Ochre striped cardinal fish

[anthony blake]

Thank you

 

[anthony blake]

I sold these at my LFS when they were available and are peaceful and easy to feed and eat all meaty foods

It’s cool to see LFS store sell them besides the typical Bangaii and pajama cardinals thank you for the response

 

[anthony blake]

Unfortunately Cardinals of any species are famously difficult to sex, the easiest I’ve found is Banggai cardinals as males have the tiniest differences from females in the lower jaw shape and small bumps around the anus that the female lacks.

The best way to find established pairs of any fish that’s hard to sex is to get a group of 5, and let them establish a pair and become aggressive to the others. Separate the others when you see them getting chased up into corners or just constantly hiding, and through process of elimination you usually have a pair left that will tolerate eachother’s company.

I had a group of 5 red spot cardinals in a 20gal at work, 2 sold and the remaining 3 turned out to be 2 females and 1 male, the male became apparent when he began to show he was holding clutches of eggs in his mouth and I noticed he had a slightly deeper/wider bottom jaw than the others when not holding eggs.
He would let the females stick close by, but if they became too interested in what he was holding he would chase them away.
They also will not eat for the entire holding period, so make sure to get them nice and chunky prior to breeding.

Wow! That is an amazing story! Were you able to raise the young for the red spot cardinal? I ended up picking five, and got rid of two that were aggressive, so now I am left with three. I was able to tell on one of the Cardinals it had one small vent, as for the others, I was not able to determine, I’ve got them on pe mysis shrimp. Is there any other food that is great and protein? Thank you for your response.

 

[anthony blake]

Welcome, glad you are here!

Thank you, I always read the comments of other postings, but never found out until last week. You could post your comments, and it’s free!

 

[anthony blake]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I know one person who got a pair that bred, but - being in the UK - they weren't able to get small pods to use to try and rear the young.

For pairing them, adding them all and seeing if a pair forms seems to work (Edit: to add, this method doesn't generally work well with more aggressive fish, but it seems to work fine for at least some cardinals); I'm not aware of a method for sexing them, but you can also put them in breeder boxes next to each other (so they can see and smell the chemicals of the others without interacting directly) for a few days and see if a pair visibly forms (this is generally a better method than just adding them to the tank and hoping a pair forms, but it may be tricky with unsexed fish).

If you want to try rearing the larvae I've got some info that may help, but for a simple overview:

-You need a larval rearing tank; a little tank with an air stone for flow is generally all that's needed, possibly with a decent light dependent on the species.

-You need larval food cultures; in this case, that means small copepods like Parvocalanus crassirostris or similar.

-You need some small sieves/screens (like 45-50 microns or so) to feed only the tiniest pods at first, and you'll need to move up sizes to allow bigger pods as the fish grow. Eventually, you can transition them to larger foods like BBS and/or small pellets (like TDO Chromaboost or Otohime pellets).

It's definitely work to do, but attempting (succeeding can be a different story) to rear the larvae isn't too complicated if you can maintain the feed cultures (pods/rots/BBS and phyto).

Thank you so much for the details on how to rear the young! I have an extra 20 gallon tank laying around and will start the process once a pair is established. I appreciate the detail for rearing the young once the male has the eggs! Looking at my tank, I was able to deduce one female so far with one small vent and she was shaking her body as if she were releasing eggs into the water. I am also noticing two potential males that are swimming by her no aggression so far. Thank you for your response!

 

[anthony blake]

Hello & Welcome

lol thank you, hello fellow reefer

 

[anthony blake]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I know one person who got a pair that bred, but - being in the UK - they weren't able to get small pods to use to try and rear the young.

For pairing them, adding them all and seeing if a pair forms seems to work (Edit: to add, this method doesn't generally work well with more aggressive fish, but it seems to work fine for at least some cardinals); I'm not aware of a method for sexing them, but you can also put them in breeder boxes next to each other (so they can see and smell the chemicals of the others without interacting directly) for a few days and see if a pair visibly forms (this is generally a better method than just adding them to the tank and hoping a pair forms, but it may be tricky with unsexed fish).

If you want to try rearing the larvae I've got some info that may help, but for a simple overview:

-You need a larval rearing tank; a little tank with an air stone for flow is generally all that's needed, possibly with a decent light dependent on the species.

-You need larval food cultures; in this case, that means small copepods like Parvocalanus crassirostris or similar.

-You need some small sieves/screens (like 45-50 microns or so) to feed only the tiniest pods at first, and you'll need to move up sizes to allow bigger pods as the fish grow. Eventually, you can transition them to larger foods like BBS and/or small pellets (like TDO Chromaboost or Otohime pellets).

It's definitely work to do, but attempting (succeeding can be a different story) to rear the larvae isn't too complicated if you can maintain the feed cultures (pods/rots/BBS and phyto).

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

Wow! That is an amazing story! Were you able to raise the young for the red spot cardinal? I ended up picking five, and got rid of two that were aggressive, so now I am left with three. I was able to tell on one of the Cardinals it had one small vent, as for the others, I was not able to determine, I’ve got them on pe mysis shrimp. Is there any other food that is great and protein? Thank you for your response.

Unfortunately they were in a system with lots of filter feeders, CUC and other fish, so the fry never made it far. I do plan on replicating it at home though eventually. A varied diet of frozen foods is what conditioned them to spawn, the red spots were getting a mix of mysis, brine, daphnia and occasional krill, and my current Banggai pair (haven’t spawned yet but female is filling up with eggs) are getting mysis, brine, daphnia, krill, squid and the occasional chunk of clam. Im sure such a high degree of variation isn’t necessary, but at least 2-3+ different foods are ideal for conditioning I’ve found. Blackworms and whiteworms are a very good conditioning food as well for most fish.

For the Red Spots they seemed to hatch their eggs after roughly 1-2 weeks of holding, with about 1-2 weeks in between each batch like clock work once they started. I kept the male well fed and fat in between clutches as he won’t eat at all while holding.

Also the shaking that you mentioned may have been laying eggs, but more likely was just a part of the courting process. My frost fin cardinal at work has tried to either court or scare off a hermit crab for the past few weeks by going up to it sideways, shaking rapidly and extending its inner gill covers to make it’s head look bigger. No idea if its territorial or courtship but it’s hilarious to watch, and it will follow the hermit around the tank doing it.

Definitely keep us updated, and try to keep track of parameters and temperature to get more information on spawning conditions for the species, as well as if you notice subtle differences between male and female such as vent variations or jaw shape.

 

[revhtree]

Welcome to your new home for saltwater reef aquarium resources and fun! Welcome to the family!

 

[LiveWire]

Welcome to the REEF!!

 

[Buckster]

Hello and Welcome to R2R! I can only tell the difference with the banggia cardinals. Not sure if the other cardinals are the same.

 

[anthony blake]

Unfortunately they were in a system with lots of filter feeders, CUC and other fish, so the fry never made it far. I do plan on replicating it at home though eventually. A varied diet of frozen foods is what conditioned them to spawn, the red spots were getting a mix of mysis, brine, daphnia and occasional krill, and my current Banggai pair (haven’t spawned yet but female is filling up with eggs) are getting mysis, brine, daphnia, krill, squid and the occasional chunk of clam. Im sure such a high degree of variation isn’t necessary, but at least 2-3+ different foods are ideal for conditioning I’ve found. Blackworms and whiteworms are a very good conditioning food as well for most fish.

For the Red Spots they seemed to hatch their eggs after roughly 1-2 weeks of holding, with about 1-2 weeks in between each batch like clock work once they started. I kept the male well fed and fat in between clutches as he won’t eat at all while holding.

Also the shaking that you mentioned may have been laying eggs, but more likely was just a part of the courting process. My frost fin cardinal at work has tried to either court or scare off a hermit crab for the past few weeks by going up to it sideways, shaking rapidly and extending its inner gill covers to make it’s head look bigger. No idea if its territorial or courtship but it’s hilarious to watch, and it will follow the hermit around the tank doing it.

Definitely keep us updated, and try to keep track of parameters and temperature to get more information on spawning conditions for the species, as well as if you notice subtle differences between male and female such as vent variations or jaw shape.

That’s interesting let me know if you successfully breed the bangaii cardinal fish! I tried to breed them however I never established a true pair, I’m glad you got a pair! I will start feeding them brine shrimp along with daphnia!

Quick question regarding frost fin cardinal, are they orange in reef tank or are they more white and clear? I was interested in getting some in the future. The frost fin cardinal is one funny but cool fish I watch documentaries and see them all the time getting eaten lol

I’ll keep you updated if something happens and I’ll track the parameters and water chemistry as well thank you for your knowledge!

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

That’s interesting let me know if you successfully breed the bangaii cardinal fish! I tried to breed them however I never established a true pair, I’m glad you got a pair! I will start feeding them brine shrimp along with daphnia!

Quick question regarding frost fin cardinal, are they orange in reef tank or are they more white and clear? I was interested in getting some in the future. The frost fin cardinal is one funny but cool fish I watch documentaries and see them all the time getting eaten lol

I’ll keep you updated if something happens and I’ll track the parameters and water chemistry as well thank you for your knowledge!

For the frost fin cardinal, ours is more clear-tan color but isn’t in a full reef tank, so may not be showing true colors. I have had him for a few months though. They are neat little guys. Black Cardinals have also been a really nice looking fish and mostly peaceful as well

Best of luck with the project!