:yay: I expeted that my Bangaii pair was going to deposit while I was out of town this week, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the male was still holding when I got home. So, this morning I moved him to the rearing tank and watched him deposit 12 babies. I moved him back to the brooding tank but apparently a little too quickly, because when I checked on him again about 30 minutes later, there were 5 more babies in the tank. I quickly scooped them up and moved them to join the others in the rearing tank. So, now I have a total of 17 new baby Bangaiis! I had started a new batch of brine shrimp when I got in late the other night, so I had some freshly hatched to offer the little guys and they immediately started to eat them. Right now, about half of them are hiding in the spines of the Long Spinned Urchin and another small group is huddled together in one corner of the tank. There are a few scattered around the tank as individuals who have not yet joined one of the two groups. Hopefully I will be able to raise a good portion of this batch. I'll get some pics later this afternoon and post them!
Bob :yay:

Most excellent!

Congrats!!!, apprx. how big are the babies when there born? I think mine brooded but I never seen any babies,Do you think they became food???

Nice! Pics are awesome too Bob!

Bobz, that is awesome!

1st in line for a Bob Bangai Special! nice work!

excellent!
pics please

Here are a few quick pictures of the not quite day old Bangaii Babies.

Almost immediately, about a dozen of them found the urchin!

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-09-19-08-028-urchin.jpg

The camoflauge is such a cool trait.

Makes me wonder what the Pajama cardinals hide in.

A couple more bad shots... here is a small group in the corner of the tank that did not yet find the urchin

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-09-19-08-026-bangaii-day-old.jpg

Closeup of the group that is hiding in the urchin's spines


http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-09-19-08-023-bangaiis-day-old.jpg

Last shot, this one gived you a feel for the size of the day old babies, this one is next to the heater and is nearly half the size of the red knob! Maybe about 1/4" in lenght total.


http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-09-19-08-033-bangaii.jpg

I don't think its so much about camouflage as it is about protection, those spines are pretty pointy!

awesome bob!

I equate the two together, they are definitley protected in the spines as you can see from the pic above, also great camouflage for them. My month old adopted baby (from Linda) is still hanging out in the spines of urchin and it is probably an inch in size now.

BZ

That is soooooooo very cool!

WOW! Thats awesome Bob! Dont forget I want some when they become the right size! How about a few pics of your set up? I would to see the tank they are being brought up in.

Nice work Bob! You should chronicle your methodology and stuff in a "build thread"! That would be a great resource.

Thanks guys, I can do that! Nothing too extravagant, just the bare necessities at this point. I'll take some shots and put a quick thread together.
BZ

I'm sure Loren or Raj can corral your posts on the subject into one thread.

By the way if you want to try to get them off live food, we sell frozen rotifers at Marine Fish.

Thats Sweet!@ let me know when you will be ready to part with one or two. they would be great for my 3g pico for six or so months.

A single benghai's actualy on my fish list so wene they get adult sized id love to buy one from ya!

Very cool Bob. I think you've got a killer setup. awesome

Congrats!! They are too cute!!

Good luck raising them!

I was asked to describe the setup I am using to breed the Bangaii. It really isn't too advanced, and I have kept things pretty basic. At some point I want to rework this area to get ready to try and breed some Orchid Dottybacks but this works fine for now.

This first shot is a picture of the rearing tank. It's just a 10 Gallon tank, bare bottom. I have a sponge filter being run by an airpump and a small 75W heater to maintain the temperature. There are a few pieces of tonga branch live rock for some minor filtration help but water changes are done every couple of days to ensure that ammonia does not spike. I also use the seachem ammonia alert for a quick read.

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-001.jpg

Another view of the 10G rearing tank, tops down. You can see the Long Spined Urchin in this shot as well.

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-003.jpg

This is another rearing tank, this one holds the month old Bangaii adopted from Linda. This tank has a HOB and small sponge filter plus some live rock. The ammonia alert can be seen on the front glass and if you look closely you can see the baby bangaii has really grown!

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-004.jpg

A shot of a couple of the 10G grow out tanks, the top one is plumbes to the sump and the botom two are stand alone.

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-005.jpg


Here is a picture of the Brine Shrimp hatching setup. Really simple, just a couple of coke bottles and airstones. The eggs hatch in about 24 hours so I always keep two bottles alternating to have enough on hand for the fry. I also enrich the newly hatched with Selcon for additional nutrition when they are a couple days old.

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-007.jpg

Closeup of the ammonia alert and the month old Bangaii.. This guy has graduated to a mixture of Cyclopeze, crushed Formula 1 pellets and adult enriched live brine shrimp. ( I am pretty sure that the fish here eat better than I do)

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-010-alert.jpg


This is the brood tank for the adult pair of Bangaii Cardinals. THe pair is a bit over a year old now and has spawned about 5 times. The first spawn was on April 24, 2008. I was only able to get one baby since I was gone when the male deposited. I lost the next two because I was out of town. The male aborted the fourth attempt after about two weeks, and now this is the fifth attempt and we have 17 babies from it. This tank is a 30G breeder tank and it bare bottom, with live rock and some mushroom, zoa frags. I am going to drill a 29G and move the adult pair to that tank because I think they prefer the taller tank.


http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-011-brood-tank.jpg

Finally, a shot of the fish "room" which was a storage closet. It needs to be reworked badly. The 29G sump on the far wall supports the grow out tanks and the 20G nanos. Not seen, there is a 40G sump under the brood tank that supports my frag tanks and the breeding tanks.


http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-setup-012-room.jpg

WOW bob incredible setup! Ill be glad to use that MRC skimmer for you since its looking so nice and clean.....

ha! Oh yeah, that's supposed to be hooked up to my 210! I really need to get it plumbed in this weekend. But that's another build thread!
BZ

Bob, you have a serious knack for this. Way to go!!

More like an addiction...

I'm still interested in some if you have any available when the time comes. That looks nice. Were you expecting to get so many?

This is all so incredibly exciting. I hope this trend takes off and that no Atlanta Reef Club member will ever consider buying a wild-caught Bangaii again!

Congrats, Bob -- very nice work.

I agree! I'm hoping I can get the majority of this batch raised to maturity. I am more than happy to hook up all my friends on the ARC. I will keep you all posted on the progress and any lessons learned.
BZ

amazing! good job

sweet pictures! they look cool!

Thanks!

very nice! Thanks Bob

Great job Bob, It's people like you that are making this a better hobby. It's tons of work but you truly are doing a noble thing! I've raised clowns seahorses and neon gobies in past lives and respect anyone who raises anything. It's slave labor for sure but so enriching to do. Congrats!

Thanks for the kind words. I'm going to setup a few brood stock tanks, one set will be Orchid Dottybacks and I wanted to try some Goby pairs. I was thinking about Green-banded or Neon, since I can keep them in a nano. I may pick your brain on the Neons!

You need to check into raising some urchins as well.

;-)

"Bob's Bangaii Condominiums"

ha! I was thinking about trading them in on some smaller ones though. These are getting too big for the 10G tanks.

I'd like a pair...when they are ready...

I'd like a pair...when they are ready...

You just don't hear many men admit to this.

:blush:

Rotfl!!!!! :lol2::yay: :lol2: :yay: :lol2:

Thats awesome! Put me in line for a bengai or 2. Great job! Im really enjoying this thread. The setups are really cool. I had an urchin like that before, I miss mine.

Very nice set up Bob. I would like to stop by and see this fish breeding house some time.

So this morning I am pleased to let you all know that all the babies made it through the night! It's hard to count them but I think there are actually 18. There was one that was swimming in circles when it was first deposited and I thought it was a goner but it looks like it may be ok. They are eating and now all have joined one of two groups. There are 12 in the spines of the urchin and a group of six in the corner of the tank.

Just a suggestion if you are trying to count them. I would snap a picture of them and then count them.

all have joined one of two groups. There are 12 in the spines of the urchin and a group of six in the corner of the tank.

Well, it is an election year after all -- but I had no idea cardinals were partisan.

C'mon, Bob... you must include a picture with each new post!!

Since you asked! Here are a few from today. You can see in the pics that the babies have a nice pink belly from eating the newly hatched brine shrimp!

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-day2-036-more-babies.jpg

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-day2-040.jpg

It looks like about 20 babies in the rearing tank, 18 of which have found the urchin

http://www.georgia-birding.com/reef-bangaii-day2-028-count.jpg

Wow!!!

Do you post on Reef Central? You should share this with a bigger audience!!

I don't think I've ever seen a Bangaii Babes Gone Wild thread at RC. (Although there might have been something on late night cable TV once....)

Awesome job! Kudos!

amazing...a lot of dedicate effort there.

awesome. I made a herd of artifical urchins for my male who had a "mouthful" (exopy putty with kabob skewers). 6 made it to the spines (that I know of). Heres the rub, when attempting to remove them, the babies couldnt keep up with the speed that their supergenius keeper was removing the homesite, and the rhomboids wrasse trio and anthias said thank you very much. I suck!

Yep. That bites. I was going to make an artificial urchin because I was concerned about keeping the my live ones well fed. So far they seem to be doing ok so long as I can supply them with some coraline covered live rocks every few days. The biggest problem has been the enormous amount of poo these guys generate! I am constantly siphoning out the droppings, at least they are easy to see since they look like little pellets. The brood continues to do well and have graduated to some enriched two day old artemia. They all seem to be swimming fine and hopefully will continue to do well. I am feeding three times a day right now, trying to keep alittle bit of food in the water column for them to hunt and eat consistently. Did a large hatch of brine shrimp eggs yesteday so I can enrich them and keep them refrigerated in case I need some backup. My corals seem to really enjoy the leftovers!

Bad news to report. I lost this batch on Bangaii babies. I think I screwed up and had too much newly hatched brine shrimp in the tank because I was afraid they would not get enough to eat. I think the shrimp depleted the Oxygen and the babies all died. Terrible lesson to learn. Next time I'll feed less and make sure there is an airstone to aerate the tank. Bummed out!

awe..........

Sorry to hear that! Please keep us informed if you try again!

Thanks... conditioning the parents again.. hopefully they will spawn again in about two weeks and I can start counting days again.

Eh, that sucks. Keep it up though.

Aww, sorry Bob. Things were going well! Hope that next time is a keeper!! Good job on all the updates though!

So sorry, Bob. :(

We just gotta keep telling ourselves... "heck, they're just fish...."

(yeah, right)

:'(

I'm so sorry you lost the babies.:sad: Hopefuuly all will go well next time. Your pictures were amazing. Can't wait for your next batch

Sheryle

That sux..just curious on how are you going about in conditioning the parents? Don't tell me Barry White music, because thats that Mark is suggesting over in the clownfish post.:unsure:

I believes he switches from dosing vodka over to cognac a couple of days prior. I think the cardinals prefer Courvoisier. He pulls the shades, dims the actinics. And lets the magic happen.

hehehe, yep I saw that from Mark. I was wondering..hmmm, nevermind. I "condition" the adults by hammering them with food three or four times a day. I like to let the male eat as much as he can before starting holding again to increase the likelihood of the male going full term. I try to feed them live brine (enriched), Rod's food, Frozen mysis. They seem to do well.