Breeding Journal, Species: Banggai Cardinal (Pterapogon kauderni) Pr 1 V3.0

General
Species:  Pterapogon kauderni
Social Structure:  Pair.
Size of Individuals:  2 1/2" total length (inc finnage)
Age of Individuals:  Wild collected as small adults May or June 2011.
Date added to Tank: Quarantined for a couple weeks.  Female added to broodstock system 01/24/12.  Male #1 removed 07/18/12, male #2 added.  Male #2 removed 05/26/13, male #3 added.

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank:  20 gallons (24x12x20").  Plumbed into 165 gallon system.
Substrate Details:  Light dusting of coarse sand.
Filtration Details:  Central filtration via sump.  Filter sock, bioballs, EuroReef RS-180 skimmer.  Air stone in each tank.
Water Changes:  50 gallons changed once per week.  Nitrate usually 60-80 ppm.
Water Temperature:  80F
Lighting:  14,000K LED strip
Lighting Cycle:  14 hours light, 10 hours dark.
Other Tank Inhabitants:  Two hermit crabs.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types:  Will only accept frozen foods.  Mainly homemade mash with some PE Mysis SFB Spirulina Brine Shrimp for variation.
Feeding Schedule:  2-3x per day.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn:  Bred for previous owner 3 times.  Second-hand information.
Spawn Time of Day:  Afternoon or early evening.
Dates of Consecutive Spawns: 
03/17/12 evening (swallowed on day 2).  Male #1
04/04/12 afternoon (swallowed on day 2).  Male #1
04/25/12 afternoon (swallowed on day 3).* Male #1
05/18/12 afternoon (stripped on same day).  Male #1
06/07/12 afternoon (stripped on same day).  Male #1
07/17/12 afternoon (swallowed on day 2).  Male #1
Male #2 failed to reproduce (07/18/12 to 05/26/13).
06/17/13 just after lights out.  Male #3
Courtship Details:  Female becomes obviously gravid.  They won't be interested in food when they are ready to spawn.   They stick very close to each other, almost touching.  Then the female starts vibrating next to male for several seconds with their tail fins touching/intertwined, then swims backwards around his tail to his other side, and vibrates on that side.  Male looks like he is stretching his jaw and flaring the lower part of his gills.  They do a lot of circling.  As the eggs are laid they stick to the female's vent in a bundle and the male does "drive-by" fertilizations.  When the spawning is over the male gulps the eggs into his mouth in one big gulp.
Egg Size:  Not measured
Egg Color:  Orange-pink
Egg Count:   Unable to count while in mouth.  Past experiences have produced as many as 60 larvae in one hatch.  May 18th count is about 38 eggs.

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: 
Hatch Time of Day: 
# Days after Spawn:
Larvae Description:


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Larval Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details: 
Lighting: 
Lighting Cycle: 
Water Changes: 

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types:
Feeding Schedule:

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: 
Days after Hatch:
Date of Settlement End: 
Description of Fry:  Miniature versions of their parents.  Very cute!

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: 
Size of Grow-Out Tank: 
Substrate Details: 
Other Tank Decor: 
Filtration Details:
Lighting:
Lighting Cycle:
Water Changes: 
Size at Transfer: 
Age at Transfer: 

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types:
Feeding Schedule:

Additional Information
 
 
No luck with artificial incubation.
 
07/18/12.  New pair formed.  Original male removed, new young male introduced.

 
05/26/13.  New pair formed.  Male #2 removed, male #3 introduced.  Male #3 is from the same wild collection as male #2.

 
Here a video of their pre-spawning behavior.  The female is the one vibrating and also has the bigger white patch on her nose.  If you look close you can see her plump belly:

The pair is courting very heavily today.  I will be surprised if they don't spawn today.  The female is obviously gravid, neither are interested in eating.  They better spawn today now that I made this journal!

The little turds haven't spawned yet.  I'm surprised.  They both ate well yesterday, but only the male ate today.

The female seemed to re-absorb the eggs (is that possible?) just a few days after that video.  Last weekend they had some lovers quarrel and the male ended up with a broken dorsal (that has now shed right off), and the female had her ventral fins torn up a bit.  Not sure what happened there.
 
The female slowly "flashes" her base color from dark shaded to white/silver...sometimes she is overall pale.  She will do this shadowing/darkening over about 3-4 seconds, and will brighten back up in the same amount of time.  Not sure what that's all about either.
 
The female eats with gusto consuming about 4-5 PE Mysis (the only thing they will eat) twice per day, where the male will only eat 1-2 once or twice per day.  She begs for food twice per day, he never begs.  Neither are interested in eating more than twice per day.

Still no action.  *grumble*

Yes!!  St Patrick's Day spawnage!  Finally some excitement in the fish room! 
 
In the last couple weeks I found that Banggai Cardinals LOVE frozen Brine Shrimp and will absolutely gorge themselves.  Keeping in mind frozen BS are not the most nutritious food, I have been feeding them frozen BS soaked in Selcon and Kent Garlic once every 3 days or so which they eat until their bellies are bulging.  The only other thing they eat are PE Mysis, but they won't eat nearly as much.  I'm not sure if these engorgement feeding are helping at all, but I'm going to keep them up.  Just this morning they got a big feeding of BS, so I'm happy that the male has a good full belly.
 
I siphoned the tank bottoms today around 10 am, I'm surprised this didn't postpone their spawning activities.  I found the male with eggs at about 7:15 pm. 
Here's the male with his mouth full, the female still has a few eggs stuck to her vent.  The photo is grainy because the tank is dimly lit so I have to "brighten" the photo before posting.

Sweet!

Congrats! My Picassos spawned today too.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Congrats to you too Tal!  I'm hoping some "horny hormones" in the water now might trigger someone else to spawn.  HAHAHA.  The female Orchid looks like she's working on being gravid, so maybe they will get their funk on soon too.
 
The male's mouth doesn't look as full this morning, but his belly is quite round.  He may be eating the eggs.  He's pretty skittish so this doesn't surprise me, but one day?  Seriously?!  Jeez, I hope he gets in the habit of holding them longer than a few days.  I don't like tumbling eggs...

The little bugger ate lastnight (didn't eat in the morning though), so he barely made 2 days holding.  I hope he gets better than that!  When I bought this pair I understood that they produced viable offspring 3 times in a reef tank.

Had another spawn today (18 days after the last one), his much is much fuller than last time.  Hopefully he can resist the taste a little longer this time!

He has already swallowed most of the eggs.  I will bet he will be eating again by tomorrow night.  He will get to try a third batch, and if he doesn't make any progress I will pull the 4th batch on the first day (oh fun).

So it looks like this male isn't up to the duty of incubating the eggs.  They spawned a third time while I was in Kauai and he was eating again on the 3rd day.  I will be stripping the eggs from him as soon as I see them on the next spawn and attempting artificial incubation.  I've had limited success with AI in the past, so any tips or links to successful designs would be appreciated.

Out of curiosity, what is the age of the pair? 

 
I have this info in the data sheet.    This is second-hand information though.  They have bred now 6 times that I know of.  The first 3 were with a different person, and I have no idea if he held the eggs on those spawns.

Spawned May 18th afternoon.  I stripped about 38 eggs to artificially incubate them as documented in the thread "Adventures with Artificial Incubation for Banggai Cardinals".  I decided to make a new thread on that topic, and will continue to update this thread as actual progress is made. 

After repeated, extremely poor incubation the original male was removed and replaced with a new young male 07/18/12.  Original male always seemed bored by the female, and it was always the female doing the majority of courtship. The new male is very feisty, and very intent with the female.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Any new updates?

Congratulations on getting this far at least

The female and the new male have not spawned.  I will be replacing the new male with a new, new male.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

After 10 months of no spawning, I removed male #2 and replaced with male #3 which is from the same wild collection as male #2.  I also moved both of them into a 20-gallon tank on the same broodstock system.  This new pairing is now called V3.0. 

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Success!  In just under 3 weeks, we have a spawning with this newly formed pair!  I was viewing Bangaii porn.  There are a few eggs on the bottom of the tank and the female's vent, and they are circling lots.  Either they don't know what they're doing or she hasn't released the main bundle of eggs.  Why they are breeding just after lights out is beyond me...silly fish.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

EE, any updates?

keep at it! something will happen! She'll find a guy she really likes then you won't know what to do with all them babies!!!!! 

No they haven't bred since.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

No further action with this pair.  The male is beating the female up a bit.  Time to purge this pair from the breeding room.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

na just give her a new male. I switch mine up when they act like that. 

I've tried her with three males now.  She didn't spawn with either of the first two, and only once with this one in June.  I think I just need a new female.  Since Bangaii are only reproductive for a short span, it's probably worth my while to just start off with a new pair.  I'm good at sexing them, so I can get a pair together no problem.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

yeah, I guess if you've tried that many males, it's time! how old/big is she? 

She's big.  She would be about 2 1/2 years old now.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

I have a 4 year old still spawning. just saying there may be hope yet...