opinions on bangaii cardinal?

[mrsgoose]

Hi - i've got a new 29g with lots of live rock/ls and nothing but 3 hermits and 2 snails so far. I'd like to add some corals down the road when i update my lights. I'd aso like to have a bangaii cardinal. Anyone have thoughts on these fish? Are they compatible with clowns? I'd like a pair of percs, a goby and some shrimp. I'm new at this and ppreciate any feedback and stocking advice! Thanks...

[kfowler]

My understanding is that they're pretty reef safe and compatable tank mates. There's a couple of people on here who breed them so maybe thy'll chime in.

They're a funny species to me. They never really caught my eye until I saw one in person. I live the way they hover. If you ever see a bunch together, the remind me of some kind of space ship battle formation.

[papagimp]

I have been raising and breeding some bangaii's for several months now, very friendly reef safe fish. Mine get along great with the occellaris pair I have, even so much as they will both rub in the hairy mushrooms together. Although they both have prefered sleeping spots. Only thing with bangaii's is that they can open their mouths kinda big, and if they can fit a small fish in, they will. So I'd be worried about adding anything like a neon goby or citron, but anything larger would be fine. Feed regularly with live foods, and/or frozen mysis, krill, plankton. This helps to induce spawning. FWIW, this is one of the easiest marine fish to breed, they even release their young free swimming. It's awesome to watch them interact when spawning. Just keep in mind, if you have two males, they will fight. If a male/female pair is incompatible, the female will usually perish as well. You can tell ahead of time by one of the fish stickin' to the back of the tank, not eating, not holding eggs, and just withering away. Their coloration will also darken while stressed out like this. If you don't plan on keeping a male/female pair, then I'd plan on just one. They are almost impossible to sex unless breeding/spawning/holding eggs.

Here is a link to my breeding log, if you wanna see some nice pics and a bit of information on them: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=1

[bvanhoveln]

I have a 90 gal with a Saddleback Clown and three Pajama Cardinalfish. They all seem to get along fine - although when it comes to feeding I always feed my Clown first as he is much more aggressive when going for the food. Once he is about finished I feed the Cardinals.

[Wrench]

My cardinal is a good tankmate. Just kinda hangs around 'till feeding time. Then he's a MONSTER! He's the most voracious fish I've got.

[Willie_6]

I had a bangaii cardinal for 9 months and was just fine. Nothing bothered my cardinal. They seem to be perfect citizens.

[mwwhite]

Tagging along.

We'd ordered a Banggai Cardinal on-line a few weeks ago. It arrived alive, was acclimated very slowly via drip method, but died in two days, anyway. VERY BUMMED. We never did see it eat, which isn't necessarily surprising givent that they're nocturnal (as I understand it, anyway).

We offered it Cyclop-eeze, frozen Mysis, Marine Flakes, and Marine Pellets (along with its tankmates).

It didn't show any physical signs of illness or injury. No other fish bothered it; it got along well with our Percs (mated pair), Lawnmower Blenny, and Fridmani Pseudochromis - was out in the open/not hiding, etc.

Are there special care considerations for this fish? I'd like to get another (tank-bred from LFS this time), but want to make sure I'm able to properly care for it.

Papagimp or others who have kept them - any insights?

[papagimp]

Originally posted by SpankinNew
Are there special care considerations for this fish?

They are very easy to care for, although wild collected fish will obviously have to be weened onto any prepared foods. It took my pair of Bangaii's a couple months before they'd ever touch the pellets I feed to everyone else, and even then they only eat a small amount of them, and wait for the mysis instead. They do suffer as most fish do from shipping but I don't believe they are any worse than the average fish when it comes to shipping damage or stress. The only special consideration I would suggest is to find captive raised and bred individuals, not only are they much hardier in the long run, but in the wild bangaii's only come from a remote region of the Bangaii Islands in Indonesia. Roughly a 10,000km square aread is all they inhabit naturally. It may seem like a big area but when you consider distribution of all ornamental marine fish, these have a very small area for collection and run the risk of overcollection and the inevitable placement on an endangered species list. They are so easy to breed and raise in captivity that I do not recommend getting any wild specimens. Although my breeding pair were wild collected, I did not realize this at the time and have been very fortunate.

Just because I like showing off, heres a picture of my male bangaii holding his babies, yes that's right, the male holds the eggs until they hatch and for another 4-7 days until they are ready to go off on their own. You can see the little tykes peeking out.

[sukie80]

Here's a pic of my lil' guy I got from a guy who breeds them:


He's bigger now. . . since that was a picture in Sept06. But he get along w/ my clown great. He doesn't take flake food at all, but I think it's because he was only feed frozen (breeders choice). But I would love to get a female/male for he/she and have a pair.

They are adorable and have cute personalities. Get one if you can.

[mwwhite]

Thank you very much! They're certainly beautiful fish. Perfect size for our 72, and perfect personality for our other peaceful inhabitants. I'll try again.

I also see that there are two spellings - Bangaii and Banggai. I'll follow your lead - they're Bangaii's. You da man!

[TekCat]

Not to steal the thread.....

Given that they are not very active swimmers, I wonder will they be comfortable in an SPS tank where water currents are random strong?

[papagimp]

TekCat, I recently added a modded mj1200 to my 55g where I was housing the breeding pair. This upped my flow to roughly 2000gph in a 55 and the bangaii's did just fine, even spawned while dealing with higher flow. But I will say that they did not seem as happy in the higher flow. Once I removed the MJ1200 from the tank, they went back to casually swimming around the whole tank. In nature they are known to inhabit seagrass beds along with the diadema setsosum (black spiney urchins). So a replication of that enviroment would be ideal for them. They're also known to host in large anemone's with clownfish as well, without squabbling, but in a home aquaruim, I'd imagine alot of room would be needed to duplicate this. Very large amount of room.

[TekCat]

Thanks papagimp. I'd scratch them off of my wish list then