Can I add male cardinal to two females?

[jjencek]

I just added two Bangai cardinals to my 66 gal tank what I thought was a pair. Reading the link on sexing cardinals, I believe they are actually two females. One is larger than the other and they are behaving nice toward each other so far staying away from each other. The question is - assuming that they turn out to be both females, can I add a third cardinal hopefully a male?

 

[snorvich]

Two females will become one. Adding a male should be fine.

 

[ThRoewer]

I would add the male and see with which female he hooks up. Once a pair has formed the extra female needs to be removed or it will be killed.

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[snorvich]

I would add the male and see with which female he hooks up. Once a pair has formed the extra female needs to be removed or it will be killed.

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Excellent advice.:fun2:

 

[jjencek]

Thank you for the suggestions. I will wait for a couple of weeks just in case I did not sex them right and then throw in the new male. How long would you expect for them to pair up?

 

[ThRoewer]

BTW, males usually appear to be darker than females.

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[jjencek]

So here is an update. I bought a new male for the two girls. In size he was between the two existing ones. The largest female kept being very aggressive towards the other two. The two kept staying together and were running away. I decided to take the largest female out. I build a fish trap out of a Heinz ketchup bottle (see attached image) and had him caught in 3 minutes. Let's hope the other two live happy ever after. Thank you for all your help.