Banggai Cardinals - Holding again

**thefishgirl** · 10-01-2009, 10:32 PM

I had a pair of breeding Banggai Cardinals in my 180g. As I suspected, papa fish was holding again. As I had to move the fish yesterday from my 180g, I was concerned that this batch would be spit and would not make it.

Papa kept all eggs but 2 in his mouth despite being netted and packed around in a 5g bucket. I scooped up the eggs and put him, mama. and the 2 extra eggs in their new Banggai Cave. I had set up a 30g (approx) rubber tub for them, complete with 3 rocks, a handful of chaeto, a handful of sand, a filter, and the light from my sump.

I have been feeding them mysis throughout yesterday and today. Today, Papa B. came out long enough to show me that he still had his mouthful of eggs. I'm pretty excited as there are no predators in the tank with them, so I think I will be much more successful than prior attempts at catching the babies in the middle of the night before the wrasses and such ate them.

Prior to this, I had captured 4 babies and raised them to 6 weeks of age. They were doing great until I added a powerhead to the Pico and it overheated.

I'll try to capture some pictures of him and his eggs tomorrow. He's pretty shy, but maybe I'll get lucky.

**thefishgirl** · 10-09-2009, 05:58 PM

So, after further research, I believe that as of today, we are about 15-16 days along with the gestation period. YAY!!

**graphixx** · 10-09-2009, 06:06 PM

AWESOME!!!

they are such a cool fish!! you should be fairly successfull... I am sure you are aware they are one of the hardier of the fish to rear the young!!

CONGRATS..... now lets see some pics!!!!

**jojo22** · 10-09-2009, 07:16 PM

I'm with graphixx on the pic issue.

Hope you have good luck raising the young.

**thefishgirl** · 10-09-2009, 10:39 PM

OK.. so here was my first batch of babies. May they rest in peace. I kinda had Banggai soup one day.
*grimace*
Babies3 - Banggai Cardinals - Holding again

Babies2 - Banggai Cardinals - Holding again

This is the new Banggai cave:
000 0055 - Banggai Cardinals - Holding again

I never see them now. LOL

**jojo22** · 10-09-2009, 10:56 PM

But they are there and the babies are safe!!

**thefishgirl** · 10-09-2009, 11:02 PM

No babies yet, but yeah.. they will be a lot safer there than when they were in the baby-eaters tank. Those wrasses loved the banggai buffet when I wasn't around to catch 'em. Which was all times except one. LOL

**ramoth41** · 10-12-2009, 09:26 PM

Can't wait to see the new babies!! They are soo cute when they are little! Ron and I are having 2nd thoughts on the Watchman's were trying to breed... the new babies are going to bee soo tiny and we think they may have had eggs but they don't mouth brood like cardinals so we just aren't sure. We want to try Benngai but haven't found any around here at the LFS' .
Good luck!!

**Lanter11** · 10-13-2009, 01:21 PM

As of Sunday, my male was holding again too! The first time he didnt last but 5 days, so we will see. We didnt know that we had a male and female until he was holding the first time, so we were not feeding him extras. This time we tryed to time it out and started feeding extra, and Sunday they did the transfer! We will see what happens!!!