Bangghi cardinals - feedin problem

jimnrose

New member
I added 2 bannghi cardinals a month ago & 3 more 2 1/2 weeks ago but am down to only one left. I added a lot of fish at that time but only having problems with the cardinals. I feed flake in the AM (they aren't interested,, thawed piscine shrimp in the afternoon & thawed Rod's food in the evening.
The cardinals looked healthy & in all cased they died within 4 hours of first looking weak (near bottom, tilted sideways)
I'm guessing they aren't getting enugh nutrients. I don't want to loose the last one plus won't add others until I'm sure what caused their death.
Any ideas? Jim
 
What size tank?

What else did you add?

Why did you add more after you had the two? BC do best as pairs. Larger groups often eventually kill each other off.

Were they tank-raised (strongly recommended), or wild-caught (strongly not recommended)?
 
I have a 125 gal display. I placed two orders with LiveAquaria in a two week interval. The Bangghi cardinals were wild caught. The cardinals were added with 2 tangs, 4 sm blue reef chromis, 1 yellow long nose butterfly, 1 purple dottyback, 1 one spot foxface rabbitfish and 3 med ignituis anthias. Ididn't observe any form of agress by any of the fish to others.

On the first order, 1 cardinal died within the first week so I ordered more hoping and increased the feed quantity hoping to avoid any further deaths.

Jim
 
In my case there was nosigns of damage to any of the them nor were they intimidated by any of the other fish. All the bangghi tended to hang out in the quiet end of the tank Jim
P.S. If I can figure out the possible cause, THEN I'll only go with tank raised.
 
I bought a wild specimen 7 months ago and it is doing just fine but it is picky about what it eats as well. I quarantined it for 8 weeks and gave it a copper treatment and prazipro. It didn't eat anything but mysis shrimp for weeks and to this day it still really only eats mysis with much gusto. I just fortify the mysis shrimp with Selcon and Zoe. I haven't had luck getting it to eat flake or pellets and it barely touches any mixed frozen foods. It has grown and maintained a healthy weight so I am not immediately concerned about it.
 
I have had great success recently with this homemade food recipe:
Fresh Garlic clove
Frozen peeled shrimp
Cyclop Eeze
Spirulina tabs / Sheets of Nori
Flake food of choice

Briefly chop to edible size chunks for the target fish.

I've literally aclimated fish, put them in the tank and watched them in eat 10 minutes later. Just added 12 Bangaii Cardnials this week with great results.

And for what it's worth, the new Cardnials were not interested in plain flake food either. Just spit it out instantly.
 
In my experience with LFS's the banggai's are identified as being wild or tank breed. When I ask, I'm not sure they knowthe answer. At LiveAuuaria, the wild were cheaper ($10) but I should have gone with the tank breed.
 
I feed mine Hikari Mysis, NLS Pellets, Flake and to jump start their feeding live brine shrimp. I add the live brine in along with the Hikari Mysis and slowly wean them off the live brine over time. If you go with live brine, make sure to rinse it well before feeding.
 
I have had great success recently with this homemade food recipe:
Fresh Garlic clove
Frozen peeled shrimp
Cyclop Eeze
Spirulina tabs / Sheets of Nori
Flake food of choice

Briefly chop to edible size chunks for the target fish.

I've literally aclimated fish, put them in the tank and watched them in eat 10 minutes later. Just added 12 Bangaii Cardnials this week with great results.

And for what it's worth, the new Cardnials were not interested in plain flake food either. Just spit it out instantly.

I think you'll have to wait longer than a week to call it a great success. Convential wisdom is singles or pairs only.
 
I think you'll have to wait longer than a week to call it a great success. Convential wisdom is singles or pairs only.

I was referring to feeding success. No where did I state the overall long term success of the new fish in my system. And FWIW I've seen a few tanks with shoals of Bangaii with long term success. One being @ public aquarium. All my fish do well on the food listed below. Some of my older range 4-11 years old.
 
Thats great. I hope it works out beautifully. I've never heard of a group working well long term. It would be awesome.
 
I've had two over the years. I've had my current one for close to a year now. He still only eats the frozen mysis and brine. He may try a flake, but he'll just spit it out.

Both of mine were WC. I never see any TB ones in my area. My first one lived for around 3 years.

I think I read somewhere that they are best kept as a single individual or as a male/female pair. Something about as they get older they'll kill the others. So, I always just went with one and have had great success. Maybe you should just stick with the one.
 
I have a pair and feed a variety of food, algae sheets, pellets, but they only eat the frozen mysis, spirulina shrimp, and formula one. I feed a different mix on different days. I have been told that they can live in groups when juvenile but then will pair off and trouble starts with competition between the males for a female.
 
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