on Aug 31 (20 days ago) I noticed my male cardinalfish had lockjaw, was cuddling in a new spot with his honey and they were dancing around together and acting all cutesy. A few days later the male finally opened up his mouth enough so I could see the eggs. I did a lot of research since then and the incubation period is supposed to be 21-23 days. I've read that I should separate the male and put it into a breeding tank or net a day or two before I think he will release the babies. I also read that I am supposed to feed only live BBS, 3x a day, and separate the male after he has released the last of the clutch, keep him separated and feed him for a week before returning to the main tank in case he receives another clutch of eggs immediately and thus starves to death over the next incubation period.
SO- that was long winded but I want to see if all of the above is correct, if I should expect to see babies soon, and how to feed them. I got a GOOD look at the babies today and they are still in their eggs but their eyes are prominent and the eggs are so big that the male is having a hard time keeping his mouth shut. I am wondering how close I am to needing to separate him?
Also, I was told by someone who raised these that he raised them on decapsulated BBS (baby brine shrimp) that he decapsulated by the following process, then froze for use over their early life:
Easy! Don't worry about hatching the BBS. Use decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. It is sooooo much easier and more nutritious (although I hatched some BBS to entice them). It is a simple process but it has to be precise. You pour the eggs into a reusable metal coffee filter and place the filter w/ eggs in a bowl. Then you soak the brine shrimp eggs in unscented bleach for EXACTLY 4 minutes. Use a timer! Lift out the coffee filter (the eggs will turn bright orange) and you rinse the out very very well (I even soaked them in a tap-water and Prime solution) for a minute or so. The you feed the BBS to the fry. All of the robust fry took to the decapsulated eggs and I don''t think I lost any for food issues. You can make a lot of the eggs at one time and freeze the rest. This also makes the fry used to frozen (aka non-living food). Read up on the decapsulation process as MOFIB is a good place to look
http://www.marinebreeder.org/forums/so again... this is an information packed thread that i hope isnt too overwhelming... but I am just looking for tips on what to do over the next few days as they fish are ready to come out and I have to start feeding them. To complicate matters, I have a friend visiting thursday-sun from LA and we are camping TH/FRI maybe into saturday and the only way I could keep these guys alive (if they come out before I leave) is off that decapsulated egg recipe...
whaddya think?! (I think it is one helluva long first post... too make it longer, here's a video of the fish from tonight... notice he is breathing a lot and fast. I noticed this as his mouth got fatter he was having a tougher time pulling water through that mouth)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSgq2H5Unak
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