In the past five months I have attempted on three different occasions to purchase Banggai Cardinals for our tank.  I got three each time, acclimated for a couple of hours via slow drip in a bag floating in the sump.  Two groups came from F4U, one from From the Sea.  Out of all three groups I had only one individual survive for longer than a few days.  That one lasted about five weeks. 

What am I doing wrong? I know there are several people breeding these locally and hope to get some pointers, and maybe even some locally tank raised Banggai.

Mark, please see below: (In fact Mark, please come see us. We are feeling like the red-headed step-child of WMAS.)

SPECIFICS-

SET-UP- 200 gal tank, 290 lbs live rock, 240 lbs aragonite in 4� DSB,.  Lighting 12 hr cycle by 2x140 W actinics, 3x250 W MH, circulation/filtration 3000 gph skimmer & return pumps, 27 gal sump, 2x1200 gph circulation powerheads.

PARAMETERS- are 80 F, 1.023 SG, 400 CA, 3.72 ppm, Alkalinity 10.4 dKH, 0 Ammonia-Nitrite-Nitrate, 10% water change weekly Dose Iodine monthly.

FEEDING- I feed a mixture of various frozen foods three times per week, automatically dispensed dry pellets twice daily.

CORALS- Green Hammer, Yellow Porites, Yellow Palythoa, Purple Plating �Orange Plating -Brown Plating-Blue w/green Cup-Brown Branching Montipora, Green Pineapple, Met. Green Star Polyps, Thin Bar-PomPom-Tree Xenia, Silver/Green Alveapora, Candycane, Metalic Green Galaxia, Pipe Organ, Light Green Hydnophora, Brown Tree?, Green Nephthia, Tan Sarcophyton

CRUSTACEANS- Red Leg-Blue Leg-Scarlet-Blue Knuckle-Orange Knuckle Hermit Crabs, Astrea-Nerite-Nassarius-Bumble Bee  Snails, Banded Coral-Scarlet Cleaner-Peppermint-Blood/Fire-Spotted Anemone -Pedersen Anemone- Tiger Goby Shrimps, Emerald-Decorator-Anemone-Acro Crabs, Flame Scallop, Chiton.

OTHER INVERTS- Yellow Cucumbers, Sand Sifting-Harlequin Serpent-Red Serpent-Orange-Cream&Magenta Fromia- Burgundy Linkia Stars, Tan Encrusting Gorgonian, Purple Sea Blade, Tan Knobby Sea Rod, Purple-Green/Yellow Feather Duster-Coco-Red Cluster Duster Worms, Flower-Bubble Tip-Ritteri-Majano?-Unknown Anemones, Pink/Orange-Aqua Green-Metallic Green Ricordia, Purple-Lavender Frilly-Giant Brown-Green Stripe-Red-Orange/Red pimpled-Umbrella-Bullseye mushrooms, Yellow-Pink-Brown-Green-Orange-Baby Blue-Blundell Zoanthids.

FISH- Lawnmower Blenny, Pigmy-Coral Beauty- Angel, Green Chromis, Bangaii Cardinal, Four line-Flasher-Ornate Wrasse,  Purple Pseudochromis, Mandarin-Red Scooter Dragonets, Pearly Jawfish, Bicolor Anthias, Black Ray-Dragon-Diamond Goby, Yellow Tang, Typical and Black morph Ocellaris.

MACRO ALGAE- Pine Cone, Halimeda.

Wow!  I didn't know these were that "fragile".  I bought one from Incredible Pets about 6 weeks ago and he is doing great.  I must be lucky, iguess.

I have a document I complied from many web sources which I have read and re-read numerous times. . . . I still have a series of dead Banggais.

Maybe we could have an electronic WMAS Atlas where such info could be posted, or at the least links could be posted re: specific species of living things.  How about it Adam, Mark, Jake???  We are already talking about Carl's Coral of the week/month or whatever (BTW, what did happen to that idea anyhow?).  This Atlas may be one step further along that same path!

1mariner7 wrote: We are already talking about Carl's Coral of the week/month or whatever (BTW, what did happen to that idea anyhow?).

Something that I read on these fish Uand I think I discussed this with Arjen), in summary, is that they do well in groups when they are younger, but will kill eachother off in the latter juevinile stage down to a pair generally. Could it be that they just fought too much and stressed out?

i would think carl is correct ... they may have just been pretty stressed out. i haven�t had any trouble with my cardinals.

i just transferred two of my juvenile cardinals to my big tank from the refugium of a different system and i only did about 45 min acclimation. they are doing great. they have never struck me as fragile.  these are the first two from my breeding pair. so, i've had them since birth and they've gone through alot with no problems.

i noticed that aquatic dreams had about 6 in stock a week or so ago, hope that helps.

Can we get this moved to the FISH forum please?

Reef, I used to think the same way. In part I still do, at least with the when in doubt...

However, I will now go 3-4 months without a water exchange and when I do it is 10%. I have found nothing detrimental thus far and hopefully it remains that way. Call it an experiment (this is how I justify it) or call it lazy (most likely is) things have really become more stable, healthy and prolific since I started leaving things alone. I don't recommend it to everyone and there is certainly nothing wrong with frequent water exchanges. Find your comfort level, it will all work out from there.

I still wish we had a pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico to do water changes with.

Anyway back to the subject.  Is there any truth to the idea that these cardinals don't ship well during the winter months?  Could that be part of the problem?