What do you know about cardinals mating?

kyleshaw81503 · Oct 4, 2022

Good afternoon, I am in about a year into the reef keeping hobby. Tank is coming along nicely and it seems my Cardinals are trying to mate. I’ll try and post a video. I just want to know how hard is it to actually get them to breed and how do I keep the babies from getting eaten and should I be afraid for other tank inhabitants due to aggression during this period? Any suggestions would be great.
Thank you.

StatelineReefer · Oct 4, 2022

Getting them to breed is easy, just feed them heavily. They do the rest on their own. The male will carry the fry in his mouth, so you won't have to worry about protecting free-swimming young.

Make a reasonable fake urchin. I used reef putty and swizzle sticks, then purchased a long spine urchin when my coralline got too... invasive. After mouth brooding, the adolescent fish will congregate at this 'urchin' or urchin like office workers at a water cooler discussing Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon or whatever HBO and George R.R. Martin is selling.

Decapsulate some brine shrimp when the young leave dad's maw too. It's what they're going to eat for a bit. Enrich it with selcon and you shouldn't have any mortalities, but the babies are super prone to Sudden Fright Syndrome.