Baby Cardinals

I was able to successfully net our male cardinal about 25 days after he had eggs in his mouth and transfer him to our sump. So far one baby escaped and is doing well, but he still has quite the mouthful. Any advise? Will he eat the babies after he spits them all out, or will we have time to get him out of the sump?

 

We are at day 29 now, and only one baby released. Is that normal?

 

be patient it should be fine

 

once he releases them all, he will probably start eating them. Best if you can cage him up with egg crate, then the babies can swim out of it. At this stage, I would strip the babies out & put him back in the main tank

 

How do I strip them out? I may try tonight when I get home.

 

Usually net him up, GENTLY pry down on his mouth & he will spit them out. This works 90% of the time. If not, you will just have to let him keep them.

 

Squirting water in his mouth with a small plastic syringe works well too. Stripped a ton of cichlids this way.

 

I jealous. I've had pairs that mated but never saw them release the little ones

 

Ive had them since mid April. He had a mouthful of babies once before, i was able to see the eyes peeking out, but couldnt catch him out of the display and they became fish food before I even saw them. This time i was fortunate enough to catch him. We'll see what happens.

 

He spit a total of 6 out last night, I got tired of waiting and feared he would spit the rest right after I left work, then he would have all day to feast. I netted him and he immediatlevspit the rest. We have at least 19, woo hoo.

I don't have baby brine. So I mixed a concoction of Hikari Frye food, coral food, rods larval food, and phyto 2 and the rest of the syringe with tank water. We are going to feed a few drops several times per day. I don't run a skimmer and have a ton of pods from the algae scrubber, so my hope is there are some sort of live nauplii floating around in that sump. One plus is that the original 6 were eating it last night.

Suggestions are welcome, and wanted.

 

Got home from work today and all 20 of the babies are good, but the male had gotten beaten up pretty bad by the female, I honestly should have seen it coming, as she is quite the b@@@. Anyway I have him in recovering in a breeders box in the main display, while the Babies live it up in the sump. The good news is he did eat voraciously when I fed him, hopefully after a few quiet meals alone, he'll be able to hold his own again.

 

Got home from work today and all 20 of the babies are good, but the male had gotten beaten up pretty bad by the female, I honestly should have seen it coming, as she is quite the b@@@. Anyway I have him in recovering in a breeders box in the main display, while the Babies live it up in the sump. The good news is he did eat voraciously when I fed him, hopefully after a few quiet meals alone, he'll be able to hold his own again.

 

If your not running a skimmer Id keep a close eye on your nitrates as you could be overfeeding.

 

Yeah, I have one (a skimmer) just in case, but I hope not to need it.

 

Baby's still doing good and all accounted for, eating as well.
I am concerned about the mail cardinal. I have isolated him in the tank because he was getting picked on, pretty bad. What is the protocol to care for an injured fish, I have been feeding him, and he has ate, but he looks weak. Am I better off catching the more aggressive female and keeping her in the breeder box? Are there any dips or treatments I should use, or is time the best medicine? Anybody have any recommendations?

 

Baby's still doing good and all accounted for, eating as well.
I am concerned about the mail cardinal. I have isolated him in the tank because he was getting picked on, pretty bad. What is the protocol to care for an injured fish, I have been feeding him, and he has ate, but he looks weak. Am I better off catching the more aggressive female and keeping her in the breeder box? Are there any dips or treatments I should use, or is time the best medicine? Anybody have any recommendations?

 

Male

 

Keep the male in the box as long as he seems to be doing OK and is not stressed. You will want to keep him there for a couple weeks to fatten him up as he has not eaten in 30 days.... It is pretty common for the female to be aggressive and if they were left alone he may already have eggs in his mouth again...

 

Any plans for the babies yet?? /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

The male died yesterday, but the babies are doing well so far. We'll see how many grow up. I'll offer them on this site when the time comes.