male cardinal fish.

**Devilboy77** · 03-20-2011, 11:09 AM

Hi,
My male bangaii cardinal has refused to eat the last week. His face and jawbone are severely swollen and square like. Is it possible he is carrying eggs? This pair of cardinals is not very old. I bought the pair off of the DD at liveaquaria less then a year ago. When i bought them the pair was less then an inch long. I am going to attach a photo of male, and hopefully someone here can identify for sure that he might be holding eggs. I hope something is not wrong with him.

**swissgaurd** · 03-20-2011, 11:15 AM

congrats, looks like your going to be a daddy soon

**Devilboy77** · 03-20-2011, 11:23 AM

You serious? How would i take care of the fry? Will he lay the eggs? He has been hanging out in a little cove of the tank. As where i took the picture.

**fragman2** · 03-29-2011, 10:50 AM

He is definitely carrying eggs. The challenge is usually getting the babies before anyone eats them or they just disappear into the overflow and sump. Can you catch him in a non-threatening "casual" way? Sounds silly but that's what I do with my male. He allows me to grab him and move him to another tank without spiting everything out. The trick thee is to not pick him up with the net. I capture him with the net and then use a 16 oz plastic cup to move him. He never spits them out using the cup for transfer. Good Luck!

**Just Clownin Around** · 03-29-2011, 11:00 AM

Nice. What are you guys feeding the parents my male keeps eating the eggs.

**fragman2** · 03-29-2011, 11:29 AM

I feed mine a mixture of meaty foods that include: Spirulina Brine Shrimp, Mysis, Plankton, krill, shopped clams, blood worms, and prawn roe. My theory, and thats all it is, is that you have to fatten up your male so that he can go a month without eating. When he is done with a clutch I feed the snot out of them. Basically as much as they will eat until a few weeks later he is carrying eggs again. I did read in another post that another reefer was deliberately striping the male of his eggs which would have some advantages. I may try this if I can figure out how to "tumble" the egg mass.

**Just Clownin Around** · 03-29-2011, 01:37 PM

Be careful with stripping the eggs. I had a friend do it once and now his male won't hold the eggs anymore

**fragman2** · 03-30-2011, 12:10 PM

Thanks for the warning! I'm guessing that all I will need to do is pick him up in the net. I did this accidentally twice and both times he spit out hatched babies. My hope is that if I do this while the egg mass is just a day or two old he will spit out the whole thing. What did your friend do when he stripped them?

**barbianj** · 03-30-2011, 12:14 PM

What have you been feeding the babies once the male spits them out?

**Bigevill1** · 03-30-2011, 12:30 PM

How do you tell the difference between a male and a female? I had a pair, but one killed the other. Now I would like to get him/her a legit mate.

**fragman2** · 03-30-2011, 01:42 PM

My breeding pair don't look identical. I looked for subtle differences in the stripe pattern between the two fish, so thats how I can mine apart. You know, "All Zebras" don't look exactly alike. Thats not going to help you now of course, but perhaps in the future. I think that you will be stuck with just guessing. The good news is that your existing cardinal will let you know right away if you didn't get the right sexed fish.

**fragman2** · 03-30-2011, 01:46 PM

For feeding the babies I use live baby brine shrimp. I have had very limited luck with NutriMar Prawn Roe as a first food. Don't get me wrong, they love the prawn roe when they are 2 or 3 weeks old. In fact I switch them over to that as soon as I can so I don't have to keep doing the hatching. At about a month you can usually get them to eat chopped up Brine shrimp and or Mysis.

**barbianj** · 03-30-2011, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by fragman2

For feeding the babies I use live baby brine shrimp. I have had very limited luck with NutriMar Prawn Roe as a first food. Don't get me wrong, they love the prawn roe when they are 2 or 3 weeks old. In fact I switch them over to that as soon as I can so I don't have to keep doing the hatching. At about a month you can usually get them to eat chopped up Brine shrimp and or Mysis.

That's not too bad, a few weeks of bbs.

**fsu1dolfan** · 03-30-2011, 01:50 PM

Congrats Devilboy - Hope you can successfully raise them and keep us updated!

Fragman2 - That picture of the baby bangi's is simply amazing. Sounds like you have done a great job!

**Devilboy77** · 04-07-2011, 01:18 PM

Ok just a update. The male is still holding the eggs. He has not eaten since the first post. Looking very thin. I have yet to see any babies in his mouth since everytime I approach the tank he turns his back on me and all I see is his tail fin. Should I start too worry that he is acting strange and I haven't seen any babies or that he has not released them?

**CJO** · 04-08-2011, 11:21 AM

Sorry I can't help with your questions, but that's really cool. It sounds like they are somewhat easy to breed if you have a separate tank for rearing them?

CJ

**Devilboy77** · 04-11-2011, 12:25 PM

he is real close to letting the babies go. I started seeing little heads and fins moving around in his mouth. As of last night his mouth is open wider then the last week. So it should be real soon.

**emerald525** · 04-11-2011, 12:33 PM

Congratulations. I have thought about breeding them. Matt Pedersen did a talk at our local forum and were told these are one of the easier fish to breed and a good one to consider as there populations are being depleted.

**Devilboy77** · 04-13-2011, 03:16 AM

Update:

Last night sometime during the night he decided to release the fry. I fed the tank the normal morning feeding and to my surprise the stinker was eating and his mouth was back to normal. There was no fry to be seen anywhere. I even looked in my filter sock. So I am sure they all got eaten thru the night. This was his first clutch along with my first experince.

**fsu1dolfan** · 04-13-2011, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by Devilboy77

Update:

Last night sometime during the night he decided to release the fry. I fed the tank the normal morning feeding and to my surprise the stinker was eating and his mouth was back to normal. There was no fry to be seen anywhere. I even looked in my filter sock. So I am sure they all got eaten thru the night. This was his first clutch along with my first experince.

Awww man that sucks!! So none of them made it?? Hope you will be able to try again.