Expecting Banggai Cardinalfish

[WildBill]

Not sure how to tell difference from a male/female with this fish. I have had these two for about 4 months. The mouth on one of them has doubled in size, like below it. I read that the male carries the eggs in his mouth. Could this be that he is carrying eggs? If so, how do they hatch so to speak, and what do I do with the lil fry's there after?

Thanks..............WildBill

 

[WildBill]

Just say the big one open his mouth............it is sure full of eggs. My next question is, how long does it take for them to "hatch"?

 

[PenMan]

If the mouth is bulging, they are already hatched. If you watch carefully, you will be able to see them swimming in tje mouth. If you have a lot a hidding spots in the tank, you will probably be able to have a few make it after he spits them out. The long spine urchin is the home in the wild. We have a couple of pairs in our main tank and watch for the fry. They go into the fuge either by the net or through the overflow. We feed heavy with the cyclopese and baby brine shrimp when we have a new batch.

 

[Greg Hiller]

IME, the time from transfer of eggs to mouth and cessation of eating to hatch of well formed fish in a tank at about 78F is approximately 23-25 days. The trick IMO with these guys is just to get a daddy fish that is willing to hold the eggs for the full term. Many of my pairs spit them out within 3-6 days. I have artificially incubated eggs that were a few days immature, and still not swimming with good success, but incubating them for more than 3 days is difficult. I tried using methylene blue, which is supposed to slow/prevent fungus formation, but didn't work for the >3 days necessary with the batch I was attempting to pull though.

 

[WildBill]

Thanks for the info. Very interesting comments Greg. Although I look and watch each day at what is happening in the tank, I now know how subtle (sp) things can be.

For the past 2 weeks I was wondering why one of the Banggai's was sorta laying low and staying back out of the limelife so to speak. I guess the mystical life of reef/sea creatures was playing out infront of me. BUT, I have seen only half of it..........as now I hope to see the full cycle. This may be hard and a case of being in the right place (Tank TV) at the right time. Hope to get pic's.

WildBill