Breeding Cardinals

[bitfishy]

Hi - the search facility hasn't been working for me for a while - is everyone having problems?

Anyway, my male cardinal has been in his breeding net for about 25 days and, in theory, is about to release his fry. I saw some little clear eggs floating on the surface the other day so I assume they have hatched and all is in order so far.

From what I understand he will eat the babies so he has to be removed to another net when he releases the fry. Obviously short of a 24 hour vigil beside the tank I'm not sure how I can catch him 'as soon as' he releases. I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who has been through this, is there early warning signs for example or perhaps he will only eat the fry after a certain period of time? Should I put food in his net in readiness, and if so is there anything that can sit in the water for days without causing problems? flake perhaps?

Thanks everyone

 

[SkiFletch]

I'm not sure if many people really have experience with this here. Often times in the saltwater world, eggs will hatch and fry will be released at night time, usually giving you a chance to react since they're in a breeding net when you wake up. No guarantee of that though...

 

[Colin_T]

Male cardinalfish don't eat their eggs or young. They carry the eggs in their mouth (buccal pouch) until they hatch, then they allow the fry to take refuge in their mouth for a week or more. The male will encourage them to spend more time out and about and eventually will stop allowing them back inside. Then they are on their own.

Male cardinalfish don't eat when they are holding eggs or fry and should not be fed during this stage.

The little clear eggs you saw floating on the surface were probably air bubbles. Cardinal eggs are quite large for fish eggs (and often red in colour) and don't look round after hatching. The egg splits open and looks like a tiny bit of clear or coloured plastic. Often the egg shell is swallowed by the male or just breaks down in the water.

Once the fry are free swimming you can feed them on newly hatched brineshrimp. If the male starts to show interest in food, then start feeding him.

Keep the male separate from the females for a couple of weeks after he has released the fry. This will give him a chance to build up his strength after fasting for the last month.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

I think Colin has pretty much hit the nail on the head there.
The males dont tend to eat their young, however I have bred these fish and have experience that if the male is kept with the young for long enough after spitting them out and isnt fed then he will eat one or two untill he is fed so it is best to save the fish as soon as they are spat. The fry are able to eat baby brine straight away and you dont have to worry about seperationg the paretnd and worrying that they wont breed again because I put my male in the sump for 2 weeks and fed him up and when I put him back in the tank, they bred again after 2 weeks.

My 2 are currently holding their 6th batch and I have had them since this April. They are great little fish.

 

[bitfishy]

Thanks for the info, it was a great relief to know that he doesn't eat the fry (dispite what I read) - however something went wrong because sure enough he began to eat on a regular basis and from that I assumed he'd spat out the fry, but I never saw one. After 10 days I released him back in the tank because he looked fat and I was going away. No fry.

What did I do wrong?

.....and when I say I loooked I mean I REALLY looked.

Also for next time what do you feed your cardinals? Mine are used to frozen brine shrimp but when its in the net it really doesn't move around much due to the flow not passing through the netting very well - hence he would often leave bits to fester once they has attched themselves to the netting.

It was all very odd, and def no floating bits that looked loke plastic. Although the eggs weren't air bubbles, that was my first thought but they were solid between the fingertips (must've been something else that laid but were (briefly) protected by the net) which is quite cool.

Thanks again everyone

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

the eggs are meant to be solid i think!. im just thinking because i remember seeing eggs whilst diving once and being told later they were eggs, they just seemed like hard marbles lol.