bangaii cardinal question - fighting?

[flixxx]

Hello,

I have 2 bangaii cardinalfish and a Royal Gramma in a QT of 10 gallons. They have been in there since February 13th

one of the cardinal fish has taken a beating over the weekend. He is now in the corner with bitten fins and a darker color. I read if they are in a corner and dark, they have been outcasted by the other bangaii and will soon die.

My questions are the following in order to make the right decision:

1. Are they fighting because they are potentially 2 males? (If so why have they been behaving fine until now)
2. Is it possible the Gramma is bullying him? I notice the gramma opens his mouth big and chases them around, I'm not sure if he actually bites or just shows off
3. Is the QT potentially to small and it's causing this behaviour?

If they will continue to fight in the DT, then i will bag the fish and return them to my LFS
On the other hand, if the issue may be because the tank is too small. I'll move one of the bangaii over to a different QT for the time being

 

[MIKE NY]

I had two in my 170 and they still fought..they are probably two males...they were fine until now possibly because they are maturing..I have one large male for many years now and it is doing fine...it fights with any new one so I stopped tring to mate it..

 

[Marine fish man]

The two cardnel's may fight it happened to me

 

[eatbreakfast]

Bangaii cardinals are not hermaphrodites, so they are born male or female. Fighting between 2 bangaii cardinals will occur if you have 2 males or 2 females. Sexing is near impossible, so you will likely end up with just one as your chances of adding a mate to it are 50/50 as you dont know which sex you have or which sex you would be adding. And often enough once a bangaii is on its own for awhile it wont tolerate another bangaii regardless of sex.

 

[flixxx]

Thanks,

i'm not trying to make a pair, i just wanted two bangaii's and thought they would get along.

I'll bag him and bring him back to my LFS. I'll keep just one in my tank,.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

What about keeping a bangaii cardinal with a pj cardinal? Will they fight if they are the same sex or be ok in a tank size of 180+?

 

[Sigmund]

Will probably still have issues. Have had both in a 150 Gallon with aggression from the Bangaii to the PJ cardinal. This was with introducing at the same time, and a lot of rockwork to keep them separated. If you want more than one best getting them as a pair, anything else is a shot in the dark of working or not.