banghi Cardinal aggression

Damion123 · Dec 27, 2020

Hello everyone. On Dec 13, I got two banghi cardinals, a pair of clowns and a tomini tang. The larger banghi has been picking on the smaller one. The big one chases the smaller one around and eventually the small one hides in the corner. So I put the smaller one in an isolation box for on the 14th. Today I let the small one out to see what will happen. The big one started attacking as soon as the small one was out of the box. What should I do????

daybreaksky · Dec 27, 2020

rehome it. Cardinals would murder each other unless they are mated and they are hard to tell gender. In large shoals they pick off the weakest until 1 or pair remains. Some had success keeping a large number in a big tank when other predatory fish is present to keep them in a group but I think it's rare that they don't eventually kill each other.

Damion123 · Dec 28, 2020

That sucks. The guy I bought them from said they were in the same tank together. So I’m not sure why they would fight

daybreaksky · Dec 28, 2020

Ya it's unfortunate. Something in the other tank may have kept them scared enough to play survival by the numbers and not that there is no threat they are getting territorial. A move itself may trigger it as well, but it's extremely rare for them not to fight each other and they should be kept as single or mated pair.

Damion123 · Dec 28, 2020

daybreaksky said:
Ya it's unfortunate. Something in the other tank may have kept them scared enough to play survival by the numbers and not that there is no threat they are getting territorial. A move itself may trigger it as well, but it's extremely rare for them not to fight each other and they should be kept as single or mated pair.

Thanks for the advice

Katie M · Dec 28, 2020

They will do fine together as juveniles, so they were probably good for the previous owner, but now that they are a certain age it definitely won't work unless they are a male/female pair. If you're seeing that much aggression, they are definitely not a pair. It's best to separate them, sorry.

Damion123 · Dec 29, 2020

Katie M said:
They will do fine together as juveniles, so they were probably good for the previous owner, but now that they are a certain age it definitely won't work unless they are a male/female pair. If you're seeing that much aggression, they are definitely not a pair. It's best to separate them, sorry.

The guy I got them, only had them to QT, then sold them to me. He said they were in the same tank so now I'm bummed. I was hoping they were a pair. Is there any way to sex the Banghi? If I kept one, I would want to get another of the opposite sex, so I could have a pair?

Katie M · Dec 29, 2020

Damion123 said:
The guy I got them, only had them to QT, then sold them to me. He said they were in the same tank so now I'm bummed. I was hoping they were a pair. Is there any way to sex the Banghi? If I kept one, I would want to get another of the opposite sex, so I could have a pair?

Sorry that was your experience. Yes you can sex bangaiis, but it's difficult especially if you're not looking at them side by side. The males have a much larger jaw to hold the eggs.