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Breeding Bangaii Cardinals


Sharkey18

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So I have gone from rehoming my boring cardinals... to breeding them!

 

After getting a lot of great info in my "what fish next" thread I started watching the Bangaiis closer.

 

Out of the five there were two pairs, and one loner that was getting bullied. I caught the loner and moved it to my other tank.

 

Two days later (yesterday) one of the females was doing the cardinal shimmy with one of the males. She was poking him in the belly, swimming right next to him and vibrating. Cool to watch. Today he is not eating but looks like he's carrying a mouthful of marbles. I have NOT actually seen any eggs... but I will be watching closely for confirmation.

 

Now I have three weeks to figure out how to raise the little buggers. I seen brine shrimp hatcheries in my future.....

 

Laura

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Well i really hope you're able to breed and then raise them it would be really great to see more captive bred bangiis

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Is it too early to call dibs on the little guys??? Haha jk.

 

I'm looking to get a pair for my tank soon, hasn't someone in the club breed them before? I thought I remembered seeing a thread before about them, I'd rather buy from a local breeder. Might also be able to give you a few pionters

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Is it too early to call dibs on the little guys??? Haha jk.

 

I'm looking to get a pair for my tank soon, hasn't someone in the club breed them before? I thought I remembered seeing a thread before about them, I'd rather buy from a local breeder. Might also be able to give you a few pionters

 

Seasave in GlenBurnie breeds them successfully. The prices are just ok, and the service is hit or miss. BUT, he does breed them. It is neat to see a tank full of babies.

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Congrats Laura! I'm glad you are going to try to raise them. There is a lot of info out there on various techniques. Probably try mofib.org, masm.org, breeder's registry for starters. The biggest issue to deal with besides first food is a place to keep them safe from your other fish. A little in-tank refuge basket will probably work for the first batch.

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(edited)

You're going to want to set up a seperate tank, somewhere in the range of 10-20 gallons should be good (I have a 20 you can have). You can put a simple air filter in there or you can use a HOB filter with a good sponge attached around the intake. Put the male into the seperate tank sometime in the next couple weeks and wait. When the eggs hatch and the fry are released (could be 3-7 days after they actually hatch, or it could be the day they hatch), put the male back into the display and keep the babies in the seperate tank. You'll probably have around 20 babies in the tank. I'd recommend trying to find a good way to set up 2-3 tank seperators that the babies can't get through (egg crate with fiberglass window screen zip tied to it should be good) in the next couple weeks. The babies look just like the parents and are immediately able to eat. BBS, Rotifers, and copepods are all animals you're going to want to look into raising right around now. You should also mix the live stuff with frozen stuff after about a week in order to slowly wheen them onto prepared. Cyclopeze would probably be a good frozen food, also crushed pellet food, etc.

 

You're going to start to see some of them grow faster than others and become more dominant than the others. This is where the dividers come in and you can start to seperate the fry by size in order to have a higher % success rate. Then, just keep on feeding and eventually you can just feed frozen and pellet food. Maybe one of the clownfish guys can help you out with rotifers and what not, maybe PM them. Eventually, depending on how aggressive your tank mates are, you should be able to release the young into the main tank and they'll for a tight nit group, however I'd use a lot of caution and probably not do this myself. Eventually you'll have to split them up anyways...

 

Sorry for the long winded reply and hopefully this helps. I was hoping to do this a while back, but never got around to picking up some cardinals. GL!

Edited by L8 2 RISE
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Be happy to take some offspring lol and good luck if you need an extra 10 gallon tank or so to help raise them let me know be happy to help you out.

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Jstlsn has a breeding pair that has had babies numerous times. I got my pair from him.

 

Question, will one of the bangaiis change sexes if they are both male (or female)? I don't know if I have a male and a female, but would like to get a breeding pair.

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Jstlsn has a breeding pair that has had babies numerous times. I got my pair from him.

 

Question, will one of the bangaiis change sexes if they are both male (or female)? I don't know if I have a male and a female, but would like to get a breeding pair.

 

NO, they are born either male or female. best way is to put three together to figure out who is male and female. You can try the vent method. look at their bellies, You will see either one or two upside down triangles.

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Turns out that a Bangaii who isn't eating might just be sick!

 

The male I thought my have a clutch of eggs has disappeared and is presumed dead....

I'll keep my eyes on the other three....

 

oh well.

 

Laura

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Thanks Dave, but he re=appeared today!

 

Still not eating, still looking "fat in the mouth"...

 

This bangaii watch is killing me!

 

Laura

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I have 4 VERY large pajama cardinals. Any way to sex them? I keep watching - and nobody ever seems to be carrying babies. Just my luck to have 4 - all the same sex...

 

bob

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I have 4 VERY large pajama cardinals. Any way to sex them? I keep watching - and nobody ever seems to be carrying babies. Just my luck to have 4 - all the same sex...

 

bob

 

If they're all the same sex, they're most likely all females if they get along.

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If they're all the same sex, they're most likely all females if they get along.

 

They mostly ignore one another - what would happen if I found a male and added him?

 

bob

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Update on the Bangaii's:

 

The male is doing well and is definitely holding eggs. His mouth gets bigger and bigger each day!

He is still in the main tank. I am concerned that if I try to remove him he will abort the clutch by expelling them too soon or swallowing them.

 

Today is day 11 . Day 0 was when I saw them together doing the mating dance and day 1 is the first day he stopped eating.

I have read that males expel babies sometime around day 22 -25.

 

Yesterday, Day 10 I added a breeding net to the corner where the pair hang out. I was hoping that he would get used to its presence and I could corral him into it around day 20. To my surprise it worked like a charm and the pair are hanging out INSIDE the net. They are free to come and go as they please but hang out in the net most of the time! This is awesome news since at about day 20 I am planning on isolating him in the net alone until he expels the fry. At that point I will collect the fry and move them to the fry tank.

 

I have a tank set up waiting for the fry and am successfully hatching multiple batches of brine shrimp in anticipation of the babies.

 

Fry watch begins in earnest in about 9 days.....

 

Parents hanging out in open breeding net... : )

IMG_2677.jpg

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