banggai trouble..

[boogerbooger]

this was my first banggai to have and she was always swimming like crazy..chasing her reflection..just acting like a happy fish
the past 2 days she has been breathing hard.. when shes breathing its like her whole front head is inflating then deflating..just breathing very hard..during that time i had my hands in the aquarium for placement of coral..and did that a couple times..
8.2 ph..1.023..amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate lil less then 10..
there is no agression between her and the other banggais or the firefish.. everybody else is breathing fine..
my only idea is i must have stressed it out by putting my hands in so much..
please respond.. im concerned about this banggai's life..

 

[fmarini]

Hi:
So how is she doing now (first off how do you know its a her?).
So it sounds to me like a few things.
1)- your hands in the tank and all the stress in the tank, once everything is settled down hopefully she'll stop stressing.
2)- you mention other banggais, how many and is she a loner, meaning do the other bangaai hang out and shes off to one side away from them? Are they all small-how big are they?
Are any of your other fish stressing? Do you notice shes has clamped fins? or is dark colored, is she still laboring to breathe, or has she started to gill (breath much faster?)
Did you notice any other signs of distress or disease on the banggai or other fish?
Did you have a chance to read the banggai FAQ here and find she is acting like anything described there?
More information will help us out
frank
PS: apparently you have read my stuff-the "banggai, bangaai, banggai" came out of my FAQ back in 97

 

[boogerbooger]

I've been trying to obtain 3 female banggais and so far everything is going great, but things could change, i did alot of returning and exchanging with my local fish store to create stability and i hope it stays that way
'she' seems to be doing better(keeping my distance)
-still erect fins
-there is no agression, all keep to themselves and occasionally swim around together
-no darkening on lower fins
-shes breathing a little less
-once,again there is no agression towards them, nothing like how you said others hang out and this one is a loner..
1.5" to 2"(not full length of body)
no signs of distress from other fish
and of course i wouldn't just go buy these fish with a lack of knowledge, i researched about these fish before i even had a saltwater tank, these fish are the main reason why i got into this hobby
also, no i wrote banggai, banggai, banggai for the 3 i have
i hope i answered all the questions you asked

 

[fmarini]

Hi:
okay...so I'm perplexed why you would want 3 females, but irregardless just having three banggais that hang out in the same tank, and not fight yet, doesn't mean their all female.
Anyway I digress.
Your description "'she seems to be doing better (keeping my distance)" with the accompanying body descriptions sounds like "shes" calming down. How is the fish acting today? Will it eat?
At 1.5-2" these are still young fish prolly around 6-8months of age, maybe even still sexually immature. I'm glad the fosh isn't showing outward signs of stressing. I would keep an eye on this fish, and especially try to feed it well.
It will be interesting over the next few months to see how they interact. In small tanks (under 100gals) banggais are just not tolerant of each other and if you lucky (and you well maybe) you might have three females. Of course you might have 2 females and a sexullay immature male as well.
I'm glad banggais are what got you into the hobby. They are also the reason whyI started breed fish. may I ask what resources you used to uncover information about these fish? There still isn't much written on them in books. really the online community has fronted most of the research efforts. I get it w/ the three banggais -cute. But i used the banggai, banggai,banggai in my FAQ to denote that banggais are the best.
Good luck
frank

 

[boogerbooger]

yeah i know, that's why i said "..so far everything is going great, but things could change.."...
oddy, she died and added to that my firefish jumped out..i'm very shocked..there was no agression towards that banggai from the others and then my firefish was swimming around,,enjoying itself yesterday and then i find it near my bed..i'm a bit upset about this..i find it ironic how there was no signs of stress on the outside, no agression towards it, just heavy breathing,...
i hope your not getting the impression that i'm just some person who doesnt realize what the consequences with these fish are..
where i found information was at google i typed in banggai cardinalfish, troubles with banggai cardinalfish, information about banggai cardinalfish,,etc.
it's so difficult to find accurate and reasonable information about these fish..

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by boogerbooger
it's so difficult to find accurate and reasonable information about these fish..
Well, you just found one of the best sources for Banggai information. Everything I've learned about them I learned from Dr. Marini.

 

[boogerbooger]

yeah, of course he is a major impact for resource on this fish.. the first document i read about these fish was by him..