"As the Pump Turns," a bangaii soap opera

[ahayes13]

lol. glad they are doing well....

 

[joefish]

i need to get a dedicated tank for them, for sure.quote]

I happen to know where one is sitting:angel:

 

[Saltysteele]

:D

i'm just waiting for you babies to get a little bigger, joe :D how big do you want them before i get them to ya?

 

[joefish]

3/4 - 1 inch, but if you need the setup sooner its no problem.

 

[MISFITKID]

It's that easy huh? I was going way overboard planning for mine... I pick up my pair Friday, so about a day away.. Kicked the hippo out, moving the Cardinals in. Hoping to have some sucess at this too... I think I have a perfect low flow area in my sump for some babies...full of pods :)

 

[Saltysteele]

yeah :)

a good pair of cards, correct conditions, nice hiding spots for the fish (i've seen my male that is carrying a total of 1.5 seconds in the past 5 days) and luck.

if your able to somehow get the male separated or caught before the 21 days are up, you can strip the babies from him (live bearers, so not eggs).

with the last batch, i saw he was floating around the tank in the middle of the night, flipped the lights on, slipped the net in, and he decided to check out the net, so scooped him.

don't know if i'll be that lucky this time. for tiny babies, they're very good at getting away and untilizing cracks and crevices. they leave the dad's mouth looking for dark spots and holes.

 

[MISFITKID]

I had to read the thread again, baby banggai are definatly cute.

I got mine! and the male is still holding :) I assume, I am new at this, but it looks like he has some "chew" in his bottom lip and he wouldn't eat today...I guess he has had them for somewhere around two weeks...

I need to start a thread called "Banggai's of our Lives" J/K

 

[Saltysteele]

lol! just so long as they're not on the same time slot! :D

you'll notice he'll kind of look like he's rearranging the chew every once in a while. there's also a strip of cartilage that runs from the middle of the bottom lip down to the gill plate that will bulge out

my male is hiding behind the rocks, and i can't get him to come out for nothing! he's due to release them any day now. he'll probably do it tonight, now that i'm at work :(

 

[Saltysteele]

well, a week or so ago i rearranged the rocks on the left side of my tank. since, i have hardly seen my #1 male, who is due to spit the babies any day now, if he hasn't already. he's very tough to catch, as even the slightest movement sends him darting for the rocks.

I arrived home from work at about 1:30am last night, and noticed the female floating around with a partner. i turned the lights on, and the female took off, but the male kinda just hung around in the back corner, bouncing his chin on the ground as he floated. When I slipped the net in, though, he went for the rocks. He came out, and was swimming in the middle of the tank, and then went to the rocks on the left. As I put the net near where he was on the rocks, he swam away, but then came back and was popping at the net (more on this at the bottom). While appearing to try to attack the net, he basically swam into the it, so I scooped him.

While placing the net so the rim was out of water, but the fish was still in water, I grabbed him and tried opening his mouth (he obviously had something in there). He slipped, and spit a bunch of eggs! Yes, I said EGGS. From what I've read, I've always thought card's were livebearers. Guess again.

So, now I've got the net positioned at the top of the tank so as to contain the eggs, allow them good flow, but yet the rim is out of water.

On to the popping. This is a behavior I noticed earlier in the week. I've got a flame angel, and he pretty much claims the whole tank as his. He doesn't nip them or anything, but brushes against them to get them to leave the rocks. While trying to shoo the card's from the rocks, I noticed one of them was popping at him, like trying to tell firefly to back off. I could see him popping, but could also hear the popping. Pretty cool; at least, I thought so.

So, what did we learn today?
1) Card's are NOT livebearers.
2) Card's pop, as a warning system to other fish.

:D

 

[Azurel]

They are not true live bearers as you found out....Just them male holds the eggs till they hatch. One only a few fish that show any prenatal care before and after birth....IN the wild from what I have read about them is the male will protect them for a short while after spitting them out. Much like a cichlid but not to that extreme....How are the babies doing?

 

[Saltysteele]

Babies are doing great, James :) Probably about 3/4" at this point

 

[Saltysteele]

DANG!!

so i told ya i could #2 with a mouthful of eggs, thinking it was #1 with a mouthful of babies.

#1 has been extremely elusive this time around, and i haven't seen him half the time, and started to think he was a goner. however, sunday night, he showed up out of the blue, and was hanging out under a rock table, and sometimes coming out into the corner of the tank, only to jet back under the rock if i'd try to get the net close to him. i tried for 3-1/2 hours, to catch him! i was desparate, though, those babies were hanging out of his mouth, and two of them even popped out. i was able to net the two that popped out, as they started swimming up towards the lights. the rest...... well, they're gone..... so, out of that entire batch, i got 2. survival rate for me so far, has been half. hopefully these came from the half that would have lived.

the good news, is #1 and #2 are now both card-carrying members of the baby-daddy club :haha:

now, i just have to figure out how to catch them next time. i've been thinking of making a trap out of smoke-colored plexi, narrow and slightly tall, as he was going behind the rocks, between them and the glass, to hide this time. if i can sneak it in there, hopefully he'll go in it to hid, and i can slide the front down.

time to bring home the router table and router (still at my old house/friend bought my old house, let me keep it there with my other wood working stuff)