Knocked Up Again - due 10/28/08

Here we go again! Zeus and Hera are trying to have babies. Two days ago, I witnessed the Bangaii Cardinal mating "dance." Tonight, I noticed Zeus has an extended jawline again...extremely pronounced. This is about the third or fourth time since June that these two have hooked up.

So I guess I owe it to them to try to do something differently this time to save some of the fry (babies). They mated on Oct. 7th so that gives us a due day of around Oct. 28th. Maybe little Halloween babies?

I did some research and then went to the tank to see if Zeus did this yawning thing that the males do to move fresh oxygenated water around the egg sac...and sure enough in his mouth were all the pink little eggs like in the above picture (not Zeus).

I have a few weeks to figure out breeder nets and how to feed fry successfully. I guess I will go pick up a small 3 gallon tank and try to move Zeus over to it just before he releases. Apparently its very difficult to round up the fry before the rest of the fish eat them...so that seems to be my only choice. Not easy, but I am going to give it a go.

Another reefkeeper suggested putting a longspine urchin in there or making a prototype out of toothpicks...the male supposedly will release near the urchin and the fry then stay within those spines for safety - for a little while. They will be about 1/4" long when released...very cute.

Why do it? Because how many times have you met someone that has successfully bred a saltwater fish? And these lil guys are endangered - so why not try to help Nature along a bit? I am sure the fish shop won't mind free foster fish after a few months. I don't expect that the entire clutch of 30 will survive...but if a handful do then that is cool.