LF video on removing eggs from Bangaii male

[jjencek]

I have been breeding Bangaii for about 10 months. The male has been a perfect father taking care of each generation until now. He ate the whole family the day it was due. Poor guy could not resist.

I would like to try to remove the eggs of the next coming generation to give him more time to eat before starting a new family again. I also plan to try to tumble them without him.

I am somewhat concerned about removing the eggs from his mouth. Are there any videos on how to do it safely?

 

[Doctorgori]

interesting...

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

From what I understand this is very similar to African Cichlids. My gf uses a bread tie twisted with a loop at the end to gently lift the mouth open.

 

[mort]

You say he ate the young the day they were due so potentially it's a one off and he just reached the point where his hunger kicks in. I'd suggest it's easier to give him a rest from carrying eggs and feed him up so that his reserves are enough to carry them full term.
If not then you can just leave it until near the due date and quite often they spit them out in a net if caught. I've never tried stripping them out of their mouths but they have always spat them easily when I've needed to intervene.

 

[ThRoewer]

Never seen a video of it but there are pictures in the Banggai project book. There they show it being done with a bent paperclip.

 

[jjencek]

From what I understand this is very similar to African Cichlids. My gf uses a bread tie twisted with a loop at the end to gently lift the mouth open.

There are tons of videos African Cichlids. I will try it and report on my results. Now I need to figure out when to do it. The usual time my male cardinal holds them is one month. Maybe I should remove them after two weeks?

 

[jjencek]

You say he ate the young the day they were due so potentially it's a one off and he just reached the point where his hunger kicks in. I'd suggest it's easier to give him a rest from carrying eggs and feed him up so that his reserves are enough to carry them full term.
If not then you can just leave it until near the due date and quite often they spit them out in a net if caught. I've never tried stripping them out of their mouths but they have always spat them easily when I've needed to intervene.

I have done that. Catching him after I see one released was my method. Unfortunately this time I was one day too late.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Bad on my experience and I can’t say for certain how much lines up... depending on aggression levels in the tank I strip my cichlids about 2/3 of the way through brooding which for Bengaii should be about 2.5 weeks. It’s not a precise thing but once they start hiding away in crevasse or caves the first time I see them get chases it’s time to strip. If they are not free swimming I use an egg tumbler until they are mature. The trick to catching them and not having them gobble down the eggs is to closely observe aggression. They tend to eat the eggs not out of hunger but more fight or flight response. Catching them quickly using red lights or the flashlight spotlight trick when they first wake up helps too.

 

[jjencek]

Here is an update:

It took some time to get a nice tumbler (by Ziss). I got it after the male carried the eggs for 19 days. His mouth did not look as full as at the beginning. Assuming that he was too hungry. I caught him and he spat out 6 eggs. I used a paper clip to see if he would release more, but that was it.

They are now tumbling. They all show eyes and 3 of them already have tails.

 

[jjencek]

More update:

The tumbler experiment did not work well - all 6 of them died within 7 days, but it gave the male 12 days of eating 3-4 times per day.

Now he is carrying eggs again and not eating. So what do I do? Do I let him carry them for the full term, 1/2 term, a few days?