New banggai, day three, still not eating

dmh41532 · Jul 16, 2015

I found a store 'close' to me that sells live brine, hopefully the cardinal is still with me tomorrow and I'm going to pick some up. It still isn't eating, well I haven't actually seen it eat. So I'm hoping these will entice it to eat

NanaReefer · Jul 16, 2015

Try feeding it at lights out too. One reason for those big eyes. Mine is pretty active the first couple hours of darkness.

redfishbluefish · Jul 16, 2015

dmh41532 said:
I'm not sure the grocery stores sells raw shrimp.

The "human" shrimp I feed my pajama cardinals is boiled shrimp chopped up very fine. They love this.

Bo N Rachel · Jul 16, 2015

I'm not too sure but Iev the males go 27-29 days without eating when carrying eggs in there mouth. Mine seen hooked on the mysis shrimp as well he leaves the pellets alone. Also heard baby brine are great

dmh41532 · Jul 17, 2015

I've tried feeding after the lights are out for several days, sometimes it goes to food then turns away, I guess it's looking for live brine, since that's what it was fed album the seller,

3dees · Jul 17, 2015

mine has been with me for almost two years and still won't touch flake or pellets. eats frozen brine and Mysis but he goes crazy for freeze dried blackworms.

DipG · Jul 17, 2015

I have yet to find a fish that won't eat live brine. I also have a breeding pair of Bangaii's for almost 3 years not and at first they only ate live brine but now they eat frozen mysis and frozen brine shrimp. I have never had any luck with Bangaii eating flake or pellets or even LRS. So I would suggest getting live brine asap.

dmh41532 · Jul 17, 2015

Well I hope it eat the live brine, as it's over an hour to the closest store that offers live brine. But it'll have to transition to frozen, I can't drive that far every few days. Had I asked first what they were offers from the vendor I would have passed, but I assumed since they are captive bred they would be on frozen.

dmh41532 · Jul 17, 2015

Just an update, I was able to get live brine and it ate like crazy. An

Shep · Jul 17, 2015

YAY!!!!!!! So now what you have to do is slow mix in frozen brine with the live brine, adding more and more frozen each time and less and less live until they are eating 100% frozen

MadCityReefer · Jul 17, 2015

If you haven't tried PE Mysis shrimp yet give it a try it works every time. Also try to never purchase wild caught banggai cardinalfish they have a high mortality rate.

dmh41532 · Jul 17, 2015

This one is actually captive bred, that's why I got it. I tried two wild collected and both died within days. This fish was fed live food at the vendor. How can I store the brines to last? The closest store is nearly 7o miles in any direction.

NanaReefer · Jul 17, 2015

Look.....just hatch your own!! It takes 24hrs, it's so freaking easy and cheap! Problem solved.

yarddoctor123 · Jul 18, 2015

I've had to raise my own live food for my marine breeding. The stores in my area didn't supply more than Reef Nutrition's live Tigriopus californicus copepods.- which are great when you're in a pinch. You can easily keep the adult brine shrimp in a spare 5 g bucket. Here's how I do it: I pick out two clean 5 gallon buckets.
BEFORE I GO TO THE STORE I do a 5g water change in the main display tank. Move the bucket to the area I'm keeping the shrimp near an outlet in my garage.
Go to the pet shop. Buy the live brine shrimp and come straight home.

yarddoctor123 · Jul 18, 2015

Then I test the salinity in the shrimp water -- -it's usually between 1.018 and 1.02.
by the time I'm back from the store my water change water has had a chance to settle down. I siphon the top water into the second bucket until it's about half full. then I add dechlorinated TAP WATER to dilute everything to match the salinity in the shrimp bag. When I say "dilute everything", I'm also referring to the nutrients I'm pulling out of the DT. Now there's some really good biological material in there for my shrimp to filter feed on. I plug in my really cheap small air pump , air stone and dump the shrimp bag in.
Only then do I use a cheap little plastic strainer (I found at Walmart) to take a small portion to feed my tank. I buy dry Spirulina (a phytoplankton) at the health food store. I use it for my nutribullet shakes and also to feed my shrimp and other filter feeders. I use only a tiny pinch sprinkled into the shrimp bucket every day. I always gut load them for couple hours before I feed them to my fish...

jgraz · Jul 18, 2015

Also back to the raw shrimp. I find it hard to believe any grocery store in America not selling some form of raw shrimp. Either thawed or frozen. In addition to that any raw fish or shellfish will do. Just chop it up small and feed the tank. Everyone else in the tank will enjoy it too.

dmh41532 · Jul 18, 2015

Well...I went to the local store where I buy my seaweed and frozen food, they are discontinuing those products. So now I have some decisions to make, I'm not sure I will have time to culture live food, my wife and I are preparing for our first child. I'm checking into the cost of buying frozen online, since soon all my supplies will have to come from online vendors. As for the raw shrimp, no grocery in my area offers raw shrimp, thawed or frozen. We have two Kroger and Walmart. I more or less live in the middle of no where.

jgraz · Jul 18, 2015

Again any raw fish or shellfish will do.

A quick check online for Kroger in Ohio(don't know which city) reveals quite an extensive list of frozen shrimp as well as other raw frozen seafoods. Perhaps your looking in the wrong place at the store.

dmh41532 · Jul 19, 2015

NanaReefer said:
Look.....just hatch your own!! It takes 24hrs, it's so freaking easy and cheap! Problem solved.

NannaReefer, I got a bottle of brine eggs, since all the fish like them, I mean they devour them, I figure what the heck, looks easy to me. How important is it that the water be at 82 degrees? We keep our house at 75 during the summer and 72 during the winter.