Pants

We have 11 new baby bangaii. I caught 5 this morning, and 6 more this evening. I think I caught him in the process of releasing the babies this morning. There is a good chance some got gobbled up while I was at work, but 11 isn't bad. My sea urchin is horribly traumatized from my manhandling it to remove the babies from it.

We lost 2 of my 4 from the last clutch when I drove them to Sharkey. Sudden Fright Syndrome. I wasn't very good about getting them onto frozen super early like I have in the past. I'm going to try Sharkey's method of a selcon bath for the baby brine shrimp prior to feeding them to the bangaii fry. 8 months is pretty young to be holding eggs so that totally explains the earlier losses. I don't know my fish's age but they were a bit less than a year old when they first bred. I only got one baby out of it though. My new clutch is on day 29, and they are usually released at 30-31. I can see baby fish looking back at me through papa's mouth so they are ready to go. I need to get rid of all the xenia I threw in the baby fish holder. Free Pulsing Xenia!

Maybe we'll find a better male for you in one one of these later clutches.

The 4 babies are doing well and guess who is holding eggs again already?

Got brine already do it was only 24 hours. They are eating well.

Papa fish released some more babies last night. Unfortunately by the time I was able to fish them out only 4 remained (but they are a sturdy 4). I really upset my urchin getting those 4 out. I broke a bunch of his spines and had to lift him out of the water - feel bad as I suspect he is getting old. I dropped some algae wafers in the tank as an "I'm sorry." There hasn't been much algae in the tank the past month or so so he was probably pretty cranky already. I just started baby brine now so I won't have any live food to feed for probably 36 hours or so. I'll try some frozen rotifers tonight.

This is why the male is still smaller than the female. Poor guy never takes much if a break.

I thought I'd start using this thread instead of the old one to announce the Male Bangaii has been holding eggs since 25 December. tomtom how is your male doing? I only got a single fish out of my pair's first attempt.

That is good. The live food can be very annoying. How big is your male?

As I write this the female bangaii is doing her vibrate next to the male thing she does at the start of their dance where she gives him the eggs.

They are definitely eating frozen Rotifers now

That is a great article and really the gives the best answer to this question. I just wanted to add that we had some remodeling done so all our drywall was torn down. We discovered all our floor joists where I tank sat (the longest beams in the house) had been extensively cut through. Huge holes were cut to run all sorts of electrical and plumbing. It was enough to scare our contractor a bit and he refused to install the extra heating vents since he felt the joists had already been cut too much. The floor in that room shakes a lot when even a small guy like myself walks across the floor. My steps cause the water to slosh around in the tank. So modern building is really no guarantee that your house is built well - in fact the homes from the 30s and older have always been over engineered so much that I'd trust an old home more than something made since the 80s.

Awesome post. thank you. I had wondered if they would still eat with their yolk sacks. I've been feeding them when they are just 12 hours old. I've been using a nano paste from brineshrimpdirect. I've had pretty good luck getting them to frozen food quickly (really as soon as they are big enough to eat cyclops). We have a saltwater cultured tetraselmis at work so I could play with that with the next batch of baby fish.

So far all are still alive and eating well. I am trying to gut load the baby brine with nannochloropsis. Not sure if the freshly hatched brine are eating it though.

Its about 4-6 months before they are big enough. I lost so many last time I don't want to have people queuing up until they are nearly ready. I really think I'll be able to do better this time, but lets wait at least 4 months before we start looking for homes for these. Also I might just give them all to Sharkey after I get them past the first few weeks (we still need to discuss it).

I caught 19 fry early this morning. That is the most yet. Last time we caught 11 but only 3 survived to adulthood. We did pretty good until they started attacking each other. I have better food this time (to avoid the sudden fright syndrome thing) and I will move them to bigger digs before they start attacking each other (how we lost most last time).

This is one of those dual inline TDS meters. They cost about $30-$40.

I bought the current unit used and replaced the O-rings at that time (they were missing). I used a spray on lubricant that first time but haven't since. I've been tightening them so much because they leak if I don't. The thing has at least a slow leak at every single point where a connection is made. One of these turned into a fast leak the other night and caused the flood. The pressure gauge is broken so I don't know how all these leaks are affecting the pressure. I saw the BFS system on Mr Saltwater tank. is the drinking water component of it like Jason describes his Water General? Also looking for a TDS meter (in/out) and it looks like BFS is missing that but has an auto shutoff that the BRS unit lacks.

My current RODI system caused a little flood a few days ago and I started looking at parts to fix it up and upgrade it and realized I could buy an all new system for just a bit more. I hate the acrylic on the current unit (its a huge pain to open and close when replacing filters) so I getting rid of it seems a good idea. So I was looking at BRS since WAMAS does frequent group buys and wanted to ask about this unit: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-drinking-reef-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html It is a standrad 5 stage RODI system with some extras to use it for drinking water as well (also has a tds meter and flush system which I had been wanting to add to my current unit). My main question is whether it breaks off the water for drinking early on or is the drinking water the same as the reef water. It mentions a "Omnipure Inline carbon block" for the drinking water part does that mean the drinking water is only cleaned by this extra carbon block making it just like a brita filter? I just thought the water out the very end would be so pure it wouldn't taste very good (like drinking distilled) but if it only goes through a carbon filter then its actually doing a pretty poor job cleaning the water. Beyond that I was just curious about people's experience with BRS systems. How easy is it to change filters when it is time? How are the fittings (water is leaking in my current unit)? Is the wrench provided sized properly or ever get stuck on? If you have an RODI system installed somewhere like your kitchen (where I plan to install this) where it is impractical to have a huge water container always full how do you handle water changes?

Well this morning she is hiding wedged under the biggest rock in the tank. Not looking good. She slept all night normally (just swimming in a low flow area between a duncan and a frogspawn). I turned off half the lights so the other fish will be more chill, but I'm worried.

I moved her to the DT last night. With ammonia rising this fast even 100% water changes daily wouldn't be enough so it was this or let the fish die. I've never had so much trouble with a QT before. No idea why the ammonia was so out of hand.

Funny thing is I thought getting her to eat would be the hard part not managing the QT. She's been eating really well. I normally keep a sponge for a sponge filter in my refugium so I can set up at QT fast, but unfortunately I cleaned out the refugium a couple days before getting the CBB. I'd been searching for one so long I had sort of given up on finding it and then poof, a fiesty looking little CBB at the store.

Am I crazy to think of just popping her in the DT and hoping I can train her to eat frozen in there?

Unfortunately my DT has only really big pieces of live rock. Nothing that can be moved. One piecemight fit but it is covered in favia and the QT has no light. There is a lot of surface agitation. The waterfall filter splashes, the powerhead rotates and hits the surface in part of its arc and the sponge filter is bubbling so the bubbles break the surface. The temp was a bit high 82°F so I lowered that but I don't think this is O2 related. In google searches it sounds like stressed out CBBs do this.

I bought a Copperband butterfly on Saturday and have been having trouble with it in quarantine and wanted some advice. The major issue is that ammonia levels in the QT tank keep rising very quickly. The fish was eating at the pet store and is still eating for me, but seems to be exhibiting some signs of stress. She keeps swimming up near the top of the tank (not on side) and poking her nose against the surface like a fish who doesn't have enough oxygen (there is a lot of flow in the tank though). Ammonia levels are currently at 1ppm. This morning ammonia was at 0.5ppm. Last night I did a 100% water change because ammonia levels had risen over 4ppm. (test after the water change and it was at 0). The QT tank is 10G with a sponge filter, hob waterfall filter, and a sicce voyager 1 powerhead. I dosed DrTims 2x but I've done so many water changes I don't think that could help much. The waterfall filter has carbon and a bit of filter cloth from an established tank at the LFS. The sponge from the sponge filter was in my DT for 3 days before starting the QT. I also have two very large diameter pieces of pvc to have some low flow areas. Other then going up to the surface every now and then the fish seems strong and healthy. She is eating live black worms voraciously from the pipet and is also tanking frozen blood worms. She has pecked a bit at a clam I smashed open and some marine cuisine. She is friendly and comes up to the tank when I get near sort of begging for food. I don't think I can keep doing 100% water changes every night, but the ammonia levels rise fast enough that it seems like it is necessary. I wanted to keep this fish in QT for a long time to get her eating a variety of frozen food before she had to compete with a couple of clowns and bangaii in the DT.