Cardinals Are Breeding

[bitfishy]

Very excited today because my male cardinal is holding fry. this happened a few weeks ago but he swallowed them on day 2, he looked a bit miffed at missing out on dinner (and who can blame him - what an awful evolutionary turn!). Anyway I bought a large net cage which i understand I have to wait a week to put him into, assuming he goes full term this time what would i then need to feed the fry on? If I left him in the net with the babies to regain his strength is there a danger of him eating the fry himself?

Any advice gratefully received (as usual~)

 

[Colin_T]

baby cardinalfish can eat newly hatched brineshrimp as soon as they are spat out of dads mouth. Some males will take the fry back into their mouth for a few days after they are first released but most males don't bother and once the fry are released they are on their own.
The males are hungry after releasing the fry so it is a good idea to move him out and feed him up.

 

[bitfishy]

thanks Colin for the reply - when you say move dad out - do you mean out of the tank completely? - that could be tricky for me. Once these guys start breeding do they do it alot? How many fry survive?

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

My cardinals have bred twice and both have been sucessful.

The first time it took the male 22 days to spit out all the fry. I put him in a mesh breeder on day 18 an waited. Every time he spat out a fry, I caught it and put it into another breeder away from the farther. Once he spat out all the fry I put him back into the main tank and put his 22 babies into the breeder he was in as it was bigger. They instantly fed on baby brine shrimp.

After about 10 days the cardinals bred again. And once again i waited 18 days before cathing him and putting him into another breeder, the same size one as before. Once he began spitting fry out,(once again at 22 days) I began to catch them and put them into the little floating breeder. After he spat out all 31, yes 31 fry, I put him into my sump(will explain why in a minute). So then I had one breeder with 22 fry in one and other with 31 in it and they were all eating baby brine shrimp.

The reason I put the male in the sump of my tank was so that he could get his energy back because im sure that if he kept breeding as often as he did he would soon die from starvation and energy loss. He remained in the sump for about 2 weeks getting fed up are all energetic again. He is now in the main tank again.

Once I mooved him out of the sump I moved the babies from batch one into it (lost 4 from this batch by this point) and now those larger babies have alot more room to swim about in. I also put in the breeder with batch to fry in(lost 3 from this batch by this point).

Now I have 18 large fry swimming in my sump and now eating finley chopped squid and prawn and 28 smaller fry in a breeder in the sump still eating baby brine and the male is back with the female. No doubt they will breed again shortly.

 

[bitfishy]

oooo I'm getting a bit excited about all this. I don't have a sump, but I could easily get a second breeding net. thanks for all your help, great to know that its possible to raise a good percentage of them. i think I'll keep mine away from the female straight away in view of the no sump issue. thanks again

 

[Musho3210]

Quite easy to raise compared to other commonly bred marine fish (clownfish).

You'd be helping an endangered species as well, but you wont be able to make much money off of them. Hope they do good.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Why is it that people dont hink that reeding cardinal fish wont make any money, just a thought.
I mean, if you had 20 fish and sold them for £10 then you have made £200.

 

[Musho3210]

Why is it that people dont hink that reeding cardinal fish wont make any money, just a thought.
I mean, if you had 20 fish and sold them for £10 then you have made £200.

It does make money, definitely, im just comparing them to the more commonly bred ones, such as clownfish, which can have hundreds of larvae per spawn, which means a lot more money.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Oh ok, I see your point.
I think with breeding cardinalfish though, the thrill is more of the fact that you are helping an endangerd speciesof marine fish by breeding them than the money you will make.

 

[Musho3210]

Oh ok, I see your point.
I think with breeding cardinalfish though, the thrill is more of the fact that you are helping an endangerd speciesof marine fish by breeding them than the money you will make.

I agree completely. Unfortunately, businesses don't (money is more important than anything else).

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Yep, well its a good thing im not running a business then and im guessing bitfishy isnt either, we just enjoy breeding our cardinals.