melody
02-27-2005, 12:29 PM
This has been the most amazing process. Started in November 04 when 2 of my 3 Bangaii's ganged up on the 3rd and killed him. I had no clue at first what was happening. A few days later, one of my Bangaii's looked very different - to my surprise, daddy was carrying a mouth full of eggs. To my disappointment, he prematurely spit out the eggs - no survivors.
A couple weeks later, it happened again. This time, I didn't get him out of the tank in time (afraid of stressing him), and he delivered the babies while I was gone for 3 hours and his tankmates ate them.
No more of this - the minute I saw them doing the "bangaii dance", I moved the female and male to their own aquarium and watched them daily. When I knew the time was getting close, I removed the female and moved the male to a breeding area - he of course didn't approve of this and spit out 3 of the eggs - needless to say, I let him go back to his normal aquarium surroundings for fear he would spit out the rest. To my surprise on day 20 - the 3 eggs he spit out hatched, 2 survivors right now. On day 21 I noticed he spit out 2 more eggs that were near hatching. I removed them from the tank and put them in the breeding net - they hatched within hours.
I never gave it a 2nd thought that these abandoned eggs would hatch - what a surprise. The only thing I can attribute to the hatching is the constant water flow from my bio filtration system - very much like that of how the male filters water into his mouth - kind of a natural habitat for the eggs.
Daddy, as I call him, still has a mouthful of hatched babies - I am watching impatiently for him to spit them out - hopefully today while I am home so I can see the entire process.
Well, it is now day 27 and I have a total of 15 baby bangaai's with more on the way. Daddy released 8 on day 26 over a period of 12 hours and I found another 3 in the tank when I got up this morning. I still can see more in his mouth trying to escape.
A note to future bangaii owner/breeders - if you want to experience this process from beginning to end - lots of caffeine because you won't be getting much sleep...it is a very slow process from what I've seen.
A couple weeks later, it happened again. This time, I didn't get him out of the tank in time (afraid of stressing him), and he delivered the babies while I was gone for 3 hours and his tankmates ate them.
No more of this - the minute I saw them doing the "bangaii dance", I moved the female and male to their own aquarium and watched them daily. When I knew the time was getting close, I removed the female and moved the male to a breeding area - he of course didn't approve of this and spit out 3 of the eggs - needless to say, I let him go back to his normal aquarium surroundings for fear he would spit out the rest. To my surprise on day 20 - the 3 eggs he spit out hatched, 2 survivors right now. On day 21 I noticed he spit out 2 more eggs that were near hatching. I removed them from the tank and put them in the breeding net - they hatched within hours.
I never gave it a 2nd thought that these abandoned eggs would hatch - what a surprise. The only thing I can attribute to the hatching is the constant water flow from my bio filtration system - very much like that of how the male filters water into his mouth - kind of a natural habitat for the eggs.
Daddy, as I call him, still has a mouthful of hatched babies - I am watching impatiently for him to spit them out - hopefully today while I am home so I can see the entire process.
Well, it is now day 27 and I have a total of 15 baby bangaai's with more on the way. Daddy released 8 on day 26 over a period of 12 hours and I found another 3 in the tank when I got up this morning. I still can see more in his mouth trying to escape.
A note to future bangaii owner/breeders - if you want to experience this process from beginning to end - lots of caffeine because you won't be getting much sleep...it is a very slow process from what I've seen.