# Banggai Cardinalfish



## George Farmer (30 Jun 2009)

These wonderful fish are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to being over fished for the hobby.

Thankfully they're relatively easy to breed in captivity.  I have four tank-bred juvenile specimens in my 125 litre marine, received today via mail-order from Wildwoods.  

Maybe I'll get some fry myself one day...

Look out for a full feature on these and my marine tank in PFK sometime in the future...


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## Nick16 (30 Jun 2009)

yeah seen some of these in my lfs. didnt really take much notice as i just like the colours of the marine fish


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## rawr (30 Jun 2009)

i know zilch about anything to do with marines, but there are some weird fish out there. These look like a nice choice!


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## Graeme Edwards (30 Jun 2009)

Stunning fish...

We used to breed them in Chester zoo. They bred so much they where in the sumps of the filtration system. Freshly hatched brine shrimp saw them flourish. 

Nice pictures mate. Over tank flash?


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## George Farmer (30 Jun 2009)

Graeme Edwards said:
			
		

> Stunning fish...
> 
> We ust to breed them in Chester zoo. They bred so much they where in the sumps of the filtration system. Freshly hatched brine shrimp saw them flourish.
> 
> Nice pictures mate. Over tank flash?


Thanks mate! 

I remember seeing some babies on my visit with PFK a couple of years ago.  Pity we missed you...

Photos were taken with tank lighting only (T8 and LED), f/4, 1/100th, ISO 400, or thereabouts.  All with my 100mm macro.

Now I'm off to look at brineshrimp breeding kits...


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## glenn (30 Jun 2009)

by far my favorite marine fish, so stunning, if i ever kept marine these would be my 1st choice.


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## samc (30 Jun 2009)

didnt know you had a marine setup george! i was going to set up a tank at one point but stayed with freshwater as theres so much to learn

ooh and the fish iv seen in my lfs they allways stand out to me for some reason


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## TDI-line (1 Jul 2009)

Great pics George, are you keeping inverts aswell?


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## Dan Crawford (1 Jul 2009)

Quality shots pal, i can't wait to see this tank in the flesh!


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## AdAndrews (1 Jul 2009)

beautiful fish. how do you find keeping marines? i have always wanted to do it but fear its too much work


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## George Farmer (1 Jul 2009)

Thanks, all!



			
				TDI-line said:
			
		

> Great pics George, are you keeping inverts aswell?


Not yet mate.  Just these and macroalgae so far.  I may get a cleaner shrimp, but corals are not on the menu just yet.



			
				AdAndrews said:
			
		

> how do you find keeping marines? i have always wanted to do it but fear its too much work


So far so good, thanks.  Being a PFK subscriber I've read a lot about keeping marines over the years so knew the basics.

My current set up is much lower maintenance than a typical hi-tech planted tank.

However, when you get into the realms of SPS corals etc. that require very specific nutrient control, intense lighting and circulation etc. then it gets much trickier (and more expensive!) than any planted tank of a similar size.  

Like any aspect to the fishkeeping hobby, there are varying degrees of difficulty.


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## AdAndrews (1 Jul 2009)

ok, thanks george, i will read up


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## Joecoral (2 Jul 2009)

They are very cool fish. Mouth brooders, spit the fry amongst the spines of an urchin to protect them once they hatch.
Fortunately all the ones you see in shops these days are tank bred


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## CeeBee (2 Jul 2009)

Cracking photos, George.  After getting smokey water right, tank shots are next on my list!  Next time there's a get together (and if I can stay sober enough to remember), I'm going to hassle you guys to show me how it's done


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## George Farmer (2 Jul 2009)

CeeBee said:
			
		

> Cracking photos, George.  After getting smokey water right, tank shots are next on my list!  Next time there's a get together (and if I can stay sober enough to remember), I'm going to hassle you guys to show me how it's done


Thanks, Caroline.

Hassle away.


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## Joecoral (3 Jul 2009)

Just don't hassle the Hoff!


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## davidcmadrid (9 Jul 2009)

Gorgeous looking fish.


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## Brenmuk (10 Jul 2009)

I notice some macro algae in the background of the 1st photo are you trying to grow some of that stuff?

One thing i've often thought about doing if I were to set up a marine tank is to try a macroalgae set up. There is a huge variety of shape and colours that an aquascaper like yourself could really get stuck into - I remember seeing some spectacular aquascapes in some old copies of PFK or maybe even TFH.


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## Joecoral (10 Jul 2009)

I've seen some very nice macro algae set ups with seahorses and pipefish, looks great
very natural


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## fishkeeper (11 Jul 2009)

They look wonderful George!

I used to have a pair in my 80l nano (sadly I had to break it up) but I never managed to have fry altough I think I may have had some but the parents ate them. Marine are very inconsistent with their breeding and what they do with their fry, especially Bangaii's.

If you're relatively inexperienced, I'd go with some soft corals. T8 lighting would be fine, depending how many tubes and what wattage etc.

Would live to see a FTS, and, I always found my cleaner shrimps to do anything BUT clean algae lol. They used to steal all the food, clean my Bangaiis, but when there was algae, only my turbo's and hermits would eat it.

What do you have in terms of your CUC?

Good Luck with them, if you need any help, feel free to pm me as I know quite a lot about Marines so I'm sure i could be useful


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