Help! Benggai Cardinals.

[flarpsodge4442]

Hello! Today I purchased two Benggai Cardinals as they were recommended for my fairly new tank of 4 weeks. I have 13 pounds of live rock, and my nitrates are holding at zero. They seem to stay with each other, but tend to rest in the back corner of my tank and won't move anywhere else. Sometimes one of them will move to a lower sump intake and swim against the current, but again, only stays there. My water parameters are in check, and I was wondering if this was normal behavior. Thanks for any help!

 

[TommyP]

How did you acclimate the fish to your tank? It seems pretty new but assuming it's cycled if your parameters keep at zero unless it didn't spike yet..

 

[flarpsodge4442]

Drip acclimation. Yeah, water parameters are great.

 

[TommyP]

Sounds like you did that correctly. I don't own cardinals however I was thinking about adding 2 of the pajama ones. Maybe someone that owns these fish will chime in on behavior

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Its spelled Bangaii cardinals* and they are very shy fish that like to hover in one spot. If they are new to the tank toey probably wont eat, but keep feeding a diverse amount of food with garlic, they might get eat

 

[flarpsodge4442]

Will they move from the corner do you think? They seem to only hover up and down there.

 

[Beengirl]

Will they move from the corner do you think? They seem to only hover up and down there.

They might. Mine tend to be at the front most of the time. I also got bangaii as my first SW fish, and they hid in a cave all the time until I got some chromis that swam around all the time. That seemed to draw them out of hiding. They are very shy. Cool fish, though.

 

[Wendy8184]

If they are new to tank give them some time... they will come out eventually. I had one that just passed away from "old age". When they start to eat they are pigs... they mostly hover but will chase food.

 

[oyf709]

I want to point out bangaii are suppose to be one of the most hardy fish for new fish tanks. However, I think this is no longer true as many of these fish was harvested with many different wrong ways. The wild caught one can easily die to stress due to all the rough handling and regardless what you do, they just refuse to eat. I usually go with more costly tank breed one.

Did your LFS tell you if it is wild caught or tank breed? What size is the bangaii?

 

[flarpsodge4442]

Yes, I was assured they were tank bred. They were also accustomed to eating marine flake food according to LFS. They are about 2 inches long.