Baby F2 Banggais

[Hypsophrys]

Is anyone in the area breeding Banggais?

I have a pair sourced from LiveAquaria - captive bred in Asia. The male has been incubating them for 20 days and today i basically chased him around until he coughed up 5 of them. 4 look to be in decent shape, the other not so much.

I have some B1 size TDO food, as will as some tigger pods, cyclop-eeze... They've been out for an hour or so - no feeding response that I can tell, yet.

I have them in a large "Kritter Keeper" with the grating just below the water line, attached with magnets to the front glass of the main reef. I'm hoping they don't decide to push themselves through the grating. One one of the magnets I have a big clump of Halymenia (the fuzzy kind) and at least one of the smart ones is hanging there. I would say I have three healthy ones, one questionable, and one not doing so hot - wondering if the male bit it.

So. What now? I have a sump refugium in another system I could put them in (in the kritter keeper or loose. But I'm not sure I want to try to acclimate them at this stage. I also have a 10g former hospital tank that I could dedicate for them, but have to figure out a lighting situation so I can keep macros growing and nitrates/phosphates under control. Also hoping not residual Metro/praziquantel in there that could harm them. The BioFilter is being keep talive with some dwarf cerith snails eating algae wafers...

For now, my big concern is keeping the water in their little micro- habitat clean, and getting them to feed. I feel my goal has to be prepared foods, preferably pellets (moving up from the TDO). But it's so hard to gauge any feeding response. They're the size of brine shrimp. the adults only eat frozen food and I'd like these to be lower maintenance. Certainly don't want them depending on live food.

Any advice, experiences, etc appreciated.

If I can begin to successfully raise them, I plan to give these away to local _responsible_ reefers in order to reduce demand for wild caught fish.

So, help appreciated.

--ian in Mira Mesa.

[ChouDawg]

I think user "ilia" does, they have posted bangai youngins in the past. I don't know anything about them other than they are mouth brooders and the young tend to like fake zip tie urchins for cover. I'd love to adopt some once you get it sorted out, good luck!

[Hypsophrys]

I think user "ilia" does, they have posted bangai youngins in the past. I don't know anything about them other than they are mouth brooders and the young tend to like fake zip tie urchins for cover. I'd love to adopt some once you get it sorted out, good luck!

Thanks Chou, will PM ilia. If/when I have some ready I'll PM you first.

[ChouDawg]

Thanks Chou, will PM ilia. If/when I have some ready I'll PM you first.

No problemo!

[ilia]

Need any help raising Banggai fry, talk to me. It is not very hard, just need to be creative and persistent.
Ilia

[Hypsophrys]

Need any help raising Banggai fry, talk to me. It is not very hard, just need to be creative and persistent.
Ilia

Hi Ilia. I have 5. I've tried selcon/garlic soaked daphnia, cyclopeeze, special TDO fry food. Have barely seen a feeding response. So, any specific ideas?

[Hypsophrys]

Well tigger pods are a win and i'm hatching some decapsulated BBS, but I have no idea how I will get them off live foods. :|

I have two left, but fat and growing. The other 3 disappeared on Monday night, I'm guessing they escaped from the kritter keeper into the main reef. The remaining 2 are in my 10g ex hospital tank.

Fingers crossed. Trying to fatten up the male because the female is ready to go again.

[CMD2213]

When using critter tanks. You need to put a nylon or something that prevents escape and allows flow I did that a lot with freshwater fry. They can squeeze through and if lucky months later will pop up out of nowhere alive and scared lol. Good luck.

[Hypsophrys]

Yeah I stared at the grating and thought they'd really have to want to go through it pretty badly. Guess they did. I will just keep the 10g going and only use the keeper to corral the dad to make him spit them out.

I do have a long-spined urchin, ostensibly to eat dictyota. So I initially thought I would let them fend for themselves. But think my fairy wrasse would hunt them pretty relentlessly...

[Hypsophrys]

Update: Day 6 and the two fry are doing well. Probably the size of small peas now.

I think tigger pods got them through the first 2-3 days, and it's been BBS since then. They really go for movement, and are still ignoring TDO and cyclop-eeze. However a small sign of hope is that they seem to eat BBS which are obviously dead, as long as at least one or two are moving, which triggers the feeding response. I ordered some "Instant Baby Brine Shrimp" (Ocean Nutrition) which should be here Tuesday, and I will try that. I'm also going to keep trying to mix TDO in with the live brine.

Anyone who cultures brine, what do you feed them to get them past the 2-3 day mark? I have tried finely crushed foods mixed with selcon but I'm not seeing many get past the nauplii stage.

I sense that I need to get them on cyclop-eeze by day 10-12 or there's not much hope of weaning them. Ilia did suggest nutra-mar ova but they seem to be sold out everywhere I look. I thought of golden pearls but others have had zero success with those. Any other ideas welcome.

--ian

[Hypsophrys]

Just a quick update. They're fully the size of peas, still chowing on newly hatched BBS and Tigger pods. No luck on the instant brine shrimp stuff so far. Got some pipettes and will start trying to make cyclop-eeze look alive in the next few days. Wish me luck.

Peas in a pod.


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[ChouDawg]

Those are so cute, like miniatures of their parents...so cool! Glad to see you got some to survive.

[Hypsophrys]

So they're both still alive. Definitely one male and one female. The male eats cyclop-eeze (and is a jerk) but the female is still stuck on BBS.

Dad had another batch as of a couple of days ago, but started eating again so guess he chowed them.

I'm going to ask Ilia if she wants the male for breeding stock, and will work on getting the female to eat live foods for a little longer. Eventually I will probably have two girls (the aunt who was separated from the original trio after they paired off) available to go to a nice home (but either a big tank or two homes - the females don't get along).

[FDdragon]

ill take the two once they are ready if you are giving them away. I will take care of them. =)
I have a tank with only a blenny in it so they would be a great addition.

[antneereef]

I would be interested in these as well - I have a 35 gal reef tank with one clown fish and looking to add variety. Have had my eye on these as tank mates for the maroon! thanks!