Bangai cardinal fish

[AdamHorton]

I added a Bangai Cardinal to my 150 SW tank a couple of days ago. The other fish pretty much ignore him, so it's probably not aggression-related, but he stays in the same spot facing upward most of the time, and rarely moves from that spot. He doesn't eat, even though there are times when food falls right in front of him. I noticed a very small red spot near the top of his body this morning, but it's so small I don't know if it could be anything. I'd take a picture but it didn't show up on the picture. Any ideas what could be wrong with him?

[ccCapt]

His actions sounds pretty normal for a newly introduced fish. Cardinals are nocturnal so you won't see much movement during the day.
They can also be tuff to get eating. Try getting it started on live brine shrimp then move to frozen mysis. If you get it eating frozen, eventually it should take whatever you feed your other fish.
Can't really comment on the red spot without a pic.

[AdamHorton]

This makes sense. They get frozen spirulina brine shrimp every few days and come to think of it, that's the only thing I've ever seen him eat...

So, besides quarantining, what's a good way to target feed a fish like this? There are many hungry damsels who will eat anything, but what do you suggest?

Thanks for your help so far

[melosu58]

I suggest removing the damsels. LOL. As long as they are in their you`ll see this all the time. I agree with Larry as far as the cardinal it sounds pretty much normal.

[Boulder]

Originally Posted by ccCapt

Cardinals are nocturnal

Learn something new every day ... I didn't realize they were nocturnal.

[Etunes]

Originally Posted by Boulder

Learn something new every day ... I didn't realize they were nocturnal.

Have you seen those eyes? There huge. I actually assumed they were nocturnal.

[Boulder]

Originally Posted by Etunes

Have you seen those eyes? There huge. I actually assumed they were nocturnal.

Guess I never thought about it - they do have some big eyeballs!

[AdamHorton]

WTF? I have been getting calls from my girlfriend today telling me how one of the damsels and this cardinal were laying down on the sand, barely breathing. I had her do an ammonia test, and it's next to zero like it has been. No aggression from other fish, and the rest of the fish seem fine. All I have for a quarantine right now is a bowl, and the (nearly dead) damsel is in that now.

I've been using very small amount of super-glue and hot glue on my overflow cup recently to make some small modifications to it, but I thought neither of those were bad for fish, and even then, there's 165G of tank volume here. What other things should I be looking for here?

[Zer0]

Were you using the regular super-glue type? or the gel type? Because i think i remember seeing someone say something on how the runny type of super-glue is bad for the tank, but the gel type is good. Not too sure on this.

[Flake]

Any word on the cardinal?

[Mitchell0605]

Apparently if you get a cardinal you should have a shadowed spot in your tank for them because they can hurt their eyes otherwise. Also because they feel safer there. Just what I've heard.

[AdamHorton]

The damsel and the cardinal both died yesterday :-(

I can understand the cardinal -- he wasn't eating very much and he wasn't very active, even if that's normal for new cardinals, so it could be that he just wasn't going to make it in a new tank regardless, even though I'm sure there is more I could have done for him.

But the damsel? He was doing fine and eating every day until all of a sudden he just died. I know how everybody feels about damsels here, but it really confuses me how this could have happened so quickly. He was really small (one of the smallest in the tank) but he had a couple of friends he'd hang out with. None of the other fish in the tank are having any trouble.

I don't think I'm adding any new fish to the tank until I get more live rock. There's clearly a lack of hiding places that aren't taken already and I don't want to chance getting another cardinal until he at least has a place to hide during the day. It's just tough to find them around here so I don't know when I'll get another opportunity :-(

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by Zer0

Were you using the regular super-glue type? or the gel type? Because i think i remember seeing someone say something on how the runny type of super-glue is bad for the tank, but the gel type is good. Not too sure on this.

Nope. Either kind is fine - runny or gel. So is hot glue... at least the general purpose type I've always used.