Banggai Cardinal Getting Aggressive....and stupid

[Corriebh]

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this. I have had this cardinal for about a year and a half. We got two at once, this one is obvious the female. She did run the male to death a few months ago when she tried to aggressively mate with him (they did have a couple of breeding attempts prior to that).

Well nothing has changed recently including the fish and the water parameters. I am slowly adding coral frags but I can't imagine that would bug her. But she is now getting really aggressive with my other fish, including my boxfish (about twice her size) and a foxface that seems to always be flaring his spines at her. She is going after my chromis and dwarf angel, even my clowns have been being chased around.

I am thinking if she is dumb enough to go after the boxfish and the foxface then she is going to die soon, but I am just so surprised. I thought they were supposed to be non-aggressive. The most recent fish was the foxface maybe the stripes are confusing her and she is trying to mate? Or maybe just "frustrated" I'm thinking about selling her back but would feel bad if I had to go that route because she was the first

 

[heathlindner25]

If the box fish gets too irritated he will nuke your tank so be careful.

 

[Corriebh]

Yeah I know! I have had the boxfish for 10 months and is easily the most chill fish I have. He is actually a horn nosed boxfish (kind of rare from what I can see online, not to be confused with the long horned cowfish). Our LFS labeled him wrong thinking he was a cubicus boxfish until his nose started to grow along with him. From what I have been able to find he is not as prone to nuking the tank as the other boxfish and doesn't seem to care at all about the cardinal or anything other than food.

 

[e048]

My bengaii is a model citizen he lurks right after lights go on then a little after the my go out

How big is your tank?

 

[Corriebh]

90G with a 20G refugium

 

[chimmike]

probably on the small side for a box fish

 

[Corriebh]

Horn nosed boxfish (which is what this is) requires a 70G so I'm good there

 

[tzylak]

Hmm, Banggai Cardinal aggressive???? Shoot, just yesterday I added 3 of them to my DT (after a week of QT) with the idea that these are for most timid/benign/calm creatures around.
Maybe she (IF it is a female) needs a buddy to swim with. -They do hang around in groups.

Now I am curious:
1. How do you sex them??
2. Can anyone else chime in regarding this "aggressive" Cardinal.
Please

 

[Corriebh]

When we first established our much smaller tank almost a year and a half ago we started out with two small cardinals. As they grew up it became obvious that one was the female. Not sure if we just lucked into that or not. As they got older they would start to act weird, chasing each other around, not letting one out of the corner. Then the male would end up with the eggs in his mouth as cardinals are mouth breeders. We never really got to the fry in time before the other things in the tank picked them off. We were planning on putting them into a breeding tank next time we saw the signs, it was getting pretty obvious for us when they would start. So we moved everyone to the bigger 90g and decided to use a 10g for the breeding tank once it became obvious it was time. Well the first time when we were actually ready to pull them into the 10g was the time we think she killed him. I had read that during the time that the male holds the eggs he gets weak as he can't really eat. If the female forces the next breeding cycle before he gets his strength back it can kill him. She was chasing him around and constantly pestering him and one day he was dead. I'm sure the move to the larger tank didn't help. Now that was in April so it has been a while.

And I am with you on the aggressive thing and cardinals, that is why I had to know if anyone else had a similar problem. She always tried to push the male cardinal around but now she is going after other fish that are way bigger. Everyone is so passive in the tank expect her. I'm almost afraid to get a friend for her, who knows what she would do to another cardinal.