Banggai cardinals in the wild vs in captivity

[Ardeus]

In captivity they are very intolerant of conspecifics and seem to form pairs.

Does the same happen in the wild? Do they form bonded pairs?

Has anyone kept them in a group large enough to prevent serious aggression?

 

[mort]

I've kept 100-200 together at a time and they paired off and moved away from the rest. I think that groups only work for a certain amount of time before they start to take out the weaker individuals. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also common in the wild as they can be short lived and pretty aggressive. I've read of them taking over vast areas, moving the indigenous fish out. This happened where they were introduced by divers, pushing the local clownfish and even damsels out of the anemones.

 

[Ardeus]

I have a couple and they never competed with the clownfish for the anemomes. The clownfish picked the magnifica and the banggai chose the BTA's.

When the clownfish were solving their issues (a trio) the Banggai didn't seem too bothered to share the BTAs.

Banggai pushing domino damsels out of anemones must be a site to behold.