tank. Worst luck, I think he must have eaten the brood he was guarding. According to the text books, this can happend first time around.











.......
Never guess what happened tonight?

I popped into my garage where the remote sump is located

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1248

[FunkyParrot]

I was just looking in the last section of the sump. Imagine my total surprise to see two baby Banjis !!?????? :eek::eek::eek::eek:

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1248


They must have swam from the main tank in the house, down the drain pumps - along 4 metres of pipe under ground and up into the sump in the garage.

They must have been in there at least 3-4 days without me realising. I don't know how they have survived to date. There is a quantity of live rock rubble full of creepy crawlys and bugs. I also feed a couple of cubes of frozen Rotifiers each night in the main tank.

[FunkyParrot]

Here is the sight that greated me.




http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1249

[FunkyParrot]

Thats not the best picture, my better camera ran out of battery.
I've tried to zoom in on that shot. Here we are...

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1250

[FunkyParrot]

Now, as soon as I found out I had babies on the way I did some investigation into foods for babies.

Newly hatched brine shrimp in the first 10 or so hours have a yolk attached that is of nutritional value to small fry.

I have two of these breeding stations (a tenner each) which you just put an upside down bottle of pop into. The Brine Shrimp eggs were £7 for 120g (which would last ages).

I will have a food supply for the fish within 15 hours hopefully. As I have two of the hatcherys, I can rotate each night.

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1251

[cl0wn]

those babies are so cute, keep us updated, should be a good thread.

[andylowe04]

I was in an LFS the other day looking for a couple of these and the price seemed to have shot up!

Apparently they are no on an endangered list. Anyone know if there is any truth in this?

If so could be a nice little earner for you!

[FunkyParrot]

Hopefully, fresh brineshrimp will have hatched tonight so they will have a decent supply of food with a fair nutritional value (as yolk will still be attached).


I've got a small tank prob about 2 foot by 1 foot. Should I try and take the babys out and pop them in their own little tank?

Or, should I leave them put, feeding them and not causing them additional stress? The other advantage of where they are at present is they benefit from the full filtration of the system overall.

What do people think? I'm inclined to leave them put.

[TerraC]

I'd say leave em where they are. You've got a nice little refuge for them there and access to feed them. Also like you say they benefit from the filter system. Excellent work. Hopefully you can breed more and post them up for sale on here, wouldnt mind a couple myself at some point..

[FunkyParrot]

I've left the babies exactly where there are in the sump. Looking closely at the rock/rubble that is in there I can see a whole range of micro fauna:) I think this must have been partly what kept them alive before I knew they existed.

Baby brineshrimp production is in full swing now. I have fresh baby brineshrimp each day, but utilisying two pop bottles.

The baby banjais appear quite happy still. I'm feeding them a mix of live brineshrimp freshly hatched and a small quanity of frozen (so they get used to taking frozen).

No point in extra photos as they look exactly the same still (like mini Apache Gunships) :)

[Valentini]

I like the look of the coke bottle docking stations could save me a whole load of messing about , could you pm me a link to where you got them from. My clown lay every 2 weeks and its kills me every time they hatch.

[FunkyParrot]

HI Mate.

PM on the way. They are a trade outlet primarily but they do sell direct to breeders. Also, there brineshrimp egg prices are far cheaper than any I have seen in stores.


Cheers
Al

[FunkyParrot]

I had a further thought last night.

Once the brineshrimp have hatched, you are supposed to switch the airline off and let the eggs float to the top of the water. You can then syphon out the live baby shrimps.

The problem is, you still get the odd egg in the shrimp solution you have just decanted.

Egg shells can kill the small fry as they may get stuck down their throats.
There is a method called 'decapsulation' whereby you remove the hard egg outer shell. It invovles bleach - I saw an article on the darkside.

I may give this a go as I don't want to hurt the youngsters.


Cheers

[TerraC]

you can buy already decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and hatch them in the normal way. I have a tub full somewhere. and one in the fridge that comes in a liquid format. I got the latter from Blu a while ago, they're ideal.

do a quick search on ebay.. decapsulated brine eggs loads come up for a couple of quid.. :)

[FunkyParrot]

Cheers Mate.

I will look into buying the ready decapsulated eggs when I run out.

Update...

Well, the two babies are still alive and well in the last compartment in my sump. I am feeding twice a day on a mixture of freshly hatched brine shrimp and frozen rotifers. They appear to be eating well.

I'll try my Macro lense tomorrow night if I have time. They do look slightly larger than before - although it is hard to tell in this picture.

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/picture.php?albumid=167&pictureid=1329

[FunkyParrot]

The babies are a little larger now. Both are still alive and well.

As soon as I come near the sump, they swim to the surface gobs open :D

I'm now feeding them just frozen rotifiers, which they appear to take quite happily.

Not sure what I should be feeding them on now.

[Macca]

I have a customer who is wanting a few, so once you start producing numbers give me a shout :D:D

[FunkyParrot]

lol. no probs macca. May be a while as I am still learning!

Cheers

Al

[FunkyParrot]

One of three survived. He is in my main tank now and doing well.

The adults have been at it again. The father is bigger now and has a gob full of what looks like clear sacks. I'll try and get a photo. He actually comes right besides me where I sit on the sofa and opens his mouth to shuffle the contents. Its quite amazing really.

Not sure how many I will get, but hes been carrying about one week. Another week to go if going by the book. I've made a ball of miliput and stuck in a load of wooden tooth picks. Hopefully this will give the babies somewhere to hide when they are released.

Brine hatchry is setup and ready to go.

I'll try and get some photos of the dad opening his mouth and showing the contents.

[castiger]

Sounds really interesting. Just got my first Bangai (single) last week. Great little fish - fussy eater mind!

[FunkyParrot]

I'll try uploading some photos tonight. I got some Macro shots of the male with his gob open showing off his eggs.

[FunkyParrot]

Daddy, say "ahhhh":-

10316

[cl0wn]

great pic! thanks for sharing.

[Gal]

yeah great photo, love to see the little ones