Bangai Cardinals
 

What do these guys eat.. I have 1 larger 1 and 1 small one that i got about 2-3 weeks ago... havent noticed either of them eat anything but both seem healthy... alittle shy... but healthy

Meaty foods; mysis, brine, pieces of krill, etc.

here are my two.. they eat mysis, brine, marine cuisine, they don't seem to like pellets or flakes.... HTH
[IMG]http://fishman.smugmug.com/photos/135003757-M.jpg[/IMG]

cateyes i notice the one on the left only has 1 dorsal fin... is this for sexing or does it just not have one?? or is it a tricky picture?

it just has one. there should be two but one was missing when i got it. i'm not sure how it lost it or if it will regrow... i think it makes him/her kinda special... :)

Shnabbles, any chance of some photo's of them?
Once settled in, which they should be after that amount of time, they both should be eating well.
Mine will eat all of the frozen food that I give them (they have big mouths and are pigs), even marine green, although I have'nt tried flake or granules on them.
If your tank is well established, you should have a healthy population of pods, which they will be feeding on.
What are your other tankmates.
Another possibility, is the larger one is a male and he could be carrying eggs, if this is the case he wont eat food for approx 4 weeks, whilst he is carrying them.

Cheers,

Lee

Tank has only been up for 3-4 months but i have 180+lbs of live rock... I put in some frozen mysis last night and i saw one put a couple in their mouth and just spit it back out... but they arent going nuts for the mysis by anymeans... it seems to be more in their way then anything... ill try and get pics later

other tank inhabitants are
tomini tang
blue hippo
yellow tang
3 anthias
maroon clown
lawnmower blenny

just and fyi....these fish are notorious for destroying each other over time.

Are you soaking their food or enriching it in anything?
I dose with garlic guard occasionly and if I put in too much, some of the fish will spit the food out again.

Is there a trick to raising Bangai's? I had gotten 2 wild caught ones from LFS (who only do SW fish) and they had them for a while. Both were eating and looked great. I lost one the 2nd week I had it and the other one lasted a month. They had a 24gal tank to themselves except for 2 snails. I read somewhere that the wild caught one's can just up and die. Is that true? If so should I just looked for tank raised?

I had terrible luck with these fish even though they were supposed to be tank raised.

I bought a pair of captive bred banggai and I guess I got lucky--they'll eat anything (frozen, flake, pellet). I would think if you could find tank-raised you'd have a better shot. I do hear that the wild-caught ones aren't doing too well recently. Not to mention that their numbers in the wild have plummeted to the point where they will be listed on CITES and no longer be collected from the wild.

Get captive bred if you can find them--they'll do better for you and you'll be preserving the wild population.

Heres mine. He'll eat anything except squid.

He's sorta slow too so sometimes i like to feed him at night when hes the only one awake.

That way he gets a little more food.

[IMG]http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/nerun119/f39c.jpg[/IMG]

Love the picture! LOL, my cats do the same thing but what cracks me up is the fish watching THEM! Looks like your fish is into dog-watching. :lol:

I will have my LFS order me a couple of tank raised and keep my fingers crossed.

Nerun I love your picture also...

nerun it appears your dog likes "his tank" :)

Ha, thanks. that dog loves fish. its actually my sister's dog (my tank is at my sister's house) and they have a koi pond that has a shallow end that the dog will wade into. The fish have grown accustomed to her and will even swim under her while she stands there looking at them!

thats pretty cool. It's nice to have a dog you can trust! I imagine your sister wouldn't be too excited about seeing her koi in its mouth! haha

I got a pair about a month ago, and they are just starting to eat dry foods. I watch them hunt pods at night, so they are staying healthy. They are cool fish, but dont do much, lol.

i bought one appr a month ago, and agree with Nerun, they can be very slow. He would never chase the food, he always waits until brine/mysis is right in front of his mounth and then he will get it. He doesnt do much at all, apart from hiding in my huge softcoral all day long.

I have a pair in my 30 gallon cube - they prefer meaty foods and the only dry / pellet food I could ever get them eat was made by VibraGro.