Banggai cardinal help

ibryson · Jul 3, 2019

i purchased 3 banggai cardinals last week and received them on Wednesday. They still have not eaten one week later. When should I be concerned? I have offered frozen mysis, a frozen blend of foods, flakes, pellets, and today I tried mixing in garlic. They mouth some pieces but spit them back out. Any suggestions?

mattzang · Jul 3, 2019

well i've only ever seen mine eat meaty stuff, never any pellets or flakes. are they captive bred?

i'd add that they're nocturnal so maybe try feeding later in the evening? i've never fed mine after lights off, but late in the evening as the lights are dimming he seems even more of a voracious eater

and kinda late here, but the 3 will probably become 2 when they pair off and kill the third. i'd watch for aggression with them

Gareth elliott · Jul 3, 2019

You can try an artificial banana flavored additive. Many animals are attracted to the smell of rotting flesh, which at its most basic levels is very similar to an overly ripened fruit. This is the basis behind seachem’s entice.
This is also the basis why birds and insects are attracted to flowers, evolutionarily anyway.

ibryson · Jul 3, 2019

mattzang said:
well i've only ever seen mine eat meaty stuff, never any pellets or flakes. are they captive bred?

i'd add that they're nocturnal so maybe try feeding later in the evening? i've never fed mine after lights off, but late in the evening as the lights are dimming he seems even more of a voracious eater

and kinda late here, but the 3 will probably become 2 when they pair off and kill the third. i'd watch for aggression with them

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll try feeding again tonight and see if that helps! I always feed frozen foods but figured I’d try the flakes and pellets since nothing else was working. Also, do you think there will still be an aggression problem in a 180g tank? That kinda makes me mad because I went off of saltwaterfish.com website which suggests 3 or more. I gotta say...I had a bad experience ordering through them and won’t be ordering anymore.

Gareth elliott · Jul 3, 2019

ibryson said:
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll try feeding again tonight and see if that helps! I always feed frozen foods but figured I’d try the flakes and pellets since nothing else was working. Also, do you think there will still be an aggression problem in a 180g tank? That kinda makes me mad because I went off of saltwaterfish.com website which suggests 3 or more. I gotta say...I had a bad experience ordering through them and won’t be ordering anymore.

I would always read multiple sources, there are other cardinals(blue eyed for example) that are fine in groups when you sell 12 different species sometimes you end up with incorrect info on a page :). Even other more used sellers have inconsistencies on their pages.

Phycodurus · Jul 3, 2019

i bet live blackworms will catch their attention. :)

i have some also in a 180G set-up and yes, inevitably two will pair up. the third might get lucky but stay more reclusive ... depends on how much the pair dominate the tank.

ibryson · Jul 3, 2019

Phycodurus said:
i bet live blackworms will catch their attention. :)

i have some also in a 180G set-up and yes, inevitably two will pair up. the third might get lucky but stay more reclusive ... depends on how much the pair dominate the tank.

Where do you order live black worms from? I’m willing to give anything a try at this point!!

mattzang · Jul 3, 2019

ibryson said:
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll try feeding again tonight and see if that helps! I always feed frozen foods but figured I’d try the flakes and pellets since nothing else was working. Also, do you think there will still be an aggression problem in a 180g tank? That kinda makes me mad because I went off of saltwaterfish.com website which suggests 3 or more. I gotta say...I had a bad experience ordering through them and won’t be ordering anymore.

Yeah I don't blame you trying other stuff. I've seen my bangaii eat some disconcertingly large sizes of shrimp lol. he just lets pellets/flakes float on by.

180 is pretty massive so maybe it works fine. i know in nature they're more of a schooling fish, but in aquariums seems like 1 or 2 is the best number. but you're down the rabbit hole now so maybe see what happens. i saw some guy on reddit post a picture of his nano tank that had 3 clowns in it, 1 of which was a maroon and i commented, uh might want to watch for aggression there. and he said they had been together for 2 years and they're fine.. so? lol who knows, fish are weird

ibryson · Jul 3, 2019

mattzang said:
Yeah I don't blame you trying other stuff. I've seen my bangaii eat some disconcertingly large sizes of shrimp lol. he just lets pellets/flakes float on by.

180 is pretty massive so maybe it works fine. i know in nature they're more of a schooling fish, but in aquariums seems like 1 or 2 is the best number. but you're down the rabbit hole now so maybe see what happens. i saw some guy on reddit post a picture of his nano tank that had 3 clowns in it, 1 of which was a maroon and i commented, uh might want to watch for aggression there. and he said they had been together for 2 years and they're fine.. so? lol who knows, fish are weird

Fish are definitely weird! I was surprised to see my chromis sleeping directly between my clownfish pair haha

Phycodurus · Jul 3, 2019

LFS will carry live blackworms ... call ahead to save yrself the drive in case they are sold-out.

i’ve been tempted more than once to try a large school of like a dozen ... (errr, the banggai cardinals, not the live blackworms ;);Hilarious) but that borders a little too much on reckless irresponsibility for my taste.:confused: