Banggai Cardinalfish Food

[trevorhiller]

I picked up a Banggai Cardinalfish the other day from Petco. He seems to have settled into QT and is doing well other than he won't eat pellets. All of my other fish have gone nuts over the TDO Chromaboost pellets, but this guy tastes them and spits them out. I tried adding some Selcon and Garlic Extract to them, but same results.

He goes absolutely nuts over frozen brine shrimp and also will pick at PE Calanus, but not as aggressively. I know he was eating pellets at Petco because that is what they were feeding.

Does anyone have any tips on the diet or food that has worked well for these fish? I'm open to trying some other non-frozen food. I like to feed 2-3x daily while they are in QT, but I don't really want to deal with frozen cubes multiple times a day and then have him refuse to eat anything else.

 

[flabydab123]

Not all pellets are the same; what pellets was the fish eating at Petco? I’ve had these fish go after pellets and flakes with time, but if you want it eating dry food ASAP then get the exact brand they were feeding

 

[trevorhiller]

I believe they were ocean nutrition pellets. Honestly they were huge and I can't believe the fish was eating them. I'll have to confirm with them and see if I can get some.

I'm ok feeding some frozen, I just don't want him becoming a frozen food snob

 

[Brit’s Fish]

I wish I could get my Banggai to eat anything other than frozen! Grrr.

 

[vtecintegra]

I've never had one eat pellets. Frozen Mysis and fish eggs are what mine eats.

 

[trevorhiller]

Good to know… guess I didn’t realize they were picky eaters.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I just bought 3, we will see how they do. But I always feed frozen (defrosted) Usually a mix of mysis, vegi-mix and a enriched brine or mix. Most of my fish eat pellets also so I will feed that in the morning, frozen for lunch and dinner.

 

[Roli's Reef Ranch]

Did you see them at PetCo eating pellets? Mine only eat frozen/live foods and I've heard they won't eat pellets/flakes.

 

[trevorhiller]

Did you see them at PetCo eating pellets? Mine only eat frozen/live foods and I've heard they won't eat pellets/flakes.

He did feed them pellets for me and they all seemed to attack the pellets so dramatically I didn't exactly pay attention. But I can't be sure whether they swallowed them or spit them out. I'm suspecting that they may have actually spit them out after seeing the behavior in my QT tank and the above reports of them not eating pellets. I am curious how they have been faring for a few weeks in the Petco tanks though because I don't believe they feed frozen food.

 

[blaxsun]

My cardinals like NFS algae, marine fish and the Nyos sweet aloe, true algae and goji pellets.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

Inappropriate Reefer on YouTube has a few Banggais that eat flakes or pellets but mine refuses, as I mentioned earlier. Sometimes he’ll accidentally grab a pellet or flake but he spits them right out. I think it honestly depends on the fish. I’ve had plenty of success getting different types of Dragonettes to even eat pellets but not my Banggai. I think mine is just too old to learn new tricks.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Well my 3 new ones are eating my frozen (defrosted) mix. These are supposedly aqua-cultured so I can't imagine the breeders wouldn't feed them flake or pellets. I will let you know in a day or two

 

[PatW]

I typically feed a mix of pellets. My bengai cardinals never ever would touch them. They liked frozen mysis and frozen enriched brine shrimp. It must have been an adequate diet because they spawned regularly (which is a good sign). I have had even pretty picky fish and all of them would eat pellets. I think observing the feeding frenzy of the other fish sort of get the picky eaters thinking that pellets must be edible. But the Bengai is made of sterner stuff.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

So out of the three I got, all eat my frozen mix... flake, one does for sure, maybe two, Pellets, even though they are tiny, still may be a bit big for them

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Mine is eating Ocean Nutrition Prime Marine Flakes.