Male Banggai Cardinal not eating

[reeflover]

About last Monday, my pair of cardinals stopped eating. Since then the female has resumed eating, but not the male. He looks to be perfectly fine otherwise. I can't see into his mouth to see if he is carring eggs, but his mouth does not look like it is stuffed with anything that I can tell. Any body with experience with Banggais have any ideas or suggestions? About a month or two ago he went off feed again, but started eating again after about one week. This time he has not eaten anything but one very small piece of brine shrip, and that very carefully. Do male Banggais always look like their mouth is full of eggs when they are holding, or can their mouths look normal, and yet holding a small clutch of eggs?

[kbb0118]

How old are they? Or more like how old is the female? If she is small/young then he may be holding eggs, but the egg mass isn't very big. Did you witness any spawning behavior like the side shimmy?

[reeflover]

I am going to estimate that they are both just a little over a year old, larger than the pair I got from you, but not quite as large as my largest male (he is really big). They were just under a year when I picked them up at the Spring Frag Swap this year (and supposedly they had spawned once before I bought them but was too young to hold). Both have/had been eating very well right along, and even now with the male off food for two weeks, does not look thin/skinny. Ulthough I don't remember the female ever looking bloated like with eggs the way that koi/goldfish look. But if I remember correctly, female freshwater angelfish don't look very egg laiden prior to spawning either. I keep all these fish in my basement so I don't often observe them, except for when I feed them 2-4 times per day, but I didn't see the side shimmy, if they were doing it.

I just put a pair of unpair clowns in the same 20H gallon tank to pair them, and the cardinals aren't showing any agression toward them, but the pair of cardinals stick close together, and the male usually tries to retreat from any activity and the female follows closely behind. The only time they separate is when I feed them, then both come over toward the food, and the female rises in the water column to eat, where as the male doesn't and stays at the bottom, near where the food is, before slowly moving back to the other side of the tank, shortly followed by the female.

Somebody at MBI was saying that around day 18 you can useally tell because the eggs start to hatch, and it is imposible at that time for the male to keep his mouth tightly buttoned up at that time, and it starts to bulge. I don't know if that has been your experience too.

[kbb0118]

My Banggai males never keep the eggs longer than 15 days, so I have always had to strip them...not my favorite thing to do. Females don't always look fat before they spawn. And you can't always tell if the male has eggs. I've found with smaller pairs you have to watch them really close to note the timing. With my pair that was huge (body that is 1.5" in diameter or more) that the egg mass is much larger and the male has a big mouthful. In that case it's quite obvious what is going on when. Sorry I'm not much help.

[reeflover]

Don't know if I am imagining this or not, but his mouth now seems to be more puffy, like he may be holding something inside. Still not eating though. I'm going to wait until I see the little ones hatch (if they are in there) and hanging out of his mouth before I move him to a bucket to release the spawn. I've got my fingers crossed.;)