morning surprise

Saltysteele · Dec 5, 2008

so, i woke up to these in my tank this morning -

sorry to those at MR's who have to read about this again :snicker:

i had suspected my male was holding, as they usually are the first ones jumping at the food, pushing the others out of the way, but they were both kinda keepin it on the down low in their cave. everytime i would try to get a look at the male, they'd just back in a little further, and i wouldn't be able to see anything.

so, i woke up this morning, threw in some coral frenzy and saw these little squirts. while trying to net them, i found 6 or so more hiding out in a twisted, twirled-tube shaped piece of rock. so, i got out the baster and started sucking the little dudes up. not as easy as it would seem. put them in my sump, at the suggestion of fellow reefers from my local board.

problem, though.... i've still got two of the little dudes that i can't snag, either with the net or the baster. i've got the adult pair, another loner bangaii, a pair of b&w occi's that stay with their nem, a sleeper goby, flame angel and lm blenny (5' tank).

so, should i keep trying to snag the little guys, or let them run free. there are tons of places for them to hide, and they're quite good at ducking for cover (took me an hour to suck up 5 or 6 of them). any suggestions on how to catch them? like a trap of some sort?

reefboy · Dec 5, 2008

They may come to a spot light at night then eitheir suck them out or net them, I know this how they collect clown fish larvae sometimes.

Poseidon · Dec 5, 2008

That is cool Bret! How big is that LITTLE snail between them, that thing looks TINY too!

rarelyseriousb · Dec 5, 2008

cool. kinda the same thing happened to me. I just saw 2 babies in the sump one night. But I just let nature take its cores.

Coral Keeper · Dec 5, 2008

Grats!! Your a father now!! lol

120inwall · Dec 8, 2008

Very cool to see out of the blue.

ecotoxlady · Dec 8, 2008

Congratulations! They are adorable!

I hope you can catch the last two but I wouldn't stress them out too much. If you can't then just give them a shot at survival in the tank. Maybe their daddy will protect them

Saltysteele · Dec 8, 2008

oh, wow! sorry guys, wasn't ignoring you, just didn't see people were responding to this thread

well, the two in the tank are missing. they may be hiding, but i don't know. i got 6 out, and put them in my sump. i made the mistake of turning the light out in the sump, and two more are missing

the four that are in there are doing great, though. they're eating crushed Omega flakes, so long as the sump and skimmer are on to make the flake particles look like they're swimming/moving. very cute and fun to watch

mike, that snail is one of those that appear by the hundreds at night. probably about twice the head of a pin, maybe 3. just a little white speck, at any rate. you can barely see the antennae with the naked eye.

btw, how does everyone catch the male just before he lets them go? i was reading that he pretty much immediately spits them out after being caught. maybe i should get a fish trap.... but, then again, he won't eat....

tangboy · Dec 10, 2008

guess I'll have to wait til I get home to see the pics of what these are...

Saltysteele · Dec 10, 2008

tangboy said:
guess I'll have to wait til I get home to see the pics of what these are...

:snicker:

They're baby Bangaii cardinals

JGoslee · Dec 10, 2008

That's really cool!

roshi719 · Dec 10, 2008

Saltysteele said:
oh, wow! sorry guys, wasn't ignoring you, just didn't see people were responding to this thread

well, the two in the tank are missing. they may be hiding, but i don't know. i got 6 out, and put them in my sump. i made the mistake of turning the light out in the sump, and two more are missing

the four that are in there are doing great, though. they're eating crushed Omega flakes, so long as the sump and skimmer are on to make the flake particles look like they're swimming/moving. very cute and fun to watch

mike, that snail is one of those that appear by the hundreds at night. probably about twice the head of a pin, maybe 3. just a little white speck, at any rate. you can barely see the antennae with the naked eye.

btw, how does everyone catch the male just before he lets them go? i was reading that he pretty much immediately spits them out after being caught. maybe i should get a fish trap.... but, then again, he won't eat....

If you have any questions or need any help check out the MOFIB forum:
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/

They are very knowledgeable and very helpful over there.

Saltysteele · Dec 11, 2008

update-

two of the six in the sump disappeared the next day. the other four are doing great, hunting and eating pods, plus eating omega flakes. growing quickly!

also, it would appear my male is holding again, already! he hasn't eaten in 3-4 days, and is keeping his mouth shut for the most part. he will dart at food like he wants to eat it, but will not eat it. he and the female are hanging in their cave, like they did the last time they had little ones. he also is not sleeping, up in the middle of the night just pacing

ofblong · Dec 11, 2008

interesting. so when can I pick a couple up haha? (and no I did not read this on MR)

joefish · Dec 11, 2008

i read it on reefers and going to say the same thing here. Let me know when you want to trade a few.

Saltysteele · Dec 11, 2008

joe, i've got you down. with bangaii's it's hard to differentiate male from female, until they're older and you can see the difference in their jaw structures (i can't tell, until my male and female are together, and then i can see the diff). i got 3, and was lucky to have 2 pair up. unfortunately for the 3rd, he's ended up being the loner who gets chased around when it shows it's face.

i don't know how they would act if you had 3 of the same sex, or even 2 of the same sex.

ben, we could work out a trade, too