Bangaii Breeding Journal

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Could the babies have been runts because they were released from the mouth too early? A few years ago my bangaiis released their batch into the tank and the majority of them were swimming on their own.

I'm not sure, but if that was the case they should be swimming fine by now since they have been out of the mouth for 13 days, but the runts still don't swim well.

[fatpuffer]

So decided to strip, eh! Good job! The male is perfectly fine and now more babies...now send 'em my way...J/K.

Js

EDIT: Can you strip maybe a week later when they are stronger? I dont know how long the incubation period and fry stage is but maybe wait a little longer?

[Myka]

I'm going to strip them as eggs this time. This is day 2 he's been holding eggs...I'm hoping I can find the pieces to make an egg tumbler today (didn't have much luck yesterday). If I get it up and going I'll strip him tonight.

[Myka]

Ok, so I spent like $30-35 on stuff to make an egg tumbler. I had to buy a whole undergravel filter kit just for the uptakes. LOL. Waste of $24...or maybe not if it works! HAHA!

So then I stripped the male of the eggs (it's day three holding the eggs). I had to open his mouth this time as he didn't spit as soon as I netted him like he did when he had fry last time. I used a short piece of airline tubing cut at a 60° angle, grabbed onto him gently (keeping him submersed in the water) then I used the point of the tubing to gently pry is mouth open and kinda bob him in the water a bit. He spat them out when I opened his mouth.

I put the eggs into my egg tumbler and realised my egg tumbler sucked!! Oh no!!! I had the egg tumbler built like this:



The air would go up past the eggs, but the problem was that a large bubble would form between the air stone and the netting for awhile, then a big blast of bubbles would go up, then it would build, and big blast. Well this was blasting the crap outta the eggs! So I built a new tumbler that looks like this:



Now the air doesn't pass by the eggs at all. I have it turned down so that the eggs rest on the bottom but are kinda hovering down there. I hope it works! Here's the eggs:

[Myka]

Oh ya, I figured I would note that those "Brine Shrimp" nets...don't work. The little BBS went right through it, and down my drain. Rrrrg...

How do you guys rinse your BBS before feeding?

[Myka]

Nothing overly interesting going on...

The runt Bangaii's are starting to swim around more, but are still way smaller than the others.

The eggs in my tumbler went from sinking to floating a few days ago. Not sure why. Now they aren't "tumbling" they are all pushed up against the top screen. I hope that will be ok. They seem to be growing. I am wondering about light though. The ones one the top of the ball of eggs are whitish, and the ones at the bottom of the clump are pink/orange. I'm wondering if the light is causing them to go white...I don't think they'd normally get light in the mouth of the male. None of the eggs seem to be dead...maybe I'm naive though. lol

[fishmaster]

Originally Posted by Myka

Nothing overly interesting going on...

The runt Bangaii's are starting to swim around more, but are still way smaller than the others.

The eggs in my tumbler went from sinking to floating a few days ago. Not sure why. Now they aren't "tumbling" they are all pushed up against the top screen. I hope that will be ok. They seem to be growing. I am wondering about light though. The ones one the top of the ball of eggs are whitish, and the ones at the bottom of the clump are pink/orange. I'm wondering if the light is causing them to go white...I don't think they'd normally get light in the mouth of the male. None of the eggs seem to be dead...maybe I'm naive though. lol

I don't know much about these fish or their eggs. I did however do some work in a small salmon hatchery years back. One of the critical daily duties was "dead picking". You would pick out any eggs starting to cloud or turn white. Whitening eggs are generally a sign of fungal infection. If they are infected, they will die or are already dying. If this is the case, you will need to remove them or the fungus will spread to the live ones. My clownfish will constantly pick at their eggs and pick off any that die. Just my 2 cents....