So I have two Bangaii cardinals I added about 4 months ago to my 230 gallon reef tank they where about the size of nickel when I added them and are now about the size of a quarter. I got lucky and they paired up almost right away which is what I was hoping would happen but it's very hard to tell what gender they are so was just hoping I'd get a pair. Anyways flash forward 4 months and the dad is holding eggs in his mouth and staying around the torch coral they hosted to while the mom defends him. Once I realized they where holding eggs I started doing my research but I wasn't really expecting to get any fry as they are brand new parents and most new parents swallow the babies or spit out the eggs. But also even if they had babies my tank is so big with so many predators I didn't really figure I'd even see any with them either hiding or getting eaten right away. Well i came home yesterday from work and went down to see the fish and make sure everyone was doing ok and right by the front glass at the bottom was two baby cardinals I clipped a breeder box to the side of my sump tank and netted them into it. Then last night I found two more in the sump that must have gotten washed down the overflows. So now I have 4 babies for sure. I'm going to try and get a baby brine shrimp culture going but right now they are eating crushed up mysis from what I can tell. I'm sure there are more babies around the tank hiding but no way of knowing unless they come out. The babies are very cute little carbon copies of the adults. I'm hoping I can keep these 4 alive but if I can't the main thing is I have a good breeding pair of adults that I can now move to a breeding tank and have cultures of live foods ready and going when the fry are released. I don't really expect to make money off of these fish as they are only about 20$ at the LFS and it will cost that or more to raise them but I love breeding my fish and if I get the added bonus that it makes the demand for wild caught cardinals go down then I'm all in. Anyways hopefully these little guys will keep growing and I will have some cute little fish that are ready for new homes in 2-3 months from now 
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