During the weekend and finnally last night all of the baby bangaii's have been released into the tank.  This morning I counted 3 but that was a quick glance around the tank with the lights off and only lit by moonlights.  I'm sure there are more hiding in my Xenia.  I will try to count them tonight and hopefully catch them to move them into my bangaii grow out tank!  I'll also get some pics up soon.

Congrats on becoming a daddy AGAIN! I can't wait to see your pictures of the "little guys".  I am patiently (lol, not really patiently) waiting for mine to have some more activity in the tank. My male has not dropped the eggs so I think we are going to full term (fingers crossed), and today I am starting to convert my 35hex over for the pair. Not much activity has been seen on my behalf since last week...I can still see the beady little eyes staring back at me out of "dad's" mouth when he decides to crack it open a bit so that is a good sign. Unlike last week he is not opening his mouth as wide or as much to reposition the eggs, so hopefully that means they are gowing alright and the need just isn't there to do so. Again, congrats...and I look forward to the pics!

Thanks for the update.

kazoh said :

.I can still see the beady little eyes staring back at me out of "dad's" mouth when he decides to crack it open

That would make such an AWESOME picture if you could get it.

pundam said :

kazoh said :

.I can still see the beady little eyes staring back at me out of "dad's" mouth when he decides to crack it open

That would make such an AWESOME picture if you could get it.

Well...I did not manage to get any pictures of the little eyes staring out of daddy's mouth (I can't advance the shutter speed because of the lighting so in turn I get fuzzy/blury images each time I try), but I think that these will tide your appetite LOL...

It has been about 21 days between the day I noticed the male stop feeding and today when he released his first two "kiddies". I did freak him and the babies out pretty good by turning on the lights for a few quick shots, so hopefully after turning them back off he will finish releasing the rest of the fry this afternoon and evening.  I turned off the lights this morning because I thought I saw a transparent tail sticking out of one of the eggs and thought that he might be tricked into thinking it was night if I did.  Needless to say, it was a tail and he was tricked, so now it is just a waiting game for the rest.

Baby #1 with no coloration at about ten minutes after release. 

Baby #2 with some coloration starting at about 20 minutes after release.

Must be Bangaii breeding season or something. Lots of people's Bangaiis are having babies lately.

sweet!   keep them coming!

youngtimothy said :

sweet!   keep them coming!

Three days after release my batch my male has a mouth full of eggs.  So we should be working on another batch soon.

Aquatic Aquaman said :

Three days after release my batch my male has a mouth full of eggs.  So we should be working on another batch soon.

My female wouldn't leave him alone after I removed them from my 75 and secluded them.   After visiting Matt and picking some stuff up from him the other day I was able to finish changing over my 35hex and threw her in there so he could relax a little and get a few day break after the babies came.  Then he will get to move to his new home in the hex which is going to be my Bangaii tank (I guess).  Well, I just got home from my daughter's softball game and saw two more, but daddy Bangaii still wasn't budging for food and has some more eggs in his mouth that I could see.  Has anybody ever had issues with getting a fish to start feeding again after carying for so long?  Just wondering as that has been my main concern through this whole ordeal so far...

Alright, quick update...before turning off the light and going to bed last night babies 1,2,3 & 4 seemed to be swimming around just fine.  I turned on the light this morning and babies 1,2 & 3, or 2,3 &4 (you get the point) vanished.  I thought maybe just late sleepers or slow to wake up, even possibly  hiding...but unfortunately I do not think that was/is the case.  I have checked a few times today and there is only one baby still swimming around with the exception of the remaining babies in dad's mouth.  Does anybody know if the Bangaii's are a species that allow the fry to return and take shelter in their mouth again after they have been released? I haven't been able to find any concrete material of this on the web yet. I know they weren't sucked into the filter intake because I have floss wrapped around the intake, and I checked and removed the clumps of chaeto this morning to make sure they weren't getting trapped in it.  The only other things that may be a possibility are the star polys (maybe eating them like a hammer would?) or the urchin I have in there (it's a pincushion, not a long spine).  Regardless, I currently am down to one freely swimming on his own and am still waiting for the rest to be released.  I am also hatching some BBS from some eggs I got today since I haven't seen the one baby take any cyclo or reef plankton yet.