The Pants/Sharkey Bangaii Breeding program…..

[Sharkey18]

For right now it is. Good guess Isaac. Eventually I will be moving all of the juveniles over to the zoa tank, and keeping the breeding pairs in the 20's. 

 

This poor guy hasn't eaten in 32 days! And his crazy wife will want to get him knocked up again as soon as I put them back together. So he's going to get 2 weeks of Paul B's blackworm conditioning diet. 

Edited March 15, 2014 by Sharkey18

[YHSublime]

Good for you, taking care of them like that. I couldn't imagine better hands.

 

I am seriously considering springing for a "pair."

 

Keep up the good work!

[Sharkey18]

Right now between Pants and I we have about 62 bangaii cardinal fish.   Yikes!

[Sharkey18]

There are between 28 and 32 baby Bangaii's.  Each about the size of a sesame seed. 

 

[Mattiejay6]

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/03/17/egg-rocker-cobalt-aquatics-addresses-niche-application/

 

Check this out.. Might help you in breeding and lessen the load on your male

[Sharkey18]

Very cool. I'll think about using it. Thanks for sharing. 

[Pants]

Something to take the burden off of the male would be great because guess who is already holding eggs again?

Edited March 21, 2014 by Pants

[Mattiejay6]

Oh boy.. Poor guy

[Sharkey18]

That's insane. 

 

My male is in for a really long break. After he released his babies i moved him to a new tank. He continued to refuse food and then developed a terrible case of tail rot. his tail is completely gone and looking terrible. The infection seems to have stopped, and he is eating a little bit. He may not make it, and if he does not die I think it's going to be quite a long time before I feel he is healthy enough to put him back with the female. In the meantime, I am going to try and pair her up with a different male. 

 

Next time I will definitely follow pants'  system and move the babies, and leave the male alone. 

[Pants]

That is similar to what happened with my guy when I removed him from the female. He refused to eat for several weeks, and I eventually moved him back. One thing I haven't tried is removing the female.

[Sharkey18]

Here is my poor male. His tail has completely rotted off, poor guy. 

 

The good news is that he has started eating again. For a while he wouldn't eat and then he was only eating a little bit. Now he is eating voraciously so I am optimistic. It al

so seems like he has stopped losing tissue. Hoping to see some recovery over the next week or so. 

 

He's getting lots of blackworms! 

 

[JR-Tanked150]

Will his tail grow completely back?

[Pants]

Giving him anything to prevent infection?

[Brewski]

I suspect it will not grow back but stranger things have happened and I hope he survives and thrives.

[Pants]

I have a couple weeks before another bath of baby bangaiis emerge from papa's mouth and I am all out of sea urchins. I even found a better home for the real sea urchin.

 

So I began constructing a new fake urchin. I've found that the easiest way to catch the babies is to slowly move the fake urchin they are hosting with up to the surface of the water and then move it into a net or cup. The babies follow it and I don't have to go chasing them around the tank or try sucking them up in a  turkey baster (previous methods). So the new urchin will be a styrofoam ball I cut in half and inserted some neodymium magnets into. I hot glued the magnet in place. Covered the whole thing in plumbers putty and then stuck it full of toothpicks. Tomorrow I'll spray paint it black. I'll be able to hold it to the side of the tank with the magnets and move it up without getting wet or having my hand scare the fish. I can even remove the outside magnet and let it float to the surface. I'm hoping this will make capturing them much easier. Not the cheapest urchin I've constructed but I'm still in a lot of pain from the car accident a few months back so less time hunched over an aquarium is awesome. Someone should make fake reef rock with magnets in it to help with aquascaping.

[dave w]

That sounds like a great project, however I saw a picture once of Martin Moe's fake sea urchin and it was something like long wooden toothpicks in a square piece of styrofoam.  He left it brown and white and did not paint it.  

 

Styrofoam is very difficult to paint, most paints make it melt.  Perhaps you know a special type of paint that I don't.  But the best logic for not painting your fake urchin is that the inventor of the method didn't paint his.  At least as far as I know he didn't.

 

Good luck on your urchin project, it looks like you will do a great job.

[Pants]

The non sprayed urchin don't hold up well in the water for long.

 

The styrofoam is completely covered in the epoxy puddy. I'm spraying with krylon.

[howaboutme]

Just want to say you two are doing a great job! I picked up one from Laura today and it's settled in nicely....though I hope it will eventually hover to where we can see it more often...Thank you all!

[Sharkey18]

They are shy for a few days when they move to a new home. It'll be out and about pretty soon. 

 

My male with the really bad tail rot recovered nicely. I put him back with his mate and he is holding eggs again. Due at the end of the month. 

[Sharkey18]

I made a fake urchin out of epoxy and small black zip ties. Doesn't rot! 

 

Hey Gregg, when I come out that way I can return the last urchin you gave me. 

[Pants]

Thanks. It's kind of stupid how much money I have spent on epoxy making those things.

 

So yesterday and today my male bangaii released his fry . I didn't get an exact count but it looks like something around 17-20. They are eating and hanging out in some dragon's breath macro.

[Brewski]

Thanks. It's kind of stupid how much money I have spent on epoxy making those things.So yesterday and today my male bangaii released his fry . I didn't get an exact count but it looks like something around 17-20. They are eating and hanging out in some dragon's breath macro.

Cool! I lost one a few months ago and when u r ready to send them to new homes let me know - would like a couple

[Pants]

So the babies from my last batch are now 11 days old and already eating non-live food. I tried something new this time. I recently rescued/bought a 90% dead goniopora and bought a bunch of different goiniopora food to nurse it back. So I've been mixing a little bit of the goniopora food (goniopower, reef chili, and reef roids) in with the live brine and selcon. Well yesterday I didn't have any baby brine left by the end of the day so I just used the selcon/goiniopora mix and the bangaii fry still ate it up. I'm going to continue feeding the live brine for awhile, but I think this is promising.

[YHSublime]

So the babies from my last batch are now 11 days old and already eating non-live food. I tried something new this time. I recently rescued/bought a 90% dead goniopora and bought a bunch of different goiniopora food to nurse it back. So I've been mixing a little bit of the goniopora food (goniopower, reef chili, and reef roids) in with the live brine and selcon. Well yesterday I didn't have any baby brine left by the end of the day so I just used the selcon/goiniopora mix and the bangaii fry still ate it up. I'm going to continue feeding the live brine for awhile, but I think this is promising.

 

That's pretty neat stuff! Thanks for updating, it's always cool when people take the time to pioneer! Don't the new fry require little to no light? How does that work for the goni?

[Pants]

I have the babies in a tiny hang on the side aquarium with some caulerpa. So its not directly under lights and they have lots of algae to hide in. The goniopora is in the display tank on the sand bed. It is doing well much better polyp extension and color. It is a red goniopora with dark purple in the middle. Still watching for signs of new polyps. The tank is skimmerless and I feed the coral daily.