Longspine/ ghost cardinalfish questions

[LukeSivyer45]

Hi everyone. My LFS has always had longspine cardinalfish come in and I have never really gave them much thought until now. I think there ones ship well but I don’t see to many people keeping them. For the people who have/ do keep them what is their diet and can you keep just one or are they are proper schooling fish and if so how many would be possible in a 20 gallon?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

#reefsquad

 

[Lasse]

Hi everyone. My LFS has always had longspine cardinalfish come in and I have never really gave them much thought until now. I think there ones ship well but I don’t see to many people keeping them. For the people who have/ do keep them what is their diet and can you keep just one or are they are proper schooling fish and if so how many would be possible in a 20 gallon?

This is one of my favorite fish. At first look - dull grey but in the aquarium - its a jewel - especially in large numbers. But you are wrong that they ships well - IMO - they do not. They are - still IMO - together with some other cardinal fish difficult to transport and to acclimate - but when established - they are more hardy (this include the popular pyjamas cardinal)

I had up to 13 of them in my 80 G aquarium back in 2017 - 2021. They slowly start to disappear after the first 2.5 years. The aquarium was very crowded. IMO - they are beautiful fishes - not easy - but in shoals - stunning fishes, Friendly to other but could fight among themselves. I think that the trick is to have as many as possible. They like shadow areas






Sincerely Lasse

 

[Louis Z]

Yes i have noticed that they don’t ship well . Looking for a shoal too . Seems to have different looking cardinals under the same common name in imports . A current LFS just brought some in that don’t completely look like them . They are similar ,, very silvery but no blue eyes . I don’t know if it’s stress that is keeping them from coloring up or may be totally different species under that common name . I plan to observe the new group over time before I purchase . . As for losing one fish in a shoal over time, seems to be some kind of an issue. I don’t know since i have not kept them personally .