Banggai cardinalfish

[Bensadork]

So it's Sunday which means I can't talk myself out of going to the LFS. Now, I'm going with a budget and gonna try to keep today's purchases in the 30 dollar range. I have 2 ideas. One idea is to buy a couple zoa frags for 15 a piece and add a little more color to the right side of my tank. However, if the price is right I may pick up a pair of banggai cardinal fish. Ideally I would try to pick a mated pair. Has anyone got any horror stories or reasons not to pick up a couple of these beautiful fish? I have a 46g bowfront with 50 pounds of live rock and 80 pounds of dsb live sand. I have 2 black and white oscillaris and the rbta they live in. I have a lawnmower blenny as well. A big peppermint shrimp also lives in the tank. Other than some hermits and a whole mess of stomatella snails that's all the livestock I have. I do have a nice big goniopora in the front of the tank as well. I have a nice growing frag of gsp and a couple zoa frags as well. Is the banggai cardinalfish going to be a good addition to my tank or would I be making a mistake getting 2 of them?

 

[dmh41532]

I think they make a nice addition, however, I would ask if they are wild collected or captive bred. My experience with wild is not good, both refused to eat.Even captive bred ones can be stubborn with eating at first, mine will only eat live brine. A pair will most certainly become one.

 

[Bensadork]

Yeah my first question would have to be if they were wild or tank bred. And I may also ask if they can feed the fish while I'm there to determine what kind of food they like the best. If they are only going to eat live brine and nothing frozen I may have to pass because I have no way of keeping live brine without going to the fish store 3 times a week to buy them every time I want to feed. I don't really know what it takes to keep live brine to feed, though, so i may be out of line in saying that. I just know I don't have another tank setup at the moment and there's no way the girlfriend would allow me to keep any kind of live fish food in the refrigerator unless its sealed up nicely in a bottle or something.

 

[Mike in CT]

As said, make sure they are captive bred. If they will eat frozen mysis you are good to go. I feed
mine every other day and they seem to do fine as I don't want to feed frozen every day.
The only other food mine will eat are black worms which they devour!

 

[chris124]

I like the banggai cardinal but when I get two I always end up with one because one kills the other. Am I the only one with this problem?

 

[LetItReef]

I have one and eats just frozen Brine. Ignores Spectrum pellets & Garlic pellets.

 

[Mike in CT]

You are not the only one. I paid a hefty amount for for a matched pair off divers den and
they never hooked up. Eventually one started bullying the other one and one day the one being
bullied went missing. I think the stress got to him and my clean up crew took care of him
before I noticed. I did have one breeding pair years ago....but that was just luck that I picked
a male/female combo that got along. I only have one now and would like another, but I am not exactly sure
how to go about it besides adding another and see if they hook up.

 

[chris124]

I have tried it three times with the same result every time.

 

[Mike in CT]

I think the easiest way is to add at least 3, then if 2 pair up return the 3rd wheel.

 

[FL_Reefer]

I have 3 different types of cardinals in my tank. A banggai, pj and an orbic. I've had the orbic and the pj for about 4 years and we got the banggai as a baby about 1 1/2 years ago. I feed everyday, a mix of meaty food (no dry or live at all). It was crazy how small our banggai was when we first got him (about the size of your thumb nail) they are one of my favorite types of fish! To my understanding about 2 years or so ago they (wild caught) had a bad sickness going around and that's why people were not having success with them. A very good local fish guy told me this but it has since been solved. I think most of the banggai's sold now a days are mostly captive breed. There an awesome fish and a great addition to any tank. Good luck and let's see some pics!

 

[tripleridge]

I have read to buy 3 or more at a time, my lps has them on sale for 10.99 right now. I have the same tank as you, I have three along side a pair of clowns. And two blue chromis. They eat both flake and frozen shrimp. I feed them once a day. Pretty little fish!

 

[stiky]

I have a breeding pair. Right now I have 4 babies left out of the original 8. The key is to feed them a lot and then the vents on their underside are visible. Look up the article on sexing them. Once they approach the 2 inch size they start doing the mating dance if they are in fact male female. Feeding often and also feeding black worms seems to kick them into reproduction mode. The male holds for 28 days ish. Around day 25 I turn the light off completely for a half hour. Then turn them on bright and easily scoop up the male and isolate him. Sometimes he spits a few babies out in panic but quickly gobbles them up when his eyesight returns to normal. Raising the babies is tedious and I have alternating batches of baby brine shrimp. About day 5 of rearing I start offering nutramar as the sooner they accept frozen the better. Hope that helps someone.

 

[RMS18]

I picked up 2 captive bread ones about 3 weeks ago, they are cool fish. More active at night. They get along great with my clowns. They are a pain in the butt to feed however, mainly because for some unknown reason they are scared ****less of my turkey baster lol. They see it before it enters the tank and hide.

 

[3dees]

they need to be a bonded pair. just a pair doesn't guarantee they will bond. I have only one going on two years and it still will not touch flake or pellets. the only food it will take besides frozen is freeze dried blackworms. and yes, make sure they are tank bred.

 

[Harold Green]

I have four in my display tank. The largest chases the other three but doesn't seem to be doing any harm to them. They eat any frozen foods I put in the tank. I usually turn off the return pump and then spray food into the stream from my wavemaker. All they see is meaty food swimming away and grab it. Cyclops works well to start them eating and then mysis as they grow. Mine have been in my tank for several months now and have grown quite a bit.

 

[dmh41532]

Mine was very timid for about a month. Not at all timid now that's it's in the display. But this captive bred Cardinal will only take live brine. Not sure how long you'll have two. I've never tried it, but I'm told they generally work down to one, unless you are luck to get a true pair.

 

[Bensadork]

I seem to have lucked out. I picked up two of them about 2 weeks ago and they seem to be perfectly happy together and are eating flakes and frozen brine and bloodworms. I'll keep my fingers crossed they stay happy!

 

[3dees]

hope for the best, but two weeks is nothing. it could be months before one fish decides it doesn't want the other in the tank.

 

[jlanger]

I added three captive-bred Bangaii Cardinalfish to my tank and they were eating frozen foods (LRS) right from the get-go.
It seems that after a few weeks that two of them hang out on one side of the tank (more timid) and the other one likes to roam around or stay on the other side (more bold). So far I have not yet seen any aggression towards the third fish, but we'll have to see if a pair is being created or if the two of them are just shy.

 

[Paul B]

Bangai's are a very easy fish and I don't think I ever had a pair that didn't spawn. And the fry are huge compared to most fish so if you want to raise them, they are relatively easy. They like meaty foods and I would not feed adult brine shrimp to anything. I feed them (and all my fish) clams and live blackworms every day.