Banggai babies found by accident!

[Rukk]

awesome

 

[Oldsalt]

Mine were off the BBS after only a week. They have more than doubled in size already. I was using 100μ fry and coral feed from day one mixed with BBS. I watched them eat both - but there's a caveat here; I have these guys with 2 week old molly fry and they see the Mollies eat the powder and copy them. They even pick at whatever falls to the bottom, also picking it off the water surface which isn't that typical of Banggais. I attribute this "success" (if released into the wild now it could be failure!) to having fry of the same relative size that aren't fussy eaters. I will take some more photos this week to show their growth. They are soon being separated from the Mollies and going into their own grow out tank. When they have bodies the size of a dime, my LFS wants to buy them.
I believe that I witnessed "sudden fright" symptom during the last days of BBS feeding. I wondered what was causing it. Thanks for the heads up because future Banggai fry might not have similar conditions (other fry). I will need to order B1 online so I'm prepared. How often do they mate? I haven't noticed the male's mouth enlarging yet.

Edit - this 100μ powder I have is minuscule. Even clown fry could get it down. Does TDO say anything about the various granule size in microns?

 

[w2inc]

Mine hatched within 24 hours of each other. Male spit some eggs out. I started watching. Let one fry go. Next day he looked so miserable I decided to pull the rest of the brood. I held him face down by the gills and he spit them out without thinking about it. Once they are alive I think you have about a day.

I fed mine fresh hatched brine. I wished I had some baby mollies at the time because every time I have tried to wean fish to powder food it works so well to have just one fish in the tank going for broke on the food. All of the others eventually follow. Fry food is way more nutrient dense than brine and if they are eating it then keep it up! I am still trying to wean mine over from frozen a month later.

I was really excited to see the hatch when I had it and had plans about what tank to put them in and how I was going to finally have a school of them, but now I am wondering what I will really do with them. I put one back in the main display and he hid. Was still the next day, so I put 2 more in. Male/dad ate them both within 1 minute. I thought he might be holding them. So I fed Mysis. He ate that too. Dont put them in the main display for a while.

Whenever I have had more than 6 of them, even in my 110 and 120 they seem to kill each other until I am at one or two pair of them. Which is what I have now. Does anyone know if they will live in a big school in a tank? I am trying to decide if I want to keep them a little longer or trade them in?

I traded them to the LFS $8 each. total of 24. I would do it again.

 

[rkpetersen]

Does TDO say anything about the various granule size in microns?

Here you go: https://reefnutrition.com/product_tdo_chroma_boost.php

 

[Oldsalt]

This is such an exciting endeavor. I would have loved a pair from you then I saw you are in Australia. LOL. Too far.

Wish I could send you a pair! Shipping them to the USA or UK is now faster with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. They started direct Perth to London flights a few months ago. Total flight time is 19 hours depending on the jetstream. The problem is that you can't assure they get on that flight and, if they did, there's still more flight and road time. I don't know how they get Banggais to the US regardless. It's only 5 or so hours from there to Perth but over 20 to the USA/UK. They must oxygenate the bag and temperature control it, unless there are now tank breeders around the world. With the dwindling population, tank breeding is fantastic.
Anyone see the Swedish (?) guy who recently succeeded in getting yellow tank fry past meta? There were thousands of them in a giant vat. He's now delivering them around the world.

 

[sabeypets]

45 each for wild caught...these will be captive bred . All kidding aside it will just be awesome to have some home bred babies going out to other reefers!

[QUOTE="w2inc, post: 5920493, member:

Whenever I have had more than 6 of them, even in my 110 and 120 they seem to kill each other until I am at one or two pair of them. Which is what I have now. Does anyone know if they will live in a big school in a tank? I am trying to decide if I want to keep them a little longer or trade them in?[/QUOTE]
They will live in a "loose" school if you have a huge tank (several hundred gallons) I keep a breeding group in a 360 gallon with a 4' x 8' footprint

 

[sabeypets]

Mollies give birth every 30 days but
I don't know how often a pair of Banggais mate. Anyone have any idea?

Females can and usually ready to spawn in 3 weeks after the Male releases the babies. The issue is the Male is not after starving for 3 weeks and needs to be conditioned before returning him with the female. It usually kills the male after about 3 spawns with no break or conditioning him.
I feed babies TDO from day one totally eliminating bbs.

 

[Oldsalt]

The babies have grown a lot in the past month. I have 2 friends with marine tanks who are rapt about getting a pair of Banggais each. I will be left with 5 that are going to my favourite LFS (the one who has always been honest and didn't try to push me into buying something I didn't need or something that could have caused problems). They are offering $15 for each Banggai. They sell tank bred ones for $45 and are no longer importing wild caught Banggais due to the dwindling population of them in Indonesia. They have apparently come close to extinction many times over the past decade. Now there are quite a few people breeding them locally, allowing the natural population to be restored.
Feeding the babies 100μ powder is working well here but I now have TDO (my LFS gave me some to try) which also gets eaten.

My male has (again) been carrying a lot of eggs for the past 7 days.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone kind and knowledgeable enough would answer the following questions:

1) How long does it take for the eggs to hatch in the male's mouth?

2) How long after the eggs hatch does the male release the young?

3) How long is a typical Banggai breeding cycle?

4) Because the male goes without eating for so long, does he need to be "fattened up" prior to the next breeding cycle in future?

5) How many eggs do male Banggais typically hold in their mouth?

I would like to be better prepared next time around. I'm sure that I could yield a lot more than the 9 babies I currently have.

 

[sabeypets]

The babies have grown a lot in the past month. I have 2 friends with marine tanks who are rapt about getting a pair of Banggais each. I will be left with 5 that are going to my favourite LFS (the one who has always been honest and didn't try to push me into buying something I didn't need or something that could have caused problems). They are offering $15 for each Banggai. They sell tank bred ones for $45 and are no longer importing wild caught Banggais due to the dwindling population of them in Indonesia. They have apparently come close to extinction many times over the past decade. Now there are quite a few people breeding them locally, allowing the natural population to be restored.
Feeding the babies 100μ powder is working well here but I now have TDO (my LFS gave me some to try) which also gets eaten.

My male has (again) been carrying a lot of eggs for the past 7 days.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone kind and knowledgeable enough would answer the following questions:
$15 each is fair for them

1) How long does it take for the eggs to hatch in the male's mouth?
Around day 15-16
2) How long after the eggs hatch does the male release the young?
Typically 21 to 28 days. I make the Male release them on day 18-20 due to the fact starving is so hard on him. Day 18 babies sink to the bottom of containers as they still have a little egg yolk to absorb.

3) How long is a typical Banggai breeding cycle?
Answered in post above, female can be ready as soon as Male releases babies.

4) Because the male goes without eating for so long, does he need to be "fattened up" prior to the next breeding cycle in future? Answered in post above. Yes it will quicky kill him if not.

5) How many eggs do male Banggais typically hold in their mouth? 50-60 eggs for a mature pair

I would like to be better prepared next time around. I'm sure that I could yield a lot more than the 9 babies I currently have.

I feed TDO (Reef Nutrition) from day one. If most of them aren't eating TDO well by day 2 I feed bbs the last feeding of the day and only for 5-7 days. I was having over 50% mortality losses feeding bbs from SFS (sudden fright syndrome) and trying to wean them over to frozen/dry foods. With such high losses I figured I couldn't do any worse totally eliminating bbs and tried TDO from day one with a 100% survival rate that run.