Breeding Cardinals??

ClowningAround · 09-07-2008, 04:13 PM

I just picked up 2 nice size high fin cardinal fish. My question is how do you tell which is male and female?

Also does anyone have any tips of how to breed them or what to expect?

ahayes13 · 09-07-2008, 05:06 PM

well i had three in my tank originally and two of them just paired off. i dont think their is a way to tell them apart. but the female i have is quite a bit bigger than the male.
mine all of a sudden just started breeding a while back and have already mated three times. right now the male has eggs all in his mouth.

i havent successfully raised any of the babies because i think he spits out the babies and my other fish gobble them up. i would suggest though maybe doing a breeder net. and once the male has the eggs keep him in there and once he spits out the babies remove him from the breeder. you will prob. need to do some research on what to feed the babies, i think that is the difficult part.

ClowningAround · 09-07-2008, 06:08 PM

Ok thank you the ones I got are the Bangaii Cardinals and one is about 2in and the other is about 2.5in. They are hanging around eath other so I think they might be a pair...??
I googled it and found alot of info so far.
Some suggested once you see the male with eggs in his mouth eithere put him in the breeder net or a seperate 10g tank and once he spit them all out put him back into the main tank.

ahayes13 · 09-07-2008, 06:14 PM

well thats good if they are hanging together, should be a good sign. i agree about once he spits out the babies to get him out of the net or whatever. because as far as i know they may eat some of the babies. also i would consider keeping the babies in a net so you can make sure they are getting fed and so that they dont get sucked away. they are very tiny.

ahayes13 · 09-07-2008, 06:16 PM

btw once they mate you can tell because he will have the eggs in his mouth and he wont eat. also his "jaws" will get very big.

ahayes13 · 09-07-2008, 06:18 PM

not a great picture but this was right after he got the eggs you can see one of the eggs hanging out the side of this mouth.

ClowningAround · 09-10-2008, 09:00 PM

Ok so update. I bought the other one that was in the group. The new one is being chased around by another and the bigger one just kinda hangs out and doesnt bother eithere of them,they swim around it but thats it. What does this mean?

cpage3 · 05-19-2009, 01:37 AM

There are many theories of telling males from females if you are talking about banggais but none of the rules can be standardized in my opinion.

cpage3 · 05-19-2009, 01:38 AM

The best way to get a pair is to put 3 together and watch for two to distance themselves from the other one. Then you are likely to have a pair

acanman · 05-19-2009, 01:43 AM

my lfs is the 2nd biggest aquaculture in saltwater fish(S.A) and they told me that the males will have bigger jaw structure and the longer fins...

revhtree · 05-19-2009, 01:50 AM

I want to try my hand at this!

Carolina Frags · 05-19-2009, 04:19 PM

I have 2 pairs of them and find these every now and then in the frag tanks.

gmneil · 06-16-2009, 01:05 AM

Ex82nd that has to be a nice find, i finally have a breeding pair but the male spits out the babies before they develop. i wish i could find a way to get them to live. any suggestions, i do have the pair seperated into a 10g tank that is plumbed into my main system.

Robthorn · 07-15-2009, 04:15 PM

Gmneil I would think your bangaii father is getting hungry and just can't stand it any longer. Feeding extra and fattening him up a bit might help. Of course all of your fish get bigger that way and more polutants but it should work.
I have bred bangaiis before and raised the babies to adulthood. I got out of the hobby so I don't have that pair anymore. I am now back in and just picked up another pair I picked by watching their actions with the other bangaiis in the stores tanks. I think there were 5. A couple were hiding so I didn't want them they were most likely immature. 1 larger one was hanging out front and not getting chased so I figured that is the mature female. The other 2 were playing chase. I wanted the one doing the chasing because I knew it was male because they only allow 1 mature male per smallish tank. I took the 2 home and 2 months later they are mating. They are not fat enough to hold the eggs long term yet but I know I have a pair because the male actually had eggs for 2 days. I always fed fresh hatched brine shrimp the first 2-3 days and then started adding some cyclop eeze everyday with the brine and they appeared to take the cyclop right away. Others say it hasn't worked for them but I feed cyclop everyday in my main display so I think they were more used to it in my system.

Robthorn · 07-15-2009, 04:17 PM

Also about the jaw. I have never seen a BAngaii that hasn't taken eggs in his mouth a good long time with a noticable jaw structure difference. As soon as they go a ways their jaws somehow seem altered and it is very easy to see the male by his jaw. As easy as seeing black and white. Before is another story.