Redspot Cardinalfish - Apogon parvulus

Blue spot said:
Well I've only just found this thread and had no idea these fish were so tricky to keep. I've had a group of 13 now for around 5 months . I have lost 1 in that amount of time, went in the sump , found it late so it was really pale looking when I added it back in the tank so this one didn't make it, apart from that they eat really well but I notice the best feeding responce when I add live pods, I do this every other day as I keep a lot of pipe fish. Maybe sometimes ignorance is bliss as i have just left them to get on with it. Lol, but I'll keep an eye on them from now on. I was interested to read that these fish may only live for 12 months, has anyone kept them for any longer than this ?
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Congrats! welcome to the club Bluespot. are yours eating flakes or pellets?. I am quite sure the males you have, have been holding eggs if you've had them that long. would you mind sharing what your setup is like? size of tank, parameters, contents of tank including other fish companion etc.
 
New club member

New club member

Hi aco. Thanks for the welcome and enjoying following you're progress. I think they have had eggs to, noticed a few Swolen bellies before now, I've also witnessed the pairing off behaviour at night then they all shoal again in the morning. Not tried to raise or look for the fry as I assume in my tank they will get eaten by something . All my set up is on my thread . The life of blue spots tank. Don't know how to do a link sorry , but I've only got one thread so should be easy enough to find. Lol
 
Blue spot said:
Hi aco. Thanks for the welcome and enjoying following you're progress. I think they have had eggs to, noticed a few Swolen bellies before now, I've also witnessed the pairing off behaviour at night then they all shoal again in the morning. Not tried to raise or look for the fry as I assume in my tank they will get eaten by something . All my set up is on my thread . The life of blue spots tank. Don't know how to do a link sorry , but I've only got one thread so should be easy enough to find. Lol
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Alright, I'll do the linking for you here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=23778985&postcount=98

Looks like you have them with bigger tankmates and that's not been an issue of them being eaten which is great! did I read correctly, this tank started just this year?
 
Officially I only learned how to write a thread this year lol. New tank had water in November so still pretty new. Before that I had a Red Sea max . So still learning. Non of the other fish bother with the cardinals really . But since reading this thread I have developed a new habit of counting them all the time ! If you look at my list I have a lot of blennies gobies ect, the boss of the tank is a powder blue so nothin to crazy to eat em. What temp are you keeping your tank at ? Mines quite cold because of the jawfish , just wondering if this might be why mine are not dead yet ? Then again still early days , when I look back I've had them 3 months not 5 , so still time for a mass suicide.
 
yes I was thinking the same Blue Spot. I am keeping mine fairly warm. 27C or 80F. What temp are you keeping them?
 
Blue Spot's redspot cardinals

Blue Spot's redspot cardinals

Alright, I know most of us males are visual creatures. so here's Bluespots' group:

picture.php
 
76.5 deg. I've had some strange behaviour from them this week, they have stopped shoaling. I mentioned before that on a night they tend to pair off and then school in the morning, but this has now stopped ? 5 school the rest stay as pairs , is this normal ?? When I've looked closely I think quite a few are carrying eggs do yours do the same ?
 
Blue spot said:
76.5 deg. I've had some strange behaviour from them this week, they have stopped shoaling. I mentioned before that on a night they tend to pair off and then school in the morning, but this has now stopped ? 5 school the rest stay as pairs , is this normal ?? When I've looked closely I think quite a few are carrying eggs do yours do the same ?
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they split off now and then. then they'd come back together yeah. sometimes another will closely accompany the one holding eggs on the first day. not sure why that is.
 
Blue spot said:
Well I'm 2 down . No idea where they have gone, no evidence.... Just gone.
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Sorry to hear that. They do tend to disappear like that. Perhaps it is simply old age - you've had them for 6 months+ and they were already mature when you got them. Did you see the isolation behaviour I mentioned? While most of their tankmates are small, I did notice a pair of clowns? I haven't added any to my tank as they tend to be aggressive and territorial. Sometimes attacks can be very random.

My group of 5 is still going strong. The one (dominant?) male's had a few instances of egg holding for 7 days. Recently I've seen him court one female for eggs by rubbing her belly with his head but this time she hasn't been in the mood to oblige.
 
Redspot cardinal courtship pictures

Redspot cardinal courtship pictures

This is what one pair does for days before I see the male holding eggs. The male is the larger one on the bottom. He usually goes and chases after the female, staying underneath her as he mirrors her movements.

REDfNBT.jpg
 
Just found this thread a while after buying some of these guys a short while back. (Tap my hands for making the cardinal sin of impulse buying :lolspin: )

I've read it with interest and thought I'd put my two penneth worth in.

My aquarium system is rather unorthodox as I've put a smaller feeder tank on top of my display tank so the LED's are below it. Spotted them in my LFS being sold in batches of 3 stupidly cheap as far as UK marine fish prices go and being a sucker for punishment couldn't resist a go.

ATM one decided to do a helter-skelter down the overflow into the main tank and keeps popping up between the rockwork which left two above. They were eating but rather lazily and I'd fell in love with these guys and decided to get another three. It's early days yet so won't tempt fate but one thing I did notice straight away that having more competition does seem to make them compete for food more readily and eat more. Sibling rivalry I guess.
Fingers crossed they are schooling in the smaller tank without bickering as yet.

Looks like bribery gets you everywhere with them because they've taken to shooting across the tank any time I pass. ATM cyclopeeze and Artemia seem to be on the list of favourites.
 
All sounds very promising singer , have you started counting them daily yet . Lol
Thought ide better update progress aswell. The mass suicide did happen. I am down to 4 from the 13 , no idea what happened to them all just gone, didn't see aggression or lack of feeding just gone ! The one thing I did see was the female passing the eggs to the males mouth which was interesting so although they may be short lived ( for mysterious reasons And no one has been able to say how long they live for naturally) I still think they are an interesting addition to the tank just keep topping them up.
 
Just wanted to revive this thread and give my .02

I purchased a 5 lot from DD on 12/1/15, they started off great. Within two weeks two of them had passed. I still have the other three going strong for almost 8 months now.
 
Blink2824 said:
Just wanted to revive this thread and give my .02

I purchased a 5 lot from DD on 12/1/15, they started off great. Within two weeks two of them had passed. I still have the other three going strong for almost 8 months now.
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that's awesome. happy to hear that Blink. I was moving so sold most livestock to locals late last year but I do miss them.
 
DFS said:
I am happy to report that all 10 of these fishes are still thriving in our 30-Gallon breeder set-up housed with a pair of captive bred Amphiprion latezonatus.

The cardinalfishes have spawned several times now, but unfortunately all of our attempts to gently capture the carrying male have failed with the fish spitting out the egg mass.

It's incredible to see how many eggs are present in clutch (I would estimate over 50), as the eggs themselves are tiny and appear to be less than 1mm each.

Regards,
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Digging this up from the dead do you still get these in?
 
I had ordered 10 originally, 2 doa with 3 more lost in the first week who didn't look super healthy. The remaining did well. I just got 5 more in with one that had a hole through all 3 bags so he didn't make it. This leaves me at 9 for now but the new 4 are strong and jumped right into the shoal. I will probably order 10 more and begin to watch for breeders.
 
mrcyrus said:
I had ordered 10 originally, 2 doa with 3 more lost in the first week who didn't look super healthy. The remaining did well. I just got 5 more in with one that had a hole through all 3 bags so he didn't make it. This leaves me at 9 for now but the new 4 are strong and jumped right into the shoal. I will probably order 10 more and begin to watch for breeders.
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good luck with them. are they eating pellets or flakes?
 
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