A couple pics of my new Bangaii Cardinals

[Ummfish]

Good deal. Be sure there are places the kids can go where the parents can't see them. I worry that the kids get stressed when they are being watched by big predators (their parents) all the time. I had an eggcrate rack set up as an algae filter with around an inch of water over it. The algae was really dense between cleanings. The juveniles really seemed to like getting up there in the shallow water where larger fish couldn't go.

I raised mine without ever hatching any brine shrimp (didn't have space at the time). But, I had lots of algae and lots of natural live foods, tons of copepodites and worm larvae in the water column. What also seemed to help was that I had a good bit of circular flow in the tank (two powerheads pointed in opposite directions in an oval tank), but lots of obstructions to the flow. The kids would get into the lee of something to get out of the current--they liked to hide behind vertical PVC pipes--and catch the natural live food from the current. That meant, though, that they didn't have a lot of time to get a good look at their foods, so they started hitting anything that floated by that was anywhere near the right shape. Given that, it was really easy to introduce them to frozen foods right off the bat.

My biggest mortality was at about 5 weeks. The kids started getting really brave (stupid :roll: ) and riding the currents around the tank in little gangs. I think the parents picked off the slow ones. So, I advise moving the kids to a separate growout tank before that point if you can.

 

[Anonymous]

^Thanks Andy. It's always helpful to read the personal accounts.

Sad Update: Two of these cardinals died after 6 days. They were eating normally (mysis, live brine, and cyclopeeze), and they were not aggressive towards each other. I couldn't see any outward signs of disease either pre or post mortem. Prior to getting this trio I'd talked to a couple of people locally who have had problems keeping these WC Bangaii's alive. Both had similar unexplained and sudden deaths. We know that they scare easily, and some can even faint, but it's odd that death would come after seemingly settling in and acting normally for several days. I wonder, could capture/shipping stress cause a several-week delayed death? I guess cyanide would, but these don't seem to be the type of fish for which cyanide would be used. Thoughts?

 

[Ummfish]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

You know, I've always heard that the big holding facilities always store the same species in the same species-specific tanks in very over-crowded conditions, and never really move any of the tanks around. I would think that would be the ideal breeding grounds for disease that targets species. I've heard about problems with sudden deaths with WC banggais for the last year or so. Hmm.

 

[Anonymous]

This is from a thread in the Industry Forum:

topic100028.html

Ferdinand Cruz and Ruwi (Indonesian) have commented that the high mortality occurs because the fish are captured using cyanide, are stressed by being crowded in plastic bags and handled, and are not fed for up to 15 days while being transported on long boats from the Banggai Islands back to Bali and Jakarta.

So it seems like it's possible that they're caught using cyanide. Also the handling sees to be rough on them too. This is the same thing I mentioned before, after a while the broodstock just die for no apparent reason.

 

[Anonymous]

Awww! (hugs for JohnH)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. I feel better now.

Gman- I really appreciate your finding that link; there's tons of great information there. Sounds like shipping stress is the primary factor (2+ weeks w/o feeding 8O ) and that a larger broodstock tank is recommended. Thanks again, back to the drawing board for me.