Ochrestriped Cardinalfish

[spieszak]

Opinions? Anyone have them? Active or always hiding? Eat readily? How many do you have in what size tank? Do they school/shoal?

 

[Nembo]

I bought two of these and they got on together well.Mine were quite shy and tended to hide in the rocks quite abit and always seemed nervous.They also seemed to prefer low light levels as they became more active then.Foodwise they ate anything.

 

[spieszak]

always nervous doesn't sound promising. What tank mates did they have?
and..bump for the morning folks.

 

[Nembo]

Wasn't the tankmates that was the problem.Nothing took much notice of them.My tank is in the main living room and people walking infront of the tank freaked them out.Also opening the tank hood to put food in made them dash into the rockwork although they would dash out and grab bits.I had them about a year and during that time they never associated me with food like the other fish did.
They seemed uneasy under the lights which may mean they naturally prefer much dimmer conditions.

 

[Rutrag]

I believe most cardinals are most active in dim light, hence the large eyes. I had a trio i bought from saltwaterfish.com. (They carried them under the moniker "blue-eyed cardinals at that point.) Two didn't make it two weeks, but he third lived for about six more months and I beleive died due to crypt (marine ich). Mine was not as skittish as described above. He did live with a Banggai cardinal as well as several other generally non-aggressive fish. (Blue sided wrasse, foxface, midas blenny, royal gramma, ocellaris clowns.) They do get pretty big, and may pose a threat to shrimp, but mine was only about 2" when he passed. I have seen them closer to 3" at one shop once upon a time.