Baby Banggais - My Florida Surprise!

[thefishgirl]

Hey all...

I just got back from Florida to find that my Papa Banggai in my 300g had let the babies out of his mouth! They are happily swimming around in the spines of my sea urchin. They seem to be pretty strong and maybe 2-3 days old. I fed them live rotifers and cyclopeez tonight. They seemed to be pretty happy about some dinner landing in the tank!

I'll try to keep this thread updated with pics and other info as I go along. I've decided to leave them in the 300g for now as I'm ill prepared for this. I'm only hoping they stay safely ensconced in the urchin spines and out of reach of my hungry wrasses.

I counted 13 the first time and 17 the second time... they move a lot and very quickly! I'm going to try to get a better picture tomorrow so I can get a better count of babies. For now... estimating approx 15 +/- a few.

[Sir Patrick]

Very cool!! What a surprise!

[vittleking]

very cool!!!! Maybe try to syphon them out and put htem in a net breeder?? Then they can get some size to them before you put them back in. Hope they make it!!

[Paulo]

congrats on the babies!

[thefishgirl]

They should be ok right where they are, as long as they stay in the spines of the urchin. I really wish I would have seen their birth. I'm wondering if the male actually spits them into the spines or if they find their way there on their own. Does anyone know?

[Tom@HaslettMI]

That is truly a great surprise! No clue on if the father deposits them in the urchin... but it would be pretty sweet if he did.

Best of luck growing them big and strong!

[cg5071]

sweet! i "think" or have read that the papa will release a few at a time over a few hours. i believe it is instinctual to hide in the urchin because dad probably ate a couple of the last ones released,lol. he hasnt eaten in 4-5 weeks! shoot some food to him also

i just bought some tank raised in hope of breeding them soon.

be carefull and try not to stress them too much. i guess they suffer and can die easily from it. there is a term for it but i can not remember. try to keep them in water if/when you move them to a different tank. scoop them up somehow instead of netting. they should be easy to catch if you could get the urchin into a specimen container or something.

[thefishgirl]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've got my fingers crossed on this batch. I lost my last ones due to my own stupidity. They made it 6+ weeks. I'm pretty sure these are more than a day old just due to their size already.

I'm hopeful these make it so some of the other breeders and I can swap some banggais to mix up the DNA a bit.

[cg5071]

sounds like a plan

[demonclownfish]

umm i call one or two if they make it . but when you go to catch them, catch them with a net and use like a film canister or a small baby food jar to scoop them out of the net so they wont be out of the water.