Ochre Cardinal fish brooding

[shornik]

I just noticed my cardinal fish brooding eggs and have lots of questions. How long might it take before the eggs hatch? Is there something I should be doing to attempt to retrieve the larvae (is that what the babies are called?)? I already hatch baby brine daily for my tanks so I'll food ready if I can save any, but just looking for any advice.

Here's a pic of the eggs as of last night.

 

[shornik]

bump

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I don't have any info, but this is really cool! Maybe someone in the #reefsquad can help.

 

[Maritimer]

Very cool!

I know there's a marine fish breeding forum out there, but there are also marine fish breeders on here ... (I'm not one of them.) ... I know that @chad vossen is pretty good at this game . . .

~Bruce

 

[melypr1985]

I dont know how long it takes for them to hatch, but if you plan to try and raise them then you might want to collect the babies before the other fish eat them. A small tank with an air stone and the live brine will work. Lots of water changes to keep ammonia down... that's all I know Best of luck!

 

[arichard]

Larval trap the babies out at night (check out the Vosson larval traps). Get some rotifers up and running in addition to your artemia, get a decent vitamin enrichment for your live feeds and you're off and running. My guess is the protocol for raising the larvae would be similar to that of pajama cardinals if there's not a whole lot of info out there on raising the orches.

 

[chad vossen]

This is super exciting! I would recommend the Marine breeders guide, which will have a lot of info on raising cardinalfish. These larvae are tiny, but you should have some success if using small rotifers and raising them like clownfish. Rearing them on copepods is a little more advanced, but would have far better success.
Getting the babies is probably the hard part. If you try and capture the male with the eggs, he'll likely spit them out. Capturing the larvae the night of the hatch is likely the best option. Our larval trap is very useful in these situations, and you can run the trap multiple nights if you're not sure of the hatch time.

Here's the book I'd suggest getting - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1890087718/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Here's an example of the trap being used on dottyback larvae. Would work the same for cardinals too.

 

[shornik]

Thanks @chad vossen and @arichard I'm going to get one of these traps and see if I can raise me some cardinal fish. Does anyone know if the trap would work with seahorse's too (I have 2 males/females) in the same tank as the cardinal fish?

 

[vlangel]

shornik, I don't know specifically about your specie of cardinal fish but bangaii cardinal fish not only keep the eggs in their mouth but also the small fry. When they release them the young fry can easily live on live baby artemia and even crushed flake food. Many folks have found juveniles in their sumps before they were even aware that their fish were breeding.

 

[chad vossen]

Unfortunately that only applies to the Banggai cardinal, which has large, fully developed babies when released. All other species have tiny larvae that are somewhat challenging to rear. The larval trap works for any larvae that is attracted to a light source. Seahorses are probably not the best for this, but some palegic spawning species may work fine still. Seahorses may be best moved to the larval tank for the birthing process for maximum yield.

 

[vlangel]

Unfortunately that only applies to the Banggai cardinal, which has large, fully developed babies when released. All other species have tiny larvae that are somewhat challenging to rear. The larval trap works for any larvae that is attracted to a light source. Seahorses are probably not the best for this, but some palegic spawning species may work fine still. Seahorses may be best moved to the larval tank for the birthing process for maximum yield.

Thanks, I edited out the pajama cardinal. I knew multiple folks who raised bangaiis.