BANGGAI Daniel-san!!

[angelofish]

I just added a Banggai to my 55g. He/she is doing fine for now. Time will tell. I added him right before everyone else went into sleep-mode. He/she is swimming around in the dark with the whole tank to itself. He/she ate some flakes but what do they really prefer? I've read they like meaty foods.What do you cardinal keepers feed yours? If they swim around at night will they sleep all day? Ive seen some during the day as well.

 

[exotickeeper]

In my opinion, this is normal for your fish to be swimming around right now. It's in a new enviroment and it wants to know it's surroundings. Give it couple days to a week to adjust and it will be normal with the others. And no it won't sleep during the day, as long as the light is on, however, it MAY be not as active as others. I feed them frozen and/or live brine shrimp.

 

[bang guy]

Banggai are most active at Dusk & Dawn. They can easily be trained to eat whenever though Very very few will eat flake food.
I feed my breeders a blended mix of Scallops, Squid, Mussels, and fish (including some Salmon fat). I spike the mix with Selcon.
I hope you bought Tank Bred Banggai... they usually fare much better than wild caught.
Guy

 

[iechy]

Hey Bang Guy,
I am thinking of getting some for my tank. I have read that when you have a school of cardinals they develop a hierarchy among themselves. i thought that might be cool to watch. Would you think 3 would be enough to do this? My LFS has a bunch in that I'm pretty sure are tank raised but to be sure I'll ask.

 

[bang guy]

Banggai will not form a heirarchy.
If you have all females they will be indiferent toward each other.
If you have multiple females and a male one female will drive all others away from the male.
If you have more than one male they will fight to the death until you only have one male.
Immature Banggai will shoal together for protection. Once they become mature the above rules will apply.

 

[mrfish]

How do you tell the difference between Mail and femail?

 

[bang guy]

For me? I have to place one with a confirmed male and apply the above rules. It's the only way that has worked consistently for me.

 

[iechy]

So I'm guessing I should only but one then. I don't plan to try and breed them so there's no chance trying to get lucky and not having two males killing each other. If anything is killed in my tank it will most likely and unfortunately be done by me.