rlpardue
Supporting Member
So I think I'll start my own Banggai breeding thread and stop hijacking Jaypilot's. I have a batch of babies that are about 2 months old now (since the male spit them at 25 days). I gave 14 of the babies away and should still have around 12 or so. I noticed the first aggression recently. If you look closely at the pictures you'll notice that there is a pair of fish which is more to the left than the others. This is the dominant pair, and they stake out their territory so that they get the first swipe at passing food particles. The current or "gyre" in the tank is moving food particles from left to right.
The dominant fish are clearly beefier than the others. If you look in the second picture, you may be able to discern that their second vertical dorsal fin (the long one up top) stretches further back than the same fins on the other non-dominant fish.
I've been adding some Oto mini-pellets after crushing them up a bit with my fingers. The fish go into a feeding frenzy and seem to be nibbling at small specks of pellet-dust but for now they are pretty dependant on baby brine shrimp. I also have been adding some mysis and fish eggs ("reef caviar") and they seem to be picking at it too. Hopefully I can wean them soon and maybe place the dominant pair up for sale. I'd say the fish are about the size of a quarter now.
I'll post some pictures of their earlier development later.
EDIT/ADD: One sad bit is that my male hasn't eaten since he started holding his second batch. I let that batch become fish food and he doesn't seem to have anything at all in his mouth but the male still isn't eating. He's clearly much skinnier than the female now. I'm growing concerned that he'll starve himself to death. Last night I did see him take a nip at a BBS in the water, hopefully he'll eat today.
The dominant fish are clearly beefier than the others. If you look in the second picture, you may be able to discern that their second vertical dorsal fin (the long one up top) stretches further back than the same fins on the other non-dominant fish.
I've been adding some Oto mini-pellets after crushing them up a bit with my fingers. The fish go into a feeding frenzy and seem to be nibbling at small specks of pellet-dust but for now they are pretty dependant on baby brine shrimp. I also have been adding some mysis and fish eggs ("reef caviar") and they seem to be picking at it too. Hopefully I can wean them soon and maybe place the dominant pair up for sale. I'd say the fish are about the size of a quarter now.
I'll post some pictures of their earlier development later.
EDIT/ADD: One sad bit is that my male hasn't eaten since he started holding his second batch. I let that batch become fish food and he doesn't seem to have anything at all in his mouth but the male still isn't eating. He's clearly much skinnier than the female now. I'm growing concerned that he'll starve himself to death. Last night I did see him take a nip at a BBS in the water, hopefully he'll eat today.
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