Help Bangai Cardinal Fry!!!!

[LarryB]

Hello Everyone!

I am current a new father of 15 Banggai Cardinalfish fry, I need help on how to grow them out. I currently have them in a breeder net thats set up in my display tank. I have a spare 10 gallon "hospital" tank, but I need to clean it as I let go over the past month.

So my real questions are:

How long can they stay in the breeder net?
What should I feed them right now?
Should I go with a sponge filter or hob in the 10 gallon grow out tank?

Someone please help me, I will like to keep as many as possible.

Thanks!

 

[cultivatedcoral]

You are going to have to hatch baby brine shrimp for them.

 

[EZMAC114]

You are going to have to hatch baby brine shrimp for them.

+1 on baby brine shrimp

I've never done it but I read about it and it sounds easy.

I would be careful with a HOB filter because my mom used one when her freshwater Platy babies and some of them got sucked up the intake...we added a small netting around the intake to prevent that after she lost a couple. In the end she only had 2 out of like 40 survive anyways.

I am also very jealous of your Banggai babies...I was pricing some Banggai's today because I'm going to do a group of about 9 and it is going to be pretty pricy lol

 

[EZMAC114]

Post some pictures if you can...baby Banggai's are very cute

 

[LarryB]

I will look up how to make brine shrimp, hopefully it's fairly easy.

 

[DSpate]

Baby Brine is the sure fire way to successfully rear them. But it's also a PITA. The BBS need to be newly hatched. If they are over 12 hours old, they are almost of no nutritional value unless gutloaded.

I have been using very small pellet food to feed them right after they are released. I do however move them into a small acrylic box that I constructed and use a lot of air flow to keep the pellets floating fast so they have time to 'hunt' the food. They have to essentially strike the food as soon as they see it.

There are lots of online resources. One of your best bets for detailed logs and answers on how people have raised them is mbisite.org

 

[Eric B]

I have Bangai babies every few months and I never catch and raise then because for me it's a pain and they usually become food for the other fish in the 300 gallon display tank. I recently cut a really large finger leather coral because it had overgrown the area and dropped the pieces in the back of the tank and wouldn't you know the father spit the babies in there so no other fish could reach them. I had done nothing to specifically spot feed or give them anything special food wise and they are surviving so I managed to collect all of them but one (used a coke bottle trap) and threw in the sump. I don't feed them in the sump either and all are growing so they must be getting cyclopeze or maybe copepods or something out of the water because they are growing. I am not into taking care of baby fish because it's a pain and I'm not set up to do it, but if they get large enough I'll take them down to my local fish store for some trade in credit! Good luck with the babies and the male usually has babies in his mouth every month to two months so be prepared or at least mine does as it seems every time I turn around he is carrying babies!

 

[EZMAC114]

This is kind of off topic but how many Banggai do you have in your tank? I was wanting to do a group of them(about 7) but I've read a few article that says if a male and female pair up then they will kill the others or at least scare them into hiding and I don't want either of those things to happen.

 

[Neptunes Cove]

baby Bangaii hang around in long spined urchins for protection until they are bigger
-its why they are striped like that/ to blend in
-that might help you keep them

 

[Eric B]

I started with 3 and they killed the 3rd so I'm down to 2 adults and the one baby I could not catch. When I caught the other 11 babies and threw them in the sump the stayed together for a while but now they are all scattered through the sump so I don't know it they got chased or they migrated into the other parts, but they are all thriving in there!

 

[EZMAC114]

I started with 3 and they killed the 3rd so I'm down to 2 adults and the one baby I could not catch. When I caught the other 11 babies and threw them in the sump the stayed together for a while but now they are all scattered through the sump so I don't know it they got chased or they migrated into the other parts, but they are all thriving in there!

Hmm...ok so maybe a group wouldn't turn out like I would like. Thanks for the info

 

[stunreefer Verified Sponsor]

I highly recommend purchasing this book. It will guide you through anything and everything you could want to know on Banggai cardinalfish, and supports the Banggai rescue project

 

[rotti]

think they will be my next fish to add to the tank

 

[EZMAC114]

I highly recommend purchasing this book. It will guide you through anything and everything you could want to know on Banggai cardinalfish, and supports the Banggai rescue project

[emoji106]

 

[Bismark]

here are mines doing a little shaking dance got up today and noticed its mouth a little swollen went to store and by the time I got back looks like his mouth is about to explode in going to try and raise them I'm going to try a breeding net in display tank and I collect my own pods and phto with a plankton net I got on Amazon for $16 works great off bridge. And they love my bubble tip more then clowns

 

[Bismark]

Here's another pic