Bangaii Cardinal Breeding Tips

[LiquidAquariums]

Hi there. Here’s some background on me.

I have been in the hobby for 20 years with freshwater and saltwater. I have an aquarium leasing business in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and it’s been active for about 5 years. It’s so rewarding and doesn’t feel like work at all! I have over 3500G of saltwater tanks that I lease/maintain. I am also a carpenter and am currently developing my basement with a built in tank backing my mechanical room.

So I am wanting to try my hand at breeding Bangaii Cardinals. They are most of my client’s favourite fish, but very rare in store around here. Does anyone have tips or tricks to make it a positive and rewarding experience? Money isn’t an issue if there is specific equipment to ensure success.

Thanks in advance!!

Ben

 

[Troy V]

Welcome to R2R!!

First, find a good mated pair. Then once you can see the male has fry in his mouth wait a few weeks before catching him. I found netting him at night was the easiest way to catch them with the least amount of stress on him and the babies. Because if you stress him too much he could release the fry or worse eat them. Another big key for success was having a system with a health refugium full of pods and mysid shrimp. So when you are ready to remove the male you have a natural safe refuge to put the male and new fry into. The newly released fry will decimate the mysid and pod population with in a few days. But it will kick start their lives with a natural food source, and you can use baby brine from there, or whatever food you choose to use. The process will be trial and error. Expect to lose most of the babies the first few times as you learn but with some practice you will soon be rasing more than you know what to do with. I ended up giving them away so I could make room for the next brood. A mated pair of Banggaiis can produce many hundred of offspring a year. Good luck!

 

[Troy V]

Here is a picture of a male Bangaii with a mouth full of fry

Here is a video of my fuge where I would raise the Bangaii fry.


The fry at 3 weeks old

 

[LiquidAquariums]

That Xenia refugium is amazing! I’ve never seen that before, but it looks so good! And also, the Emperor Angel is my all time favourite fish. What do you feed that tank?

 

[Troy V]

That Xenia refugium is amazing! I’ve never seen that before, but it looks so good! And also, the Emperor Angel is my all time favourite fish. What do you feed that tank?

Thank you!

The skimmerless 300 gallon system above the Xenia fuge provided all nutrients it needed.