Banggai


Feeding Time For The Babies

Male With His Mouth Filled With Eggs
The banggai cardinal (Pterapogon kauderni) originates from the Lembeh Straits off the east coast of a small group of islands called Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are extremely beautiful fish with black bars and flecked white dots contrasting a silvery body.
Although to us this seems a decorative patterning to the banggai cardinal it is a form of camouflage. Banggai form tight schools against a background of black spiny sea urchins, once amongst their spiny companions their patterning makes them virtually injectable to a passing predator.
The banggai cardinal is one of the most popular fish available in the marine aquarium trade, and like many species they are harvested from the sea by local fishermen.
Often fishing for banggai can be more of a challenge as the island of Sulawesi is remote and for the fishing crew this can mean a two hour boat ride to the fishing ground.
Due to the distance and involved not to mention the tropical temperatures, by the time the catch of banggai onboard the fishing vessels reach their holding tanks on land the crew find that dead loss can be very high which of course is a real shame.
Here at Water Decor we have started a small scale breading program to breed our own banggai cardinal.


One Of Our Breeding Pairs


To pair cardinals it is often the case that starting with a small shoal will give a better chance for two to separate from the rest and swim together as a pair.

Once a pair has chosen each other they can be placed in an aquarium preferably on their own where nature can take it’s course undisturbed.

Over the next few months with very little prompting you will notice the female growing plump with eggs, and once ready she will shimmy up against the male to let him know that she is ready.
One by one she will lay the eggs where the male then fertilizes them and in turn picks each egg up into his mouth.

Once the female has finished laying and the males mouth is full, the eggs will start to develop.

For the next four weeks the male will not feed, instead his job is to protect, turn and fan fresh water over the eggs. He will stay close to his female and the two will not part


Around the four week mark as the male opens and closes his mouth signs of life can be seen from within, the orange of the eggs have been replaced by black and white and little faces can be seen peering out.

Now is the time to harvest the young, the male will be preparing to let them swim free but before he does it is best to step in to provide the babies with a better chance of survival.

For this to happen the male will need to be caught, this process must be done with care as the male and young may become spooked.
Often the male may spit the fry into the catching net as you lift him out, but if not he will need to be carefully held whilst his mouth is gently opened and the babies removed.

At this stage it is suggested that the babies are transferred to a separate tank filled with water from the parents tank to avoid shocks like changes in gravity and pH, generally it is expected for the male to release 25-30 babies at a time.


Juvenile Banggai Approx 10 Months Old
The new tiny fry now settled into their new tank will certainly be hungry and ready for some food. The fry have very tiny mouths so the best food to start them with is baby brine shrimp (nauplii), raised fresh in a hatchery is usually the way.
They will need to be fed small portions of this up to four times a day for no more than a week. Once the first weeks feeding has past the fry will have gained some weight and size, at this stage they will need to be slowly weaned from baby brine shrimp to blended mysis shrimp, this change of diet will need to be done in a controlled manner where baby brine shrimp is slowly phased out to be replaced by more frequent feeds of mysis.

As the young grow and their mouths can accept larger chunks of food it is a good idea to increase the size of the mysis right up until three month old where they will be easily accepting adult sized portions. Our tank bread banggai cardinals make a striking addition to any marine aquarium, they are hardy and have an excellent temperament, feeding readily on meaty foods such as brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and krill.

You won't find better specimens especially at such great prices

Banggai Fry Approx 3 Months Old

Sara Caring For Fry Approx 2 Months Old


Water Decor
Webbs Garden Centre
Kidderminster Road South
West Hagley
West Midlands DY9 0JB
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Telephone
(01562) 700929

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