Bangai Cardinal hosting in anemone

[eclecticvibe]

Is it common to see a bangai cardinal host in an anemone? I have a large H. Crispa and a S. Gigantea. There are a pair of A. Polymnus that host in the Crispa and occasionally take a vacation to the Gigantea. I had a very small bangai that was tank raised from a previous adult pair I owned. When I added the baby bangai to my reef, it showed immediate interest in the anemones. It spends a lot of time with the clownfish. It doesn't swim in the anemones like the clowns do, but it stays very near them all the time. I do see it occasionally touching the anemones' tentacles. Is this normal or is my cardinal just into S&M?

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

I'm just going to take a completely uneducated stab at this one, but I believe Bangaii like to have urchins around for camoflage. Perhaps in the absence of urchins, the bangaii like the tentacles as a substitute for the spines of the urchin?

 

[eclecticvibe]

I'd thought of that too. I do have several urchins in the tank, but none of the long spined variety. It's a reasonable conclusion.

 

[catdoc]

I found this thread as a result of my own search to this interesting observation! I added a large long-spined urchin and a pair of immature bangaii to my display tank this weekend. The bangaii were lurking in the darkest corner of my 125 until this evening, when I found them hovering over my maroon's favorite rbta! The urchin is right next to the rbta and one bangaii is hiding within its spines but the other is hovering/touching the anemone.

What amazes me is that my clowns are oblivious to the bangaii. Can't they SEE them?? The clowns have been getting pretty territorial and the female looks to be gravid (they had stopped spawning after a recent tank re-do) so I think they're preparing to spawn, yet they don't care that this pair of fish is in their home turf. What gives? Any ideas on this? Is it that they don't see the bangaii as a threat or is the camoflauge of the bangaii so effective that they really don't see them?

Fun to watch, whatever the reason.

 

[eclecticvibe]

My pair of polymnus are the same way. They chase every other fish away, but never the bangaii. The bangaii spends much more time near the S. gigantea, and the clowns spend more time in the H. Crispa. But the male spends quite a bit of time in near the bangaii when his partner kicks him to the curb so she can have the whole anemone to herself. :rolleye1:

 

[delphinus]

Yeah, Banggai cardinals are known to hover in anemones. I can't remember if it's typically a juvenile behaviour that they grow out of, or whether it's just in the absence of an urchin. At any rate, it is documented that they can do it. In my case the fish associated with a BTA until she was less shy and eventually grew out of the need to hover in close. (Once she discovered how much she liked mysis she was like a pet asking me for more food all the time!)

 

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Resurrecting this thread because this is the first one I found in google about this.

But I was reading an old journal article (Ontogenetic Shift in Habitat Preference by Pterapogon kauderni, a Shallow Water CoralReef Apogonid, with Direct Development
by Alejandro A. Vagelli) which basically says that in a survey he did (he is one of the Bangai experts), 44% of the populations were in branching corals, 35% in sea urchin spines, and about 20% in various anemones.

So it does seem they will live in anemones sometimes. Presumably if one large enough is available, and it's the best habitat for them.

 

[Yin_Yang247]

Thanks for the info!
Glad you revived this post!