Hello everyone, Long time no talk to… Sorry its been so long I’ve been so busy with work lately. Anyway I wanted to give you all some great news! My Banggai Cardinals have paired off and the male has a clutch of eggs in his mouth! I am in the process of getting 29G tank and a 20G sump from some friends here in Raleigh. They offered to donate them asking only for some young Banggai once they are big enough to leave the nest .
I was hoping to get some feedback and suggestions about taking care of the parents and raising the young. The parents are both wild caught as far as I know. I purchased the male about a month ago and had the female for about 9 months. The male is a little smaller than the female. The male has been eating okay although he is a little on the thin side. The female is a lot bigger and has a good size belly.
Aquarium Setup:
Do you think a 29G will be big enough for the parents? My plan was to let the parents hatch the eggs and then move the hatchlings to the 20G sump that I was going to partition into 3-4 sections using tank dividers. Each section will have live rock except the last one where I was going to put the return pump. The main tank will also contain live rock and a live sand bed. I may also add some dividers to it if they spawn more than once in the next 30-60 days.
Feeding Parents:
From what I have read you need to almost overfeed the parents especially the male since he goes the longest without eating.
They are currently eating a mixture of frozen Mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and Cyclopeze soaked in Garlic Guard. Like I mentioned earlier the female eats well and the male is a little thinner and hasn't really caught up in size compared to female, although he is pretty close
Feeding the Fry:
I am currently in the process of starting a brine shrimp culture. I ordered some Brine Shrimp Cysts from Florida Aqua Farms last week. My plan was to setup a 5G tank and some smaller containers to culture the shrimp and start culturing Rotifers as well for my corals and Ocellaris clowns if they ever decide to start spawning, but I digress…
From what I've read you can setup a continuous drip of the brine shrimp into the sump that will provide ample food for the Banggai Cardinal brood and eventually wean them over the frozen food like their parents.
This is all still new to me and I still consider myself a novice reefer and 1st time fish parent, uncle, surrogate father/mother ... whatever you want to call it, so any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Kindest Regards,
Dave
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