Baby Bengais get a new home

[soyadrink]

if your still looking for a TINY hippo, I saw a 1" one at blue sierra last week

 

[Fragman]

New Stuff for the Nano!

I picked up a pair of Red Hawaiian Harlequin Shrimp. They are too Cool I also added a Blue Fairy Wrasse (Really Red) Not sure why they are called Blue??? In addition I added a pair of True Perc babies. These have been raised by Vicki and I and are about an inch long. Most of them have a second strip coming in. I have about 80 of them so look for a Baby Percs Thread coming soon. The Parents have lots of black on them and may be of the Onyx variety. Here are some pics:

The Percs were born on 12/23 and the Bengais on 12/24 (at least thats when I saw them in Dads mouth)

I found the Tiny Hippo tang that I was looking for so he will be added next week when I get back from Vacation. He was really skinny and in danger of perishing two weeks ago. He is now fat and happy in his little Aclamation/quarantine tank.

NANO IS FUN

 

[roscoe]

Paul your harliquin's colors are sweet. Check mines out http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34758. Where did you get yours from I want to get another one to pair up with him/her but I like the colors you have.

 

[Fragman]

Sarang:

Thanks, I checked out your Harelquin thread the other day. Great Pics, I wish I had your skills/equipment. I'll try and get some better pics and post them on your thread. My harlequins are a mated pair from Hawaii. The Hawaiian variety are a Purplish Red not Baby Blue like yours. 25 years ago all of the Harlequins at the LFS were Red and the Blue ones were Rare. Now it is the other way around. Hmmmmmm? I asked Jonas at Blue Sierra to order them in. I bugged him for two months and then one day the call came. Jonas did a great job rounding them up.

 

[Fragman]

The Nano at almost 4 months

The Bengais are 4 months old and the 12 gallon Nano has been set up for almost 3.5 months. The Bengais love to hang out in the Green tree coral on the right side of the tank now. They are basically small adults. The nano is approaching capacity with the following inhabitants:

3 Bengai Cardinals
2 True Perc Babies
2 Gold Neon Gobies
1 Clown Goby (Green)
1 African Blue Strip Pipe Fish
1 Blue Flasher Wrasse (really red)
1 Tiny Blue hippo Tang
1 Red Firefish
2 Yahshe Hashe Gobies
1 Red Nano Goby
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
2 Red Harlequin Shrimp
2 Sexy Shrimp
1 Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp
1 Candy Cane Pistol Shrimp
2 Emerald Crabs
6 Scarlet leg Hermits
4 or 5 snails

I've got plenty of room left for another cool critter or two!

 

[steven11]

Lookin good Paul!

 

[reeffan]

Paul, your Nano is looking really good. It's better looking in person though than the picture above. I may try to come visit you sometime this weekend. I got something that you may want.

jonathan

 

[Kannin]

Hey Paul,

I like your tank.

I discovered Friday night... that I have some Banggaiis incubating. I hope it's ok if I put my story in your thread... and ask for your help.

I did some research to figure out how to sex them and how to care for the young... and everything I learned kind of turned upside down. The fish that I thought was a female, because of the shorter anterior dorsal fin and the rounder belly... started to grow a banner from her fin about 10 days ago, like the male already had. Now, she/he has a mouth full of eggs. My plan is to ready a ten gallon that I already have and move him/ her into it on the 10th of May which is the 16th day after the last time I saw him/her eat. I am thinking of feeding frozen rotifers and cyclopeeze to the fry. Do you think these foods are small enough?

 

[Fragman]

Bangai advise

Kannin:

You won't need the Rotifers. These little guys are pretty good sized compared to say clownfish babies. They are all over freshly hatched brine shrimp! The movement of something alive is what I think attracts them. It may take a while to get them onto other foods. Mine didn't like Frozen Cyclops-eze. I did find some food at Barrier Reef Aquariums that they DID go for after they were a month or two old. (Prawn Roe) These are really small shrimp eggs and they love them. They are about the size of brine shrimp cysts. I wish that I had had that food from the start as it would have been a lot easier than hatching all of those baby brine shrimp day after day.

The trick is going to be to catch the male before you just see him eating again. Which means that something bad happened. I have not been able to see my male Bengai carry for the required 18 days since December. He seems to go for a week or 10 days and then I see him eating again. I figure that a tank mate or me simply spooked him and he expelled them prematurely. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Kannin]

Thank you. I'm gonna go to Barrier reef and see about the roe.

Question... What do you think about the fact that it seems to be the female that is holding the eggs?

About your's expelling the eggs... I read a story from a guy that bred a batch of 28 and then the pair got knocked up 8 days later and had 32 babies. Then they got knocked up again another 8 or 9 days later and the male expelled the eggs after only 5 or 6 days. The guy hypothesized that they were breeding too fast and the male wasn't getting enough time to build up his strength after fasting for close to 3 weeks. I'm just thinking that maybe separating them and power feeding the poor guy might be required. Or maybe a chastity belt for the first month they are back together.

 

[Fragman]

Lucky Bastard!

I think that nature is pretty set in her ways on this one, The guy is stuck holding the eggs. I don't believe that your female is carrying the eggs. My wife refuses to mow the lawn not because she can't do it, but because it is MY JOB. My Bengais certainly take a break, I'm trying to encourage them to spawn. I thought that once a month was the normal cycle??? Perhaps pre-mature terminations would shorten the one month cycle but boy what you are describing sounds like a "Nymphomaniac Bengai Chick". "Lucky Bastard" Where do I get one of those!

 

[Kannin]

I'm not sure I could handle not eating three weeks a month... even if my wife did give me all the love I could handle.

It's just wierd that the fish that looked like a female grew a banner and is now the one carrying the eggs.