I think two male Bangaiis?

[Klobee]

I had received two Bangaii cardinals from Premium Aquatics about two months ago. I have them in a 55g reef and ever since the day I put them in, they have kept each other on opposite sides of the tank. They will sometimes get close to each other during feeding, but any other time, they chase each other around the tank until one hides from the other. They are not beating on each other, but simply just keep each other out of eyesight. I am assuming this means I have two males, but in one of your articles, you said that more males can be kept with fewer females. So I guess my question is, If I were to add some more BC's to my tank to try and get at least one female, will the two males continue to fight? A few years ago, I had a pair breed in my 125g reef, and they spit out babies 3 times within 6 months, but I was only able to keep one baby alive that the other fish in the reef did not consume. Unfortunately, all of a sudden the pair decided to die on the same day so there was no way to tell M or F after that. So back to that question, can I keep two males with a female or should I catch one of the males and return him once I get a female to hook up with the other one?

Rick K.

[FMarini]

Rick:

thanks for the question....actually this is fairly straight forward.

You do have 2 males, and if I were you I would observe which one is doing the chasing and keep him. this is a dominant male banggai, the one being chased is a submissive male.

W/ that said NO do not introduce any more banggais into this tank. Adding new fish will do nothing but force the dominant male to chase more fish around. If you are lucky enough to get a female then the dominant male will breed w/ her and then kill off any competition.

So my suggestion to you...is remove the submissive male, and then add one new banggai...observe if after 2 to 3 days this fish is still being chased...remove I its another male.... continue to do this until the dominant male stops chasing. Bam-ohhhhh you got a female.

So unless you can easily remove extra added banggais (which i suspect you can't) i would not add any more until you remove the submissive one.