Banggai cardinalfish eating

madd186 · 07/19/2014, 11:11 PM

I'm fairly new to this hobby so I apologize if this is a dumb question. I've had 2 banggai cardinalfish in my tank for a year. Just this evening as I fed mysis to them, one of them went around the tank collecting the food in his mouth, never closing it. I watched him for a long time after and he never did close his mouth or do anything with the food. Is this normal?

slief · 07/20/2014, 12:40 AM

He is probably holding eggs or fry in his mouth and my guess is if not fry, fairly well developed eggs. When the male is carrying, they rarely close their mouth. While they normally don't eat much while carrying the eggs, it's not unheard of. In case you didn't know it, the male cardinal fish carry the eggs in their mouth until they fry are ready to be released. As the fry develop, the eggs get smaller until the fry have consumed the eggs and are free swimming in the fathers mouth. If you look carefully inside the fishes mouth, you might just be surprised to see little eyes staring back at you. Not joking either.

Here is a really good recent video of one of my male Bangai's with his mouth overflowing with eggs that were just passed to him within hours of my taking this video. That's the female swimming alongside it.

madd186 · 09/06/2014, 02:49 PM

My apologizes for bringing back such an old thread, but my cardinalfish is again "eating with its mouth open." I do not believe there is any fry in there, so what could be causing this? The quality is not the best, but here's a quick video.

http://youtu.be/j1WZG1Bb-DI

07/19/2014, 11:11 PM	#1
madd186 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 11	Banggai cardinalfish eating I'm fairly new to this hobby so I apologize if this is a dumb question. I've had 2 banggai cardinalfish in my tank for a year. Just this evening as I fed mysis to them, one of them went around the tank collecting the food in his mouth, never closing it. I watched him for a long time after and he never did close his mouth or do anything with the food. Is this normal?

07/20/2014, 12:40 AM	#2
slief RC Sponsor Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 14,173	He is probably holding eggs or fry in his mouth and my guess is if not fry, fairly well developed eggs. When the male is carrying, they rarely close their mouth. While they normally don't eat much while carrying the eggs, it's not unheard of. In case you didn't know it, the male cardinal fish carry the eggs in their mouth until they fry are ready to be released. As the fry develop, the eggs get smaller until the fry have consumed the eggs and are free swimming in the fathers mouth. If you look carefully inside the fishes mouth, you might just be surprised to see little eyes staring back at you. Not joking either. Here is a really good recent video of one of my male Bangai's with his mouth overflowing with eggs that were just passed to him within hours of my taking this video. That's the female swimming alongside it. __________________ Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745 Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476 Last edited by slief; 07/20/2014 at 12:50 AM.

09/06/2014, 02:49 PM	#3
madd186 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 11	My apologizes for bringing back such an old thread, but my cardinalfish is again "eating with its mouth open." I do not believe there is any fry in there, so what could be causing this? The quality is not the best, but here's a quick video. http://youtu.be/j1WZG1Bb-DI