bangaii cardinals....hard to keep or not???

[sunrider]

i'd like to add a Bangaii Cardinal to my 50 gallon tank...all information that i have been able to find has indicated that they are peaceful, relatively hardy, and not too difficult to keep...information i gathered through reading several books, lfs's that i trust, and searching this site.....

i've now tried twice to get one......both seemed healthy, and ate in the pet store....the first died within 48 hours....i could find nothing wrong with tank conditions, and only behavior issue i noticed was that it was very slow to eat (i didn't see this as significant as it was eating and iv'e never seen one that swam fast even when eating, i assumed the slow movement was normal).

2 months have passed and i've tried again, this one was eating heartily both at the store and in my QT tank for 3 days, then suddenly it quit. i fear it's dying and i can't find anything obviously wrong.

is there something i'm missing? anything that i might be able to try?

thanks in advance.

[DgenR8]

What are you feeding??
I find that Bangers are not only pretty easy to keep, but will also reproduce in captivity.
They don't generally eat flake food, prefering something meaty. Fresh seafood is a much better bet.
What are your tank params?

[sunrider]

no ammonia, no nitrites, nitrates are a bit high, but i've never heard of that causeing a fish severe problems, salt stable at 1.022, ph 8.0 and alkalinity stable (haven't been able to find an easy to read test kit, but the results are consitant).

as for feeding brine shrimp, spirulina enriched brine (regular only when i run out of the other) and bloodworms for the most part...i've never gotten a fish to eat anything else .

[DgenR8]

I have a pair of captive bred Bangers that will only eat shrimp, squid and clam. I would expect that if you are buying wild caught, they would be even pickier.
Stay away from brine, it really offers nothing nutritionally, unless it's baby brine, with the yolk still attached.
Other than baby brine, the only use I have for the stuff is that live brine can be good to get a picky fish eating.

[sunrider]

thanks for the info, and while it might be to late for this fish (did not even respond to food when i fed lunch ) this will come in handy in the future i'm sure.

i've heard talk about brine not being a great choice.....but my display tank is being pesky....i started with bloodworms and brine because that's what the Lfs's had the fish eating when i bought them...tank is 1 year 3 months old with longest term fish just now hitting the 1 year marker....i've known (or at least heard a lot of talk about) brine not being the ideal food for saltwater fish...it took 3 days just to get my display tank eating the marginally better spirulina enriched brine....and i've been completely unsuccessful at getting them to eat anything else at all

the occupants for record at this time are:

1 ocelleris clown...approx 6 months in tank
1 firefish goby......approx 5 months in tank
1 cleaner wrasse...approx 3 months in tank (eats voraciously and even the clown gets out of his way...they they both get their fill....kinda funny to watch actually)
1 coral beauty angel....approx 5 months in tank
1 manderin...............1 year in tank.

1 rainfords goby...doing well in quarantine, but still on the schedule for another 5 weeks there.

do you have any suggestions on foods that i might try to get my fish to eat? and how to go about introducing them to the new food?

i've thought about a small midday feeding with new food and if/when they take to the new food then using it in their main meals.....but don't know where to start trying

thanks again for the time

[DgenR8]

Cleaner and Manderin are likely to be problematic, but I feed a mix of fresh seafood that I buy and chop up in a food processor. The mix is never the same, as the market has different stuff available each time I go.
Basically, shrimp, squid scallops and silversides are the basics, and what ever else is available when I go.

[sunrider]

interesting i'll have to give that a try.....i've tried fresh seafood before, but never tried running it through a food processor before......always just used a knife before.......maybe i wasn't getting it small enough...

thanks i'll give it a try.

[DgenR8]

I find that chopping it very small is important, especially for my bangaiis

[Ms. K]

My bangaii can be a bit picky about what it eats, but when it eats, it really eats. It'll outswim the percs and won't be the least bit shy about pushing them out of the way either. I've only had the fish one week, but it seems to be doing quite well. I would ask how long you were acclimating the fish, but you quarantine your livestock and you've kept a mandarin for a year, so I won't even insult your intelligence. I will say that LFS often feed bloodworms and brine simply bc of the high turn around. I'll bet that if you asked the employees what they feed their personal tanks, it's not bloodworms and brine shrimp (at least not exclusively and not if they're experienced and responsible reef keepers).

[Peter Eichler]

On another note, last I checked Bangaii Cardinals were on the threatened species list. In the future should you or anyone else purchase one, be sure it's a tank raised fish since it will be hardier and more responsible like the forum name suggests

[Steven Pro]

Buy captive raised. They are usually quite hardy. On the other hand, the wild caught ones tend to have a very high mortality rate, in my experience.

[Scuba_Dave]

We have had quite a few people in our club w/pairs, only to find out they have reproduced. Usually only a few may live - if they find hiding spots
But some are raising them succesfully....notice the eggcrate, that will give you a size comparison

[DgenR8]

The babies will go to the spines of an urchin for protection, if you have an urchin.

[Paul B]

If your Bangai died in 48 hours it had nothing to do with food. Most fish can go weeks without food. I can't tell what happened to your fish from here without autopsing it but it was not food.
I find them one of the easiest fish to care for. My best guess is that it was sick when you bought it of possably it was collected with cyanide. When they collect fish with drugs they generally live a few days or a week. It used to be a big problem not as much now though but it still happens.
Good luck.
Paul

[angelsil]

Get your Banggais captive-raised and you won't have any problem with them. We've had 2 pairs now (both captive raised) and we've raised the fry. They do NOT like flake food, but will voraciously eat mysis, cyclop-eeze, or any other kind of meaty frozen/fresh food. They're really not that picky if you get a tank-raised set.

We got both pairs from Inland Aquatics and would highly recommend them.