I'm not sure if I should be posting in this forum; if not, please advise. I purchased a bangaii cardinal fish over the weekend and he or she is in my quarantine tank, and eating very well. Poor lil fella, though, just keeps staring at his reflection all day. Should I get another one? The LFS still has 2 from the same group mine came from. Any way to tell male from female? I've kept PJs for several years and late in life they started to fight, so I had to split them up.
Bangaii Cardinal
- Thread starter joyski58
- Start date
David M
New member
Trying to pair your fish now is hit and miss, all you can do is try. You really need a small group to establish pairs with certainty, otherwise just toss two together and see what developes 
Next time you see a group of 5-7 or more at a lfs watch them for a while. If there are mature fish in the group you will know it, there will be a dominant fish basically herding the bulk of the group and keeping them in a tight formation usually in a corner. That is the alpha male. Then there will be ONE fish that seems to have the run of the tank, moving about freely away from the pack. That is the selected female. Remove those two and another male will emerge and select another female and so on until there are no pairs left. If you do NOT remove them there will eventually be trouble, some lesser male will challenge and somebody will get dead :eek1:
Next time you see a group of 5-7 or more at a lfs watch them for a while. If there are mature fish in the group you will know it, there will be a dominant fish basically herding the bulk of the group and keeping them in a tight formation usually in a corner. That is the alpha male. Then there will be ONE fish that seems to have the run of the tank, moving about freely away from the pack. That is the selected female. Remove those two and another male will emerge and select another female and so on until there are no pairs left. If you do NOT remove them there will eventually be trouble, some lesser male will challenge and somebody will get dead :eek1:Okay. So, I went back to the LFS and got another Bangaii. [Since they are in my QT tank they would be easy to catch, should I need to.] Today is Day 3. The new fish is slightly smaller than Mr. Lonely. Mr. L no longer stares at himself in the glass. That's what the new fish does, only he/she is being kept up in the top corner of the tank by Mr. L. When I first released new fish it went right over to Mr. L and he nudged new fish away. I did try separating the rocks in the tank into 2 piles, to see if that brought new fish back down. New fish isn't eatting much either. Spit out some krill last night. I also saw Mr. L take in mysis and spit it toward new fish. I'm thinkin' I'd better get the new fish back to LFS before it's too late. If I put them into the display tank, does that even the playing field, since these 2 weren't put in the QT tank at the same time? I know. With fish, nothing is set in stone. Am I giving it enough time?
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
watch for any color changes with the "scared looking" bangaii. If he darkens up quite a bit and stays in the corner like that for too long, a week maybe, I would replace him with another and hope for a female the next time through. And even if you have a male and female in the tank, no guarantee there going to be compatible either. These really are a fish best purchased in a small bulk in order to weed out a pair. Or listen to David's advice, very good to watch em in the store and try to spot a pair. Saves alot of gried if you're able to.
