Confusing Bangaii Cardinals!

UltraKelius · Dec 3, 2021

I’ve read so many posts and articles across many forums and websites about the behaviours of these fish and can’t seem to find a definitive guide to specific behaviours! Looking to see if anyone here has significant experience with breeding these fish?
I decided I wanted to give breeding them a go, and having had a male and female pair years ago with my 2nd reef tank I felt confident I had a good chance of being able to spot a male/female in the LFS. I’d been staring at the tank for a long while with my husband keeping an eye on the first one I selected while I chose the second.
One was larger than the other. All was fine, got them home and into quarantine. Then after a few days I noticed the smaller one being chased a bit by the larger fish. I knew they could become fairly vicious quite quickly so after a week together I fished the larger bully out and put into display. The little one stayed in the QT for obs. After a while it looked so miserable, sat in the corner of the tank all day every day, only venturing out to eat, and I decided to try them together again.
same thing happened, they were fine for a few days, even some following around and swimming together. After a week the smaller one is cowering in a corner for a day, then the process repeats itself over and over. Currently they are best friends again, lots of following each other about, back and forth flaring of the gills (do both sexes do this, as both of these two seem to?!) and big one only chasing the little one away when it’s feeding time.
I have studied them hard to spot vent numbers, sometimes I see one and sometimes two, even after feeding so I think maybe they need to grow a bit more.
So I guess I’m asking if anyone has seen similar behaviours with a male/female pair? Does is sound as though I’ve got the same sex? Thanks to all for reading

rd62rdstr · Dec 4, 2021

I just picked up one and am looking for a second. My question, how can you tell males from females? I was tempted to buy another 2 just in case, but with my luck I’d have 3 same sexes.

UltraKelius · Dec 4, 2021

rd62rdstr said:
I just picked up one and am looking for a second. My question, how can you tell males from females? I was tempted to buy another 2 just in case, but with my luck I’d have 3 same sexes.

You are able to tell by looking at number of vents. Female has one and male has two. This is extremely difficult though, and the fish need to be fairly large and also have had a massive meal to encourage vents to show properly. Good luck with it!

Ancient Mariner · Dec 4, 2021

There’s a good chance you are incorrect in sexing as it is a difficult task. I have 3 in a 100 gallon (380 liters) tank. 2 have paired up and the 3rd is chased regularly but is doing OK. They all hung out together at first but in a few weeks the 2 paired up and the 3rd became obviously the odd man out. So the immediate chasing you’re observing is concerning.

Having said that I pair up A. Oscellaris regularly by simply buying a large one (which eventually becomes a female) and a tiny one (which remains a male) and initially there is some chasing and aggression by the large one but eventually they become lovey-dovey after a few weeks.

(It’s a bit early in the UK for you to be up, isn’t it?)

MNFish · Dec 4, 2021

I have a male and female and they have never had an unkind word between the 2.
I am wondering if you do not have 2 males.

UltraKelius · Dec 5, 2021

Ancient Mariner said:
There’s a good chance you are incorrect in sexing as it is a difficult task. I have 3 in a 100 gallon (380 liters) tank. 2 have paired up and the 3rd is chased regularly but is doing OK. They all hung out together at first but in a few weeks the 2 paired up and the 3rd became obviously the odd man out. So the immediate chasing you’re observing is concerning.

Having said that I pair up A. Oscellaris regularly by simply buying a large one (which eventually becomes a female) and a tiny one (which remains a male) and initially there is some chasing and aggression by the large one but eventually they become lovey-dovey after a few weeks.

(It’s a bit early in the UK for you to be up, isn’t it?)

This was my fear! What’s confused the situation for me is that I have heard of some females being overly stroppy towards the males, and wondered if maybe this was the case here. To me it looks as though the smaller one is definitely a male, as he seems to be able to puff out his lower jaw more than the larger one.

It’s 5am and I definitely should be asleep. So annoying when you don’t have to go to work you end up wide awake when you don’t need to be! Tomorrow morning I’ll be a zombie