i used to have a really peaceful tank... until a couple of Banggai cardinals began breeding, a few babies survived and grew.
Now I have a "shoal" of 11 Banggai cardinals with the parents determined to wipe all the evidence of their breeding efforts.
There's some moments of peace during feeding times.
They're fish that don't sleep and I can't remove them without tearing the tank down.
While I miss having a peaceful tank, this has showed me a range of behaviors in these fish that I wasn't expected.
It was all peace and love until the eldest son became adult and the father noticing him after an incubation period. Then he decided his son had to die.
His son is a survivor though, when he was one month old, he was living in the refugium but he fell into the return pump compartment, got sucked in by the pump, was canonballed into the tank and landed in the magnifica anemone where he was the the first of many Banggais accepted by the resident trio of clowns.
The female joined the male in his attempts to kill all other Banggais in the tank and I was hoping the aggression would stop when the male began another incubation.
The female pressured the male for 2 days and he finally accepted her eggs.
I immediately noticed something strange: the female wouldn't separate from the male more than an inch or 2. He was constantly trying to get some space, but she wouldn't let him.
She knew what he wanted to do. The next day he had no eggs and was free to continue his mission of getting rid of his descendants.
As days pass by, each fish is getting more and more used to this aggressive environment and more easily escapes their parents radar. At the same time they're growing and I wonder where is this going next.
Now I have a "shoal" of 11 Banggai cardinals with the parents determined to wipe all the evidence of their breeding efforts.
There's some moments of peace during feeding times.
They're fish that don't sleep and I can't remove them without tearing the tank down.
While I miss having a peaceful tank, this has showed me a range of behaviors in these fish that I wasn't expected.
It was all peace and love until the eldest son became adult and the father noticing him after an incubation period. Then he decided his son had to die.
His son is a survivor though, when he was one month old, he was living in the refugium but he fell into the return pump compartment, got sucked in by the pump, was canonballed into the tank and landed in the magnifica anemone where he was the the first of many Banggais accepted by the resident trio of clowns.
The female joined the male in his attempts to kill all other Banggais in the tank and I was hoping the aggression would stop when the male began another incubation.
The female pressured the male for 2 days and he finally accepted her eggs.
I immediately noticed something strange: the female wouldn't separate from the male more than an inch or 2. He was constantly trying to get some space, but she wouldn't let him.
She knew what he wanted to do. The next day he had no eggs and was free to continue his mission of getting rid of his descendants.
As days pass by, each fish is getting more and more used to this aggressive environment and more easily escapes their parents radar. At the same time they're growing and I wonder where is this going next.
