How many Banggai babies?

[ReefRian]

Yesterday my husband and I caught the male so we could collect the babies. We found the easiest way is to wait until the day of or before he spits them out and catch him with the net. He spits out the babies and then we just remove the male from the net and we have all the babies in the net for easy removal.

Well when we counted the babies from a photograph we had, it looks like we have 53 babies! All are looking really good, eating today and swiming normally. One baby had the bottom of his caudal fin gone, we aren't sure if it didn't form fully or was torn when he was spit out.

I'm just wondering what the total number of babies you have had for a single clutch has been? I've never heard of one as big as 53 babies.

Rian

 

[miracles38]

Hi,
My Banggai is carrying right now and I am hoping he will carry to term. What are you feeding the babies?

 

[ReefRian]

Your male should carry the eggs to about 22 days. After they hatch he will keep them in his mouth for about a week before spitting them out. You will be able to tell when they have been hatched because he will have a harder time keeping his mouth closed and you will see black shinny eyes poking out of his mouth every once-in-a-while. If your pair is young there is a good chance they won't be kept full term. But don't worry, they will keep at it.

One method that worked great for us was to count the days. On the 22nd day we look to make sure the babies are trying to peek out or escape from daddy and we try to gently scoop the male up in a net. This has caused our male to spit out the babies while in the net and we can gently remove the male back into the tank and have all the babies secure in the net for transport to another tank. If you are not gentle when trying to catch him he may spit the babies out in the tank and it can be difficult to try to catch them all.

Baby cardinalfish can eat baby brine from day one, but normally they don't eat the first day because of the yoke they still carry with them. It takes a couple days to hatch brine shrimp so I would wait till about the 16th day to start to hatch them. If you have never done this, there are tones of information on this site and the web.

Good luck and I hope all goes well. If this is the first clutch expect to have about 3 to 10 babies depending on the age of the parents.

Rian