Kaudern's Cardinal Fish Spawning

[cutebarra77]

Hi reefers,

My pair of cardinals have successfully mated and the male is carrying the nice orangey eggs in his mouth. He has grew very thin and must be darn hungry protecting the eggs...

With some desk research done, it seemed that my 2 long spike urchins are able to offer some protection for the fry when they hatch.

My 3ft tank has many live rocks which added to the challenge of trying to catch the cardinals and transfer them into a breeding tank.

Right now as it is, there are many potential predators ard eyeing the fry when they hatch...

Appreciate fellow reefers' advice.

[Joe_P]

Hi reefers,

My pair of cardinals have successfully mated and the male is carrying the nice orangey eggs in his mouth. He has grew very thin and must be darn hungry protecting the eggs...

With some desk research done, it seemed that my 2 long spike urchins are able to offer some protection for the fry when they hatch.

My 3ft tank has many live rocks which added to the challenge of trying to catch the cardinals and transfer them into a breeding tank.

Right now as it is, there are many potential predators ard eyeing the fry when they hatch...

Appreciate fellow reefers' advice.

Try stripping the eggs of the males and artificially incubate the eggs.

Suggest only to remove the eggs from the male after at least a week of the male holding them. You should have better hatch rates from the eggs.

Do a search on "artificial incubation of banggai cardinal eggs" and you should get some ideas.

For tumbling of the eggs, I suggest using water flow administered from a rigid airline tune. Seems to work better than air.

HTH

[yikai]

The males keep the babies in the mouth even after they have hatched. They keep them there fora while.

You can remove the babies once they have all hatched. They are capable of swimming even though they are kept in the mouth.

This is much easier than removing the eggs and incubating them. The babies will be able to eat rots and baby brine shrimp.

Wait till it's well past dark. Turn all your lights on to stun the male. Then catch him out. U won't be able to trap him using food as bait because he will be unreceptive to food during this time.

I've tried before and raised them to young adults. One of The easiest marine fish to breed because the parents do everything for you until they've hatch.

[cutebarra77]

Many thanks for the inputs, Joe and Lemon.

I have done some check on artificial egg incubator (fr Joe's advice) and indeed found it a bit too challenging for me to try and with the risk involved.

Quite difficult to catch the male as I have too many rocks in my tank. and I worried that the male will spit out the eggs during the catching process.

Hence, I have decided to try natural incubation instead. Another friend of mine suggested that I build a 'mock' urchin with long spikes using satay sticks and placed it at a 'safe' spot for the male to release the fry. This idea is quite sound and working on it...

I would definitely share my experiment and findings from this experience.

[yikai]

you can do that but make sure no fish eat the babies once the male release.

also most of them will end up floating into the overflow and dying there.

you'll need suitable foods for the babies.

[cutebarra77]

for the baby fry food, newly hatched brine shrimps shd be fine?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[yikai]

ya

enriching it will be good