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18 Baby Banggai Cardinals


Stephen

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Figured I'd start a log/journal on this here to document things. There's a lot on the internet about it but I didn't see any log/journal style posts. Not sure I'll be successful but either way any information could be useful. 

 

Day 1: Fished out all of the babies as they came out of the rocks. 18 total in all including 1 that made it from the display down into the sump them through a pump and into the refugium. Plaend them into isolation box that's in frag tank with a fake urchin-ish thing I made. 

 

Day 2: Frantically tried to find something they would eat with no luck. I'd read that live food was all they would take but found a guy on a message forum swearing by frozen. His thoughts were that baby cardinals when hungry would try anything. He was right. Sort of... After trying frozen plankton and frozen cyclops (both seemed too big for them) and them not even looking at it I started to worry. While in Richmond I picked up some brine shrimp eggs, frozen baby brine shrimp, and some expensive frozen calanus. I hoped they'd eat one of the 2 until I could get some shrimp hatched. I tried the calanus first and like before it was just too big for them (my other fish loved it btw). Next up was the frozen baby brine shrimp. They were all over it. Score 1 for the internet guy I guess. I didn't set up anything to hatch the brine shrimp eggs as the frozen is much easier. I'm adding one of the mini cubes to a little water and soaking it in 2 drops of Selecon. I've fed them 4 times today.

 

Day 3 morning: Still have 18 this morning and they were all hungry. Fed more frozen baby brine shrimp soaked in Selcon.

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can also shave off the frozen cubes for smaller mouths if needed. Brine are pretty easy, don't fear.

 

Thanks for keeping up updated. Be happy to buy some from you when the time comes.

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Try rotifers?

 

 

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Not yet. Hope to stick with the frozen BBS unless I have to switch. I plan to do a little experimenting also with them concerning food. Figured documenting it would help me as well as other in the future. 

 

can also shave off the frozen cubes for smaller mouths if needed. Brine are pretty easy, don't fear.

 

Thanks for keeping up updated. Be happy to buy some from you when the time comes.

I got the nano pack of BBS. The others I'll cut in half or something. What I'm doing now is putting them in a little water and Selcon in the morning inside a glass jar then feeding and storing the rest in the jar in the mini fridge in the fish room. It's kept at 34 degrees. I plan to use that over the day to feed. The coral, pods, and clowns are enjoying the food that makes it out of the isolation box.

 

Very cool. I would buy some when they are ready too.

They will be available for sure.

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Day 4: 18 fry still. All seem ok except one seems to stay in the bottom corner of box.

 

Day 5: Lost 1 fry. Found one in corner dead. 

 

Day 6: Cleaned isolation box they were in as you could see food building up on mesh. Lost 2 fry later in the day. Not sure if it was from stress of other. 

 

Day 7: 15 fry remain but 2 still hanging in what we've started calling the death corner. Added a little bit of mesh to help slow the flow through the box. I'm still feeding frozen BBS but going to try some calanus in the morning to see if they are big enough to take it for a little variety. I've read they need to be fed at least 5 times per day. Unfortunately I'm only managing 3-4. Today I'll feed the 5 times but it's a bit difficult during the week.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Day 7 - 22: Slowly lost a fry every few days. Down to 6.

 

Day 23: Lost all of the fry except 1 due to my error when cleaning the isolation tank. Netted them and set the net on rim of tank. Net ended up letting all but one of them go and the clowns quickly devoured them. 

 

Day 24-26: Single fry still doing well and growing quickly. A few lessons I've learned in all this is next time I'll have a 10 gallon tank set up and ready to go when I get the next batch. I'll also make sure to have some live food on hand for them. Although the remaining fry seems to be growing on the frozen BBS I'd like to have something more nutritious. Also next time I'll use less selcon when feeding frozen. Instead of every other feeding I'll cut it down to twice per week. The fish are very fragile also. It seemed like every time I took them from their container to clean it and then placed them back I'd always lose 1 or 2 the next day. The 10 gallon tank will help eliminate having to move them. 

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You should check out prestige reef on YouTube he is also raising banggai fry right now and talks about the importance of nutrition if i remember correctly

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

More updates? This topic is very interesting :).

 

No. Still have the survivor. The pair have spawned a few times but the male is either eating the eggs or spitting them out. 

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(edited)

Just picked up an excellent book on the cardinal: Banggai Cardinalfish: A guide to captive care, breeding, and natural history. Highly recommended to those who are interested in doing this in the future.

 

Stephen, if you’re interested in a second try sometime, I could lend you the book. An/or give you the summaries of what it says I’m reading, with the time comes

Edited by KingOfAll_Tyrants
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Just picked up an excellent book on the cardinal: Banggai Cardinalfish: A guide to captive care, breeding, and natural history. Highly recommended to those who are interested in doing this in the future.

 

Stephen, if you’re interested in a second try sometime, I could lend you the book. An/or give you the summaries of what it says I’m reading, with the time comes

 

Thanks! I may take you up on it this fall/winter when I have more time. I looked for that book when I had the first batch but didn't want to pay the $100+ price for it. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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