Keeping Banggai Cardinals alive any hints?

[wfournier]

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be afflicting seemingly all of the wild caught Banggai cardinals on the market (at least that I can find)? I am trying to give breading them a go but am having trouble obtaining stock to start with. I have had 6 and lost all but one, and that one has started showing the same symptoms the others did before I lost them (I acquired 5 and then later an additional one from another source).

What happens is that the fish will stop eating and then start having stringy white poop. I have other fish in the tank (QT/holding until I get my 70 setup) and they are all fine. Have treated the tank with Prazipro as some of the other fish were showing signs of flukes as well as soaking food in Prazipro as well as Metro+ (primarily for the last one as that was the only one still eating at the time).

I am at a loss as to what else to do so has anyone had any luck with wild caught Banggais? and what did it take to keep them alive? Is it simply a matter of buying a lot of them and hoping for the best? I really don't want to buy more of these than I have to due to their threatened state, but as I am looking to bread the fish would rather start with wild stock, although I am seriously starting to consider obtaining CB fish from multiple sources instead.

 

[francis1123]

i would personally start with captive bred. it should be easy enough to find some. most people i know have the same experience with wild caught. out of 10 you are lucky if 2 make it.

 

[wfournier]

That is the conclusion I am starting to reach, I just thought I would check to see if I could find the reason for this issue. I had also considered trying to get some from somewhere that has a guarantee (LA 14 days) etc to see if they might fare any better.

 

[jrw]

Insist on captive bred. Many wild caught Banggai's have been suspected to cyanide during collection. They look fine when they arrive and then die some time soon later. Some LFS's buy them wild caught because of demand and they get them cheaper.

 

[FMarini]

As mentioned Insist on captive bred fish- thats really the best solution now

jrw-- banggais are not cynanide collected. There is no evidence in this and if you've seen how easy they are to collect w/ a net- you'd know they arent using cynanide.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the collection/custody chain the fish are coming down w/ an iridovirus. The fish in the wild do not have this virus, but sampled data from collected banggais suggest they are dying from this virus. (A recent article from vagelli et al 09 (http://jvdi.org/cgi/content/abstract/21/3/306) -describes this issue)

the bigger problem is "us"- if there are two tanks of banggais one sold at 15.99 (wild caught) and one sold at 24.99 (captive bred) everyone buys the $15 dollar fish, regardless if they have them die w/in a few weeks. We are the problem why 1million of these fish are collected/yr, when this fish is easily captive bred

 

[wfournier]

As mentioned Insist on captive bred fish- thats really the best solution now

jrw-- banggais are not cynanide collected. There is no evidence in this and if you've seen how easy they are to collect w/ a net- you'd know they arent using cynanide.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the collection/custody chain the fish are coming down w/ an iridovirus. The fish in the wild do not have this virus, but sampled data from collected banggais suggest they are dying from this virus. (A recent article from vagelli et al 09 (http://jvdi.org/cgi/content/abstract/21/3/306) -describes this issue)

the bigger problem is "us"- if there are two tanks of banggais one sold at 15.99 (wild caught) and one sold at 24.99 (captive bred) everyone buys the $15 dollar fish, regardless if they have them die w/in a few weeks. We are the problem why 1million of these fish are collected/yr, when this fish is easily captive bred

Thank you for this information, unfortunately it doesn't seem to mention any cure (maybe there isn't one). Interestingly locally here many places I have seen wild caught fish selling for $25. I do know that wild caught fish are VERY cheep wholesale, I was able to pick some up from someone with wholesale connections for $3.25 a piece (however I think that was a good deal even at wholesale). However the mortality rate over a couple weeks was 100% so it was not such a great deal after all, but perhaps par for the game when it come to wild banggais.

It would seem that this makes the situation with wild collection even more serious if only 1% (or less) of wild caught fish survive.