Bangaii Chow?

[JRPhd]

So I added my 2 Bangaii and 1 Copperband Butterfly last week. Was worried about the latter fish, but lo and behold he eats PE mysis like a champ. The Bangaii's on the otherhand have been very inconsistant. I've seen them take the occassional live brine, mysis, and one ate one Formula 1 pellet, but that's about it. I guess, they've eaten, but very minimally and certainly not regularly. They are about 1-1.5 inches in length so still very small. What else should I try? No one in my tank likes blood worms. I've also hear they don't do flakes. Some other frozen I guess?
Thnx
Jon

 

[JRPhd]

Oh, I thought I heard somebody

 

[dvmsn]

Mine would lonly eat frozen food, give them a week or so and they should come around.

 

[JRPhd]

Thnx for the encouragement. Unfortunately, the smaller of the two disappeared (likely died and was eaten by crabs and Nassarius). The second one is doing Ok, but not eating now. My copperband continues to be doing extremely well, and since I added him at the same time as the Bangaii's, i'm inclined to believe it wasn't poor husbandry or insufficient acclimation...

 

[dvmsn]

They are touchy until established.

 

[theeschen]

My Bangai was the same, was not eating anything I offered, pellets, flakes, Prime Reef, Cyclopes? The owner of a LFS told me not to worry, that her Bangai hadn't eaten for the first 6 years. I kind of think she meant it hadn't eaten fish food for that time. I did notice that mine was pretty active at night when my pods were out and it seemed to be eating pretty well. I didn't want to rely on just that and tried mysis shrimp and that is a huge hit with the Bangai.

 

[dochoot]

Have you tried frozen cyclopes? I just got two BC and that is what they seem to like the best (they are small).

 

[JRPhd]

well, the second Bangaii died today. As I said, they initially ate live brine and the ocassional mysis, but stopped over the course of a week. The theoretically more delicate CBB is still cruising and eating, and by all appearances is thriving. The only thing I can think of with my parameter is that my salinity is 1.026. I also have 650+ GPH flow, but there is plenty of LR to hide behind. I guess I'm just banking on they're hard to establish...: (

 

[jgoodrich71]

When these first came into the hobby, these were one of those fish that you couldn't kill, bulletproof. In just a matter of years, they changed completely. They just would not eat. I don't know why, or what happened, but they became very difficult to feed.

The captive bred Bangaiis, while more expensive than wild-caught, are a much better choice. They are easy to breed in captivity, and do so much better than the wild caught ones.

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Many Bangii's are cyanide caught. And many carry internal and external parasites. I tried these fish also with no luck. They wouldn't eat and within a week died.
Captive breed Bangii's are are much hardier as stated above.

 

[JRPhd]

Sounds like CB cardinal is the only way to go. My only concern is does my tank have to much flow for these guys to be comfortable? Again, 650+GPH.
J