Re: Cardinalfish
Rjga at aol.com
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 08:57:14 -0500
I've gotten a batch of Banggai cardinalfish fry on the first attempt, but
have heard that some others were having a bit of difficulty. The male was
recovered from a reef tank three weeks after he was observed with a full
mouth. He was placed in his own 29 gallon tank where a week later he released
25-30 offspring. The young took brine shrimp nauplii at once and are doing
well, growing rapidly. The male was removed from the baby tank and
immediately began taking offered frozen adult brine shrimp and frozen
bloodworms. He was not returned to the reef tank for about a week, and then
spawned once more within days. Problems I have heard about are mostly due to
the male not being isolated and losing the eggs or fry in a community tank,
or releasing premature fry with large egg sacs. I've only the one experience,
but it seems to me that the fish is probably about as easy to handle as
freshwater mollies, and I see no reason why there should continue to be any
imports at all. Sufficient stock is available for breeding and supplying the
hobby. *** I started the fry with ordinary live brine shrimp nauplii and
later switched to Super Selco--enriched live nauplii. I don't know if it
makes a difference, but certainly cannot hurt. The fry aggregate in a tight
school in the 29 even in the absence of any other fishes to facilitate
protective behavior. I added some crumbled flake food to the fry aquarium,
but only a few individuals expressed any interest, some tasted it, but the
food was rejected. *** I have also heard of fry overeating live brine shrimp
nauplii and dying, but I have never seen this in any fish fed live foods,
with the exception of adult fish fed blackworms or live bloodworms
(chironomids); never with brine shrimp. - Bob Goldstein