Biggest Pajama Cardinalfish I have ever seen

Jesterrace · Mar 20, 2019

Hard to tell from the video but the Yellow Tang is about 4 inches and the Blue Hippo Tang is about 6 inches. This PJ Cardinal is just over 4 inches in length and just over an inch wide. I have never seen one this size before:

Dr. Reef · Mar 20, 2019

i have 2 of them in my 240gal tank and i have had them for years. they do get big.

Jesterrace · Mar 20, 2019

That is what I figured that this guy had been in a really good sized tank and fed well for several years. I have a little 1.5 inch PJ Cardinal in my 90 gallon but he is just over a year old at this point (He was maybe a half inch when I got him).

TvanB1 · Mar 20, 2019

Nice!
One of my friends has 3 about that size in a 100gal mixed reef. Heavy feeding from the start definitely helps.

mattzang · Mar 20, 2019

it's funny when you see a standard fish that's just massive. same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago at aquarium of the pacific. they have this Caribbean exhibit with some royal grammas and a couple of pearly jawfish and ho-lee. they were all huge, easily the longest and fattest fish i've ever seen in person.

Jesterrace · Mar 20, 2019

Yup, it's amazing how big some of these so called "little fish" actually get in the proper environment. It's also how fat these fish can get.

Daniel@R2R · Mar 20, 2019

That's awesome!

nereefpat · Mar 20, 2019

Are they always that ugly as adults (not that they're very pretty as juvies)? The large ones I see are always brown, and the same goes for banggai.

Jesterrace · Mar 20, 2019

I did notice that it's colors were a bit more diminished. Then again it could be the Fish Equivalent of simply getting "Old And Grey" Either way though that's a very big and mature PJ Cardinalfish.

Reefer79 · Mar 20, 2019

Jesterrace said:
Hard to tell from the video but the Yellow Tang is about 4 inches and the Blue Hippo Tang is about 6 inches. This PJ Cardinal is just over 4 inches in length and just over an inch wide. I have never seen one this size before:

I have 2 myself but the place I buy my fish from have a tank of adults which are approx 3-4 inches. I like them better small. It was an impulse buy before I seen what they can grow into. Their cute pj's arnt as cute on the big ones lol I've also seen some huge banggai cardinals, I also had two but they hung around my carpet anemone and ended up an expensive treat. They seemed to mimic the clowns by hosting anything with tenticles. Sad loss

vetteguy53081 · Mar 20, 2019

Seem very large ones. They seem to lose their color when jumbo but still a sight to see.

Nailqueencat · Mar 21, 2019

nereefpat said:
Are they always that ugly as adults (not that they're very pretty as juvies)? The large ones I see are always brown, and the same goes for banggai.

PJs are ugly as adults once they lose those pretty red juvenile spots. I too had one for over 11 years that was huge, ugly and pretty gormless . However, I do love my bangaiis as they keep their beautiful black and silver colouring and tall fins. I have had a breeding pair for many years now along with a long spined black urchin so it’s great to watch their behaviour and that of the babies (unless they get eaten!)

McPuff · Mar 21, 2019

I've got a male PJ that is nearly the same size in my 300. He's about 7 years old. Sadly, just lost the female about a month ago (bowel obstruction I think). Anyway, they will get pretty ugly when they are huge and old... mine is still nicely colored, thankfully. The same happens to a lot of fish though. Even emperor angels get pretty ugly when they're big and old. Now I'm considering getting some bangaiis as it's been a few years since I've had any. :0)

Reefer79 · Mar 21, 2019

Nailqueencat said:
PJs are ugly as adults once they lose those pretty red juvenile spots. I too had one for over 11 years that was huge, ugly and pretty gormless . However, I do love my bangaiis as they keep their beautiful black and silver colouring and tall fins. I have had a breeding pair for many years now along with a long spined black urchin so it’s great to watch their behaviour and that of the babies (unless they get eaten!)

I too have a massive long spined urchin, but after 4 months, I'm considering rehomimg him. He's eating all my zoas and anything else with a small flower like polyps. I put seaweed in my tank fir my tangs avd he's always attached to it eating it so the tangs can't get to it. Love the guy but such a pain. In the earlier months, he'd move about any frags or loose rockwork. Losing my patience with him. Unfortunately my cardinals preferred the carpet anemone instead of urchin

WVfishguy · Mar 21, 2019

Nailqueencat said:
PJs are ugly as adults once they lose those pretty red juvenile spots. I too had one for over 11 years that was huge, ugly and pretty gormless . However, I do love my bangaiis as they keep their beautiful black and silver colouring and tall fins. I have had a breeding pair for many years now along with a long spined black urchin so it’s great to watch their behaviour and that of the babies (unless they get eaten!)

I always have Banggai fry in my 90 reefer. And the fry have paired off. I went ahead and set up a couple of breeding tanks - I can trade them for other stuff. It seems the male almost always has eggs or fry in his mouth.

BTW - I LOVE the word, "gormless!"

Reefer79 · Mar 22, 2019

I had

Nailqueencat said:
PJs are ugly as adults once they lose those pretty red juvenile spots. I too had one for over 11 years that was huge, ugly and pretty gormless . However, I do love my bangaiis as they keep their beautiful black and silver colouring and tall fins. I have had a breeding pair for many years now along with a long spined black urchin so it’s great to watch their behaviour and that of the babies (unless they get eaten!)

I had two B-Cardinals as my first set of fish, lost them to my carpet unfortunately. I have a long spined urchin as well, do you think if I got 2 new ones they would host it? They seemed to only linger around my anemones. I got the urchin after I lost them. They were my favourite by far. Angel fish were the only ones I liked in freshwater so these were as close to it as I could find in salt water.