Bangaii Cardinals (1 Viewer)

[rlpardue]

Dude I think the shot of the babies is pretty fantastic. I'm sorry to hear about the male spitting, but it sounds like the babies may have reached the point where tumbling is a viable option. Thanks for sharing about the heart beating - that's pretty neat! Ask your wife if you can bring some babies up to the lab to photograph at 100x magnification!

I always wondered what the fry look like while they live in the father's mouth. Now it looks like we will find out! This is really cool

 

[Jaypilot]

This is the third day that they have been in the tumbler. All the cardinals are still alive and I think 4 of them are still in the eggs but they also look like they are still developing as well. As you can tell they are starting to look like little cardinals now that the color is starting to come in. It seems they are still eating off their yolk sack so I think I have another few days before I have to feed them.

Sorry about the bad pic. I have a lot of glare by the door during the afternoon but I will try to take another one after the sun goes down, using just the aquarium light.

 

[LSUFireGal]

They are so cute! My son wants some pajama cardinals but I think we better stick with what we've got for now. I like these better, but it is his tank.

 

[rlpardue]

Dude that is amazing. Keep the awesome pictures coming, I wish I'd documented my batch's development.

 

[Jaypilot]

Thanks guys, Im just excited that I have been able to keep them a live as long as I could since they were premature. I have slowly been turning down the air bubbles so that the fry and slowly start to swim on their own with out the assistance of the up current. Once I get it turned all the way off I will put the fry into a breeding box an hopefully at that point they will also be ready for BBS.

Still a long road ahead of us but I feel like we are on the right path.

 

[Jaypilot]

Here is the 4th day.

As of right now I think all are still alive except for maybe one egg that has still not hatch and has now floated to the top of the tumbler.

I may try to put them in the breeder box tomorrow and their first feeding will be on Saturday which I think will be around the 24th day. Their yolk sacks may still be connected by then so we will just have to see. In a way I hope they are still connected because I am going to go out of town for the weekend so they may not get fed until Sunday night or Monday morning (26th day).

 

[rlpardue]

I you need to drop 'em by my place, I can feed them over the weekend.

 

[Jaypilot]

I you need to drop 'em by my place, I can feed them over the weekend.

Thanks Lee,

I think they will be ok because I will be able to feed them around 3 on Saturday and then I may be able to feed them again on Sunday depending on when we get home. But even if I have to wait until Monday its only 26 days since the male was holding so they still may be feeding off their yolk sacks.

What do you think, When did yours stop feeding off of their Yolk sack or when did your male spit?

 

[Jaypilot]

I'm also a little concerned because I just thought of something. rlpardue has his cardinals in a dedicated grow out tank that is plumbed into his main system. He also turns the return off going into the grow out tank for about an hour after feeding so that the cardinals can get as much food as possible and I'm sure even after he turns on the pump again there is still a lot of food floating around.

My concern is that I am planning on using a breeding box to hold the fry in for at least a few weeks before moving them to a grow out tank. with that being said my concern is that the BBS will leave the breeding box leaving very little in there for them eat.

Does anyone have any experience with a breeding net and if so are the holes small enough to contain the BBS or will they still swim out?

 

[rlpardue]

Your babies should be fine over the weekend. I dropped off a baby for kicks at a LFS and it lived for a week I believe. Somebody else will have to answer the breeding net question - I'm not sure on that. Buying a 7$ sterilite container at Wal-Mart and using a DIY airlift to exchange water with another system would be a pretty cheap option though, if you don't mind the ugliness. I know that many people on RC use breeder nets for their Banggai fry; you might want to try there.

 

[Jaypilot]

Ya I just dont have a lot of time to set something like that up. I already have a breeding box but I thought if the breeding nets were fine enough then maybe I will by one of those and drop that in the tank.

 

[Jaypilot]

<a href="http://s1137.beta.photobucket.com/user/Jaypilot/media/photobucket-27110-1361506007381.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n511/Jaypilot/photobucket-27110-1361506007381.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo photobucket-27110-1361506007381.jpg"/></a>

Well one more step ahead. All 20 fish including the eggs that I thought didn't make it have been moved into the breeding box. I think my thought was correct though about letting too much of the brine shrimp out. I tried to feed the little guys today and they did eat but I think a lot of the BBS got out of the box before the little guys had a chance to get totally full. So I'm not sure when I'm going to find time but I may try to get a breeder net and see if I can contain some of the brine shrimp for at least a little longer.

Once again a poor quality pic but I'm trying to take pics with my phone for ease of transfer and I'm also doing it with out a flash as to not scare the little guys, so please excuse the poor pic.

 

[Jaypilot]

OOOppps second try

 

[Jaypilot]

Today they are looking better still. I have all 20 fish still and they are all eating baby brine shrimp faster then I can put it in there. Today is the 25 days after the male started holding and I think its been a 7 days now since the male spit them out. So its been a short time but you can already see pretty fast growth and great color quality in just a few days.

 

[LSUFireGal]

They look great!

 

[Jaypilot]

So my little guys are still progressing really good. All 20 are still a live with big fat bellies and are growing fast. My feeding has been the best but the fish seem to cope with that just fine. Being an airline pilot with a wife that doesn't have much interest in fish the poor guys will most likely never been on any type of feeding schedule. Sometimes they get fed 10 times a day (every time I look at them) other times its late at night after the lights go off. Either way no matter when I feed them they seem to always want more.

Also my Second pair of cardinals that I purchased from petco are still holding as well. The male spit out one yesterday and I was worried that more were coming soon but right around 24 hours later he hasn't spit anymore. My only guess is that this is a young fish and he was just running out of room in his mouth. The poor guy looks like he ran into a brick wall and flattened his face. But with that being said it kind of gave me an idea of how long the male has been holding. Right now the eyes have all developed and they are still eating off of their yolk sacks. Judging by a lot of the pics that I have seen on the internet of cardinal eggs and my personal eggs from my male that spit at 18 days, I think they are about 15-17 days old. So hopefully right around a week I will have more pics to up date you with.

My third pair is also holding again. This pair has held 5 times now and every time seems to eat the eggs right around the 5 day mark. This time he has been holding for about a week so I may have turned a corner with pair and hopefully they will hold full term this time.

As far as my pair with the 20 babies they are doing great. Every time I feed the babies there is a lot of the BBS that exits the breeding box and they go nuts over that. They are also eating heavily on everything else that I put in the tank for them.

Here is a pic taken today of the 20 little guys. As you can tell they are getting bigger. They are perfect clones of mommy and daddy but still do not have any spot yet. Those will be coming in about another 6 weeks or so.

 

[Jaypilot]

After looking at my own pic I only count 19. I may have to snap a few other pics and count again but there may be one on the backside of the rock.

 

[Jaypilot]

Im starting to get a little worried about my petco pair of cardinals. Im not sure how long he has been holding but I know he is getting close. He is getting really small and his face and jaw is getting so big and so extended that it looks like a truck ran over him and then backed up on him again. You have to remember that this fish, I would guess is no more then about 6 months old and I'm sure he was also underfed at the pet store before holding. This guy is an incredible strong fish to undergo so much, and for being so young.

After he spits the fry he will be left along for a few weeks before reuniting him with the female. I feel pretty bad looking at him, but I guess this is how nature works.

I would take pics but he is already in rough shape and I dont want to startle him with a flash.

 

[rlpardue]

It sounds like you have a super-dad. This is great news, it means you won't have to deal with him spitting babies prematurely and stuff! I used to not worry about separating the male for a couple weeks between broods, but then I watched my male go 60 days without food, then eat for two days and start holding eggs AGAIN. I'll separate him from now on. Your babies look awesome, nice job with the tumbling!

 

[Jaypilot]

It sounds like you have a super-dad. This is great news, it means you won't have to deal with him spitting babies prematurely and stuff! I used to not worry about separating the male for a couple weeks between broods, but then I watched my male go 60 days without food, then eat for two days and start holding eggs AGAIN. I'll separate him from now on. Your babies look awesome, nice job with the tumbling!

Thanks, The funny thing about it is that, the male spit out one egg 5 days ago. I suspect that at that time the male was holding right around 15 day because the egg looked pretty far along being that it had eyes and everything else. I thought about setting up the tumbler but I never did because I thought it was more trouble then it was worth. But with that being said the egg has hatched and the little fry is still sitting on the bottom of the breeding net and for the past two days every time I walk over to the tank the little fry starts to move/bounce a little. This is kind of cool because it gives me an idea of how far along the rest of the fry are because this little guy still seems to be alive and developing normally. He is still tiny living off of his yoke sack and he just got his first black markings yesterday. Not yet a free swimmer but I think will be some time over the weekend.