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Alto's Bangaii Cardinal Breeding thread


altolamprologus

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The male keeps the fry in his mouth for a few days after they hatch until they absorb their yolk sack, so they are fairly large when he spits them. They also exhibit direct development, so they skip the larval stage completely and they hatch out as fully developed mini adults. Basically you treat them like post-meta clowns. They have to be moved to a different tank (or at least to a sectioned off portion of the tank) because females have no qualms about eating their own young.

 

Ok, very cool to know. Thank you.

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altolamprologus

My pair is spawning right now. I just checked on them and the female had several eggs hanging out of her. I guess she's waiting for the male to do his job now. I saw one egg drop to the bottom so when they're done I'll try to artificially incubate it. Wish me luck!

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I only had one success and then I sold my pair. I do miss them. It's cool to look into the males mouth and see eyes staring out at you

 

What diet do you plan on feeding the pair

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altolamprologus
I only had one success and then I sold my pair. I do miss them. It's cool to look into the males mouth and see eyes staring out at you

 

What diet do you plan on feeding the pair

So far I haven't gotten to the eyes staring at me part. I hope this time he holds full term.

 

I feed them mostly enriched live adult brine shrimp and ova because those are the only things they actually enjoy eating. The female also eats frozen brine but the male refuses it. Occasionally they will eat one or two mysis, but usually they just stare as it falls to the bottom. They are waaaay pickier than even my mandarins!

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My pair is spawning right now. I just checked on them and the female had several eggs hanging out of her. I guess she's waiting for the male to do his job now. I saw one egg drop to the bottom so when they're done I'll try to artificially incubate it. Wish me luck!

 

Very cool. I can't wait to see their progress. :D

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altolamprologus

Sorry for the late update. The male swallowed the eggs on the 26th. Since he always swallows them the day after spawning, I'd say the eggs aren't being fertilized. I really hope the male is just stupid and not sterile...

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Sorry for the late update. The male swallowed the eggs on the 26th. Since he always swallows them the day after spawning, I'd say the eggs aren't being fertilized. I really hope the male is just stupid and not sterile...

 

You can always remove the eggs from his mouth and put them in an egg tumbler. I know somebody who takes their male out of the water and put the eggs in a tumbler made from an air stone and a soda bottle. There were pics so it did happen! :D

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altolamprologus
You can always remove the eggs from his mouth and put them in an egg tumbler. I know somebody who takes their male out of the water and put the eggs in a tumbler made from an air stone and a soda bottle. There were pics so it did happen! :D

I'd rather have the male carry them if possible though. It's less work for me and egg tumblers have a low success rate with banggais. Plus if they aren't fertilized tumbling wouldn't work anyway.

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altolamprologus
How long does the male carry the eggs in his mouth before he releases them out?

From what I have read, it's anywhere from 18-30 days, depending on water temp and how long after hatch the male holds. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to that point yet so I can't say from experience.

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altolamprologus

My reef saver rock from BRS arrived today. The tank has had a very well established piece of liverock in it for 2 weeks and I have been ghost feeding to boost the bacteria population so I'm hoping this cycle will go quick.

cardinaltank.jpg

(cell phone pic)

 

BTW, just in case you are wondering, I'm not doing a traditional bare bones breeding setup because cardinals (and particularly their babies) do much better in natural setups than a typical empty tank. Plus it's in my bedroom so I want it to be pretty :)

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altolamprologus

I'm also running chaeto during the cycle because I read in Coral magazine that it is a good way to soak up excess nutrients during the cycle and helps prevent unwanted algae outbreaks afterward.

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Congrats on the breeding pair! I live about 2 hours from Inland Aquatics and I took a drive to see their facility... Very impressive!

 

I was able to get a mated pair from them as well and after a few months, the male had eggs. And as you are noticing the male did swallow the first few batches. But I did manage to eventually get a nice spawn, about 40 to 50 fry. But I will say this, it is a lot of work, cleaning tanks, filters, feeding, etc. I eventually traded the pair for some coral.

 

Here's a pic of the little guys. These guys are brand new, you can still see the egg sac.

hpim2674.jpg

 

 

Notice the fake urchin I made out of a ball of epoxy with wooden skewers.

 

 

hpim2669e.jpg

Edited by basser1
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altolamprologus
Congrats on the breeding pair! I live about 2 hours from Inland Aquatics and I took a drive to see their facility... Very impressive!

 

I was able to get a mated pair from them as well and after a few months, the male had eggs. And as you are noticing the male did swallow the first few batches. But I did manage to eventually get a nice spawn, about 40 to 50 fry. But I will say this, it is a lot of work, cleaning tanks, filters, feeding, etc. I eventually traded the pair for some coral.

 

Here's a pic of the little guys. These guys are brand new, you can still see the egg sac.

hpim2674.jpg

 

 

Notice the fake urchin I made out of a ball of epoxy with wooden skewers.

 

 

hpim2669e.jpg

The babies are always so cute! How many did you raise to sellable size?

 

I am aware it's a lot of work, but I think I'm prepared for it. I used to take care of my brother's tanks as well as mine and was handling 11 tanks at one point, so the 5 I have now aren't much work. I'm also already hatching bbs every few days for my fish and coral so I have that routine down pretty good.

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The babies are always so cute! How many did you raise to sellable size?

 

I am aware it's a lot of work, but I think I'm prepared for it. I used to take care of my brother's tanks as well as mine and was handling 11 tanks at one point, so the 5 I have now aren't much work. I'm also already hatching bbs every few days for my fish and coral so I have that routine down pretty good.

 

 

Just want to say you are waaaayyy more ahead and prepared than I was. The bbs will be great for them. That was something I didn't have, I only had frozen bbs that I would occassionally supplement with frozen cyclopeeze. I was only able to rear about 5 to a decent size.

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altolamprologus
Just want to say you are waaaayyy more ahead and prepared than I was. The bbs will be great for them. That was something I didn't have, I only had frozen bbs that I would occassionally supplement with frozen cyclopeeze. I was only able to rear about 5 to a decent size.

Thanks, I've probably read every single webpage, thread, post, etc about breeding and caring for bangaii cardinals. I wanted to make sure no one could call me out for not doing research :lol: With only frozen I bet you lost a lot to SFS. That's my biggest worry, so I'm also preparing my copepod cultures to produce enough for my mandarins and baby cardinals.

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altolamprologus

At the risk of jinxing myself and making the male swallow, I am happy to announce my male cardinal has been holding a mouthful of eggs for 3 days now, which is a record for him.

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