How far are these cardinals with their fry

[Tim'sReef]

Hi all! So I just got home and something caught my eye. One of my cardinals was looking funny. And they were together, what was odd.

Now I would have bet I had 2 males, even was discussing with the LFS to trade one in for a female yesterday. But I'm almost sure he has eggs in its mouth.
My question now is how far are they or how can I tell?

Lots of reading to do now I think haha, if you have any advice feel free to share!

 

[blaxsun]

They definitely like keeping an eye on you.

 

[littlefoxx]

Hi all! So I just got home and something caught my eye. One of my cardinals was looking funny. And they were together, what was odd.

Now I would have bet I had 2 males, even was discussing with the LFS to trade one in for a female yesterday. But I'm almost sure he has eggs in its mouth.
My question now is how far are they or how can I tell?

Lots of reading to do now I think haha, if you have any advice feel free to share!

So sexing them is hard but the males jaw is bigger and more angled. By the look of it I would say you do indeed have a male with eggs in his mouth! Has he been eating? When they get eggs they wont eat until they spit the eggs out

 

[Tim'sReef]

So sexing them is hard but the males jaw is bigger and more angled. By the look of it I would say you do indeed have a male with eggs in his mouth! Has he been eating? When they get eggs they wont eat until they spit the eggs out

I'm in the process of upgrading tanks. So a little less attention has gone to watching the tank. Yesterday he didn't eat for sure. But later on the day I saw the eggs in his mouth, super excited!

Im going to start culturing BBS. Only difficult part will be getting the fry out in time. Since he is almost impossible to catch on my overgrown tank without breaking stuff down. So i think im gonna produce a fake long spine urchin and hope they go for that if i miss them being released.

 

[Kmst80]

Mine holds his fry between 25 and 32 days. I leave mine in the main tank and fish out the babies. They release the babies just before sunrise.

 

[Kmst80]

I'm in the process of upgrading tanks. So a little less attention has gone to watching the tank. Yesterday he didn't eat for sure. But later on the day I saw the eggs in his mouth, super excited!

Im going to start culturing BBS. Only difficult part will be getting the fry out in time. Since he is almost impossible to catch on my overgrown tank without breaking stuff down. So i think im gonna produce a fake long spine urchin and hope they go for that if i miss them being released.

I did the fake longspine urchin, was pointless, they didnt go in it. My babies are always in the gravel/sand near the glass. I fished out one before swimming around my bta and one swimming in the centre of my tube anemone. I check the sand every morning after day 18, so far one time I caught 8, once 12 but last time only 2. No way of catching the male though. Check the sump/overflow too, I fished out a few there too

 

[Tim'sReef]

I did the fake longspine urchin, was pointless, they didnt go in it. My babies are always in the gravel/sand near the glass. I fished out one before swimming around my bta and one swimming in the centre of my tube anemone. I check the sand every morning after day 18, so far one time I caught 8, once 12 but last time only 2. No way of catching the male though. Check the sump/overflow too, I fished out a few there too

Great tip on checking the overflow thanks. Im gonna do the same and keep checking the sandbed and get up a little early.

Today I have bought some brine shrimp eggs and a hatchery as well as a breeder box to hold the fry in.

Now it's just the waiting game I guess, shame I didn't pay more close attention so I knew when they started.

 

[Kmst80]

Great tip on checking the overflow thanks. Im gonna do the same and keep checking the sandbed and get up a little early.

Today I have bought some brine shrimp eggs and a hatchery as well as a breeder box to hold the fry in.

Now it's just the waiting game I guess, shame I didn't pay more close attention so I knew when they started.

The fry is tiny on the first few days, pretty much eyes and a belly so look very close. I have two brine shrimp hatcheries set up at the start so I start one and two days later the other so I have a constant supply. I add vitamin drops too. After a few weeks I start cutting the brine shrimp out and feed tigerpods. Check Atolls lazy pod culture thread for that.
Read up about sudden fright death too, you gotta be very gentle when handling the young.
Then after about 2 month I start cutting up frozen food and for 2 weeks I feed frozen with either a tiny bit of baby brine or pods and after the two weeks I face out the life food.
BTW I feed morning and evening.

More pods.

My outside pod culture has exploded. I have millions of pods following on from last year. I will have live pods to feed until late summer at least now. So easy to culture nothing could be easier. All that's needed is a container, I use one of those under bed storage boxes, old tank water,a leaf...

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Breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish

Seawitch submitted a new Article: Breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish Banggai cardinalfish. Photo is from the Reef2Reef archives, courtesy of @MarvinsReef, ©2019, All Rights Reserved. Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, are native to a small area around Indonesia. They are very popular...

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These are macro pictures, you can see the pods on the glass

 

[Tim'sReef]

Well I think he swallowed the eggs or something else must has happened cause today he isn't holding eggs anymore or at least not a lot. Even saw him going for a piece of food.

Kind af disappointed but hey if they do it once maybe they will again. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Kmst80]

Well I think he swallowed the eggs or something else must has happened cause today he isn't holding eggs anymore or at least not a lot. Even saw him going for a piece of food.

Kind af disappointed but hey if they do it once maybe they will again. Thanks for all the help!

I didn't get much the first 2 times. If you feed them good food like life food and keep them fed well they will spawn regularly. My female gives my male between 7-10 days before she gets to him again. Look out for when she does the wiggle dance close to him.