Ragged Banggai

[SoloGarth]

Hi everyone. So I have a pair of cardinals (both male as it turns out) in my 120. They have both been in there for around a year now. They were treated with TT and prazipro before being quarantined and then eventually added to my tank. They have both always looked really good and have probably tripled in size. Today though I noticed one of them looking really beat up and not good. Swimming up by the surface and not swimming away from me. The other Banggai looks great and is acting nomal. I haven't noticed any aggression. I know that banggaus don't have a very long natural lifespan.

Other fish in the tank are a yellow tang, chromis, percula clown, mandarin and the other Banggai.

Any ideas?

I'll post a pic shortly.

 

[SoloGarth]

Ragged Banggai

By contrast this is the other Banggai.

 

[Joke]

Any tang in general can get quite territorial, how lon g have the other fish been in there

 

[SoloGarth]

They have all been together over a year I would say. The tang generally ignores them. It hasn't gone after any of the fish that I have seen.

 

[SoloGarth]

My theory is that the other Cardinal might be beating him up. Or that there is something wrong with him that isn't related to the other fish.

 

[Joke]

Since there both male and due to them being semi aggressive there is a chqnce they are bashing each other. Is there any signs of parasites

 

[Joke]

Is he eating

 

[SoloGarth]

No parasites I can see. Like I mentioned all the rest of the fish look healthy and I put them through extensive treatment and QT prior to adding them to the tank. Not sure about eating. I'm going to feed them soon and I'll see. He looks on deaths door to me.

 

[Joke]

Other than that it looks like he has been bashed, hopfully he gets well.

 

[SoloGarth]

I think it is more than just being beat up. He seems sick. I guess the other option is that that particular cardinal has reached the end of its life. . . I have read that their life expectancy is 1 to 2 years in the wild.

 

[ThRoewer]

I could imagine that he got beat up by the other banggai or the percula, especially if that one has an anemone or suitable surrogate. My single banggai female always tried to hang out near my percula's gigantean and at some point they had enough of it and chased her away. Now she always hangs out under a coral where she gets in conflict with the regal angel that rules that tank.

 

[SoloGarth]

Yeah it is a possibility. The hanging out up near the waters surface is what has me really worried. No anemones in my tank and the clown is very docile. I did notice that the not beat up Cardinal is a whole lot bigger than the beat up one. Maybe an inch longer. Since they are never bear one another and inhabit two different sides I didn't notice before.

 

[Betta132]

They can live quite awhile.
He's beat up and underweight. Isolate him, keep him clean, and give him lots of good food.