Bangaii Cardinals

[Jellybeanie]

I want to know everything about these fish. I saw them and fell in love! I want to know personal opinions, experiences, comments, etc. Is it a good community fish? Is it calm/semi-aggressive/aggressive? Do they work better solo, in groups of their own species, in pairs? Special food/water/living requirements? Please tell me everything you know. Much appreciated

 

[ColBen112]

Cool looking fish boring though no character, they will eat just about anything and they are really calm. They can be kept in a group or singly how ever you desire.

 

[Andy Sager]

They are a cardinal so they do better in schools. They were easy to care for. Ate almost anything. Only had them with a few blennies and a basslet. I had a trio in an outdoor 30 gal tank and woke up one day to only 2 fish and one with a mouthful of fry. Unfortunately, I had no urchins so the fish never released the fry. I got an urchin ( from the Indian ocean, where I got the fish from) from one of my suppliers but had lost one of the pair by the time I got it. So I would either go with a pair or a lot not the 3 like I tried

Hope this helps

 

[Rmckoy]

They are a cardinal so they do better in schools. They were easy to care for. Ate almost anything. Only had them with a few blennies and a basslet. I had a trio in an outdoor 30 gal tank and woke up one day to only 2 fish and one with a mouthful of fry. Unfortunately, I had no urchins so the fish never released the fry. I got an urchin ( from the Indian ocean, where I got the fish from) from one of my suppliers but had lost one of the pair by the time I got it. So I would either go with a pair or a lot not the 3 like I tried Hope this helps

They need a urchin to spit out their fry onto ?

 

[Ericwm]

There is an article on these fish in a resent issue of coral magazine. There is a free subscription for the iPhone/pad, I would recommend giving it a read. They do not release fry, they hold them in the dads mouth until they hatch and skip the fry stage. Little fish hatch and there is no need for an urchin, they are just for protection. There are people that make fake urchins for them with a ball of reef safe epoxy putty and zip ties. They host a number of different creatures in the wild including anemones. It seems like there is no way to tell gender so if you just want two it would be best to buy a pair that has already bonded.

 

[Jellybeanie]

Thanks a bunch for your input. My lfs has many of them that they keep in a shoal until they pair off. Then they sell them in their pairs (or you can buy them solo from the ones that haven't paired off yet). Kind of solves the issue but still thanks They are surprisingly strict in there (which can be a good thing). Much appreciated

 

[Bray84]

I'm the same, mines got loads of character so depends on the fish, not really a schooling fish in tanks as if get two males they mostly kill each other but if you can find a pair then your on to a winner as hard to sex and can get them to mate.

 

[Andy Sager]

There is an article on these fish in a resent issue of coral magazine. There is a free subscription for the iPhone/pad, I would recommend giving it a read. They do not release fry, they hold them in the dads mouth until they hatch and skip the fry stage. Little fish hatch and there is no need for an urchin, they are just for protection. There are people that make fake urchins for them with a ball of reef safe epoxy putty and zip ties. They host a number of different creatures in the wild including anemones. It seems like there is no way to tell gender so if you just want two it would be best to buy a pair that has already bonded.

Thanks for the clarification. I used the term "Fry" incorrectly. ( Been advising on a number of freshwater breeding threads so FRY were on the mind )
The ones that I had were of wild stock and back in the 80s. It was said back then that the babies were usually spit out around the spines of local long spine urchins for protection. In many documentaries about fish, I've seen multiple shots of baby cardinals as well as adults ( many different species) all within the spines of the urchins for protection. Obviously this is an inbred natural mode of protection that may help aquarists make their fish more likely to carry and yield some babies by duplicating. We didn't have the fake ones back then .

As for sexing, I was shown that males have a longer dorsal filiment as well as using the location of the joint of the jaw for identification. Males would have the joint further back than a female and more in the black stripe opposed to at the edge of the stripe. You may be able to see that in this pic: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...A54419920F9A0932731AB85511A96&selectedIndex=3

Here is another pic I found online which was similar to a pic I received from my shipper in Indonesia regarding the fish using an urchin: bangaii Cardinal - Bing Images

With all the tank raised fishes being produced now, I don;t know for sure that an urchin ( real or fake) is mandatory when breeding or just an accessory. I would think necessity if the fish are in a community type setup tho.

Hope this helps