banggai cardinals

[srgtkoons]

I have trouble keeping them alive. I have one left of my second pair. The first came from an LFS and didnt fair that well. The second pair came from brian at atlantis aquatics. (this is in no way meant to be negative towards atlantis aquatics) I have no idea why i cannot keep them alive. I have a 30 gallon tank, plenty of filtration, all params are stable and consistent and I cannot seem to figgure out why they keep dieing. The first pair hardly ever ate, but the second pair both ate very well. But about two days ago i noticed the one that just died. hanging at the top of the tank tucked behind a powerhead. I remember hearing somthing that banggaii cardinals are very skitish and docile. I am wondering if alot of people and traffic near the tank has any negative affects on them. I ask this because my tank is in a high school class room with alot of activity around this. Anyone out there have any similiar experiences or difficulties with these fish?

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I have the mind of a 5 year old and own a fire extinquisher you cant imagine the things i do.

[FMarini]

Hi:
I would say that all this activity is probably a big problem. Banggais are skiddish, and docile and my suggestion to you is to fill this tank w/ calurpea, live rock, or anything the banggais can hide in and around, which might lead them to feel safer.
When you get these fish i would recommend you feed live brine shrimp or live ghost shrimp for a week or two and slowly ween the fish onto meaty prepared foods like forzne brine, PE mysis, shrimp cubes etc. are there additional fish in this tank besides banggais??
Most of the public aquariums I have seen w/ banggais has large number of places for these fish to hide, but whats interesting is as soon as th efish are healthy and establish they are quite bold, as our local aquarium has an 1100 gal tank w/ 25 banggais in it and they just hover over their spot. Pretty cool.
i would also check your water quality (chems) issues just in case
to learn more on raising and breeding banggais read here: http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml

frank

[waterboy]

I too had a pair die in my 30g because I couldn't get them to eat. I don't know what their deal was. I tried flakes, brine shrimp, everything, and they would suck into their mouth and spit it out. The only thing I can think of is maybe they were wild caught and aren't used to the type of food that we feed them.

[Bughead]

Welcome to the club.[img]/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
Four or five months ago I decided it would be neat to breed Benggais. I have a 40 gal tank with plenty of live rock and caulerpa, plenty of places to hide. That tank is in the living room, with very little traffic and we always approach our tanks slowly. The only other fish was one big royal gramma. At the time people told me to get 3 cardinals and take the odd man out as soon as two of them became a couple. I tried this twice and both times I was too late in removing the third fish. The female(?) of the first couple refused to eat, I returned her to the lfs where she died 4 days later. With her replacement, the couple lived about 3 weeks. Undaunted, I tried again, starting with 3 fish, as I said. This couple seemed fine for about a month, then one had a seizure and spun down to the bottom of the tank. I managed to revive him with a turkey baster. About a week later he had another seizure and didn't survive. A week after that, the remaining cardinal had a seizure and died.

In doing research in preperation of breeding cardinals, I found that these "seizures" are common in the fry, and can be revived with the turkey baster. Nowhere in my reading did I find that this also happened to adults. I still have no clue. But I gave up on Benggais.

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If it's broke, don't fix it---hide it.

[bajathree]

I got one for my 130. He hid the first day but was out the second. I agree with the brine at first. Mine would spit out everything else for the first few days. After that he started eating about everything. As far as shy that is something I do not believe this fish knows. He is always out and doesn't even fliker when a larger fish or people go by. Fish eats like chow hound now [img]/ubb/lol.gif[/img]

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We as hobbyists need to respect the reef, educate and learn so that it will live on for all to enjoy.
bajathree
Come Dive Into
Baja3Reef

[FishTechie]

you may want to try covering the glass while you acclimate the new fish. When i got my pair of banggaii's they wouldnt eat for about 2-3 weeks, except for copepods that were in the water, they were also very skiddish and hid as soon as i approached the tank....hth

[srgtkoons]

I did have a blue damsel in the tank for the first two days that the banggai cardinals were in the tank. I noticed a problem with him, so i moved him to the sump of my propagation tray. I hope i can manage to keep the remaining bangaii alive until i move my tank home sometime in april. Then perhaps i will try again. Thanks for the help.

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I have the mind of a 5 year old and own a fire extinquisher you cant imagine the things i do.

[FMarini]

Guys:
seems like its a common theme here, almost all new fish are skiddish, and really need a few days to acclimate to the tank. Low traffic or lights out always helps.
AS far as feeding, I wrote on more than 3 occasions that wild-caught fresh off the boat banggais don't feed on flake, pellets or dead prepared foods, and unfortunately most people don't want to make the effort to buy live brine or ghost shrimp, but I can almost guarentee if the banggais is not too freaked out it will eat live brine, mysis, ghost shrimp or even guppies. Once they are happy and acclimated to your tank they can be trained(weened) onto frozen prepared foods. It just takes a while.
AS far as having an adult banggai getting SFS (sudden fright syndrome). I seriously doubt it. My suspision is that you got a stresssed or really sick banggai and its was on its way out. Now fry/juveniles getting SFS is saddly common.
I have found these fish to be quite hardy, very resilient, and unless your deliberate in trying to eliminate them, tare actually (IMO) a easy(great) to-care-for fish. Sorry about all these problems w/ them, and one really needs to get the odd man out ASAP. These fish are too rare, and soon to be unavailable to allow this to occur.
if you want to read more on raising and breeding these fish read here: http://www.eparc.com/banggai/banggai.shtml

frank

[Neal359]

i have2 that have been in the tank fon the start thay are always out and in the open. i have a tang and a coral beuty both very active and the cardnals dont even notis them. thay even breed every month or so but the frys always get eatin bofour i can catch them. i have alway though of them being very harddy

[piege]

You mentioned a high school classroom...any of the kids been messing with things they shouldn't? Dropping things into the tank, bangging on the glass.

Do the fish have anywhere to hide? I have a pair and I am surprised to read all the troubles you guys are having. I bought a pair which my best guess was male and female and there were. They eat anything I offer and are fairly bold at night...the male isn't all that bold when the halides are on and he is carrying.

In fact...I just had a brood last night. I took this pic two night ago and figured the male would be releasing soon.



And then I took this this morning when the actinics came on


I came back to edit this post cause someone told me the links weren't working....figure I would just put the pics in the post.
HTH,
JP

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http://fyrman.homestead.com/welcome.html

[This message has been edited by piege (edited 03-02-2001).]

[bajathree]

Hi
I could not agree with FMarini more. Very well summed up!

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We as hobbyists need to respect the reef, educate and learn so that it will live on for all to enjoy.
bajathree
Come Dive Into
Baja3Reef

[srgtkoons]

No people arent messing with it. They know better. It's in the agriculture deparment. And all of the kids who take these classes are good kids who dont screw around and break stuff. Besides if they did touch my tank. They would get killed. By me and the teacher.

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I have the mind of a 5 year old and own a fire extinquisher you cant imagine the things i do.

[BigA]

Just added one last week...it is the only fish in my 75gal. It eats frozen brine but no flake. The fish was very shy for a few days, but it's not hiding at all now.

I guess I'm lucky to have added this fish first.

~BigA

[Bughead]

My Benggais died from SFS, but it wasn't because they were harassed from within the tank or disturbed by anything outside the tank. Like I said, the only other fish in the tank was a big royal gramma, who kept to himself. The tank is in the living room, which is usually vacant, and only my husband and myself are in the house and we always approach our tanks slowly. These seizures happened to the cardinals at feeding time. They were eating thawed frozen food that was certainly not in large chunks--not that the cardinals couldn't handle large chunks.

I agree that Benggais are skittish and sensitive, but there seems to be no reason mine should have died from fright syndrome. These are beautiful fish and I like the idea of raising them, but I'm afraid to try again. But I wish you guys all the success in the world in keeping and breeding your Benggais.

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If it's broke, don't fix it---hide it.