baby bangai

[Doo]

Very cool!

my male was holding about a month ago and all the sudden the eggs were gone (3 days later). I figured they were just new at it. I was watching them shake and dance last night and I hope he will be holding again soon. Not to hijack the post, but why would you not strip the male - I did it a million times with africans - are SW fish any different?

[justinl]

Originally Posted by Doo

Not to hijack the post, but why would you not strip the male - I did it a million times with africans - are SW fish any different?

I don't see the point in doing this really... I suppose you could but I would be terrified of harming the adult while it flops around... they're not very big and it would be easy to break somthing. I would also be very reluctant to use a sedative in my tank/on the fish. IMO, it's probably best to just let the spawn in tank. If no predators are in the display, let the babies stay. You're bound to lose some over the overflow (a certain death I'm sure) but since they stay with urchins, some are likely to survive... probably. Another solution might be to just transfer the holding male into a breeding containment (sump, fuge, separate breeding dedicated system etc) if predators are present.

[justinl]

oh, I figure I should just post this in case you don' know... When you transfer the larval fish, you have to keep in mind that they are SUPER fragile. no nets. It's usually best to scoop it out with a cup if you can manage it. You could use a net or something to gently guide it to the surface where you would then scoop it out with said cup though.

[reef bound]

done I think next time will be a different story, with a small tank at the ready for the male to let go of his loot. Of course, if I'm wanting that to happen it won't happen again, right? We'll see what happens in the meantime. Thanks for your thoughts everyone.

[Diana]

Originally Posted by Doo

Not to hijack the post, but why would you not strip the male - I did it a million times with africans - are SW fish any different?

Yeah I used to do this with africans a lot too.... but you would have to tumble the eggs if you stripped too early. Bangaii cardinals are so little and delicate I would not be inclined try it....

My bangaii's have been having babies for almost 2 years now, and they all get eaten up fast in my reef. The other day I was sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye I saw a little white dot scoot across the tank and yellow tang ate it up in no time. Poor lill babies! And I do have a longspine in there for them. I guess he wasnt around!

-Diana

[Myka]

I stripped my Bangaii. I never hurt him.

[spoot]

I wonder if a DIY long spine would work to save some babies for people that don't have one in their tanks.

[reef bound]

No worries about a hi-jack, Doo. This isn't something we were even expecting. Our reef tank has a wide variety of creatures in it including a niger trigger, purple tang, yellow-tail damsels,....the list goes on. Quite aggressive little guys, so I wasn't thinking of breeding anything. I was surprised to even know I had a male and female cardinal as when I got them a few months ago they were so small. We're pretty new to this hobby and I wouldn't even begin to know how or when to strip anything. Now that I know I have a male and female breeding pair, I think possibly a new tank is in order.