No luck with Banggai Cardinals
 

I recently added 3 Banggai Cardinals (alleged ORA) to my QT tank and have had very little luck. All were eating well from the beggining (frozen formula 1 and formula 2) and there doesn't appear to be any issues with my QT tank itself as far as parameters:

0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, 0 ammonia, 8 hardness, 400 calcium, PH 8.3.

All three fish appear(ed) to be in perfect health and acting normally. One died on night 1 with no visible cause. 1 died 3 days later with no visible cause. The third is in his 5th day in QT and is acting perfectly normal.

I dripped the fish for 3 hours before I put them in my QT.

Are these hard fish to keep? I didn't think they were supposed to be difficult. Could they have just been from a bad batch (maybe even wild caught instead of ORA)? I will be happy if this last one makes it but I don't think I am ready to add any more of these guys. I am just at a loss as to what could have happened to them.

Any ideas?

They are not hard to keep once they are established. I have tried twice to buy a pair of bangaiis and both times one of the pair died/disappeared. I had one in my tank for over a year, no problems, and then he just disappeared. So I bought another pair in January, and only one made it to the display. Maybe in a few months I will try to get him a partner.

It sounds like what I experienced is pretty common then.

Ahhh heck. Did your LFS have wild caught Banggai???? It loos like it. This is frustrating. Wild caught Banggai's rarely live in captivity. They do not ship well or acclimate well. On the other hand, captive bred Banggai are one of the easiest of all fish to keep in captivity. You will know based on the price. Expect to pay at least double the cost for tank raised Banggai, with cost approaching $30 each in my area, as opposed to $12 for wild caught.

Just don't let your LFS onto this. If I ask, my LFS tells me, "captive bred." He knows thats what I want to hear.

He said they were ORA cardinals and they were 18.99 if I remember correctly. I bet he is full of it.

You can't get capitive raised for $18.99. Either is is lying to you or his supplier is lying to him.

I suspect that he is lying to me.

Spoke to the LFS today. They were not ORA cardinals, they were just in the section with the ORA stuff. He was in front of his coral tank when I asked if the cardinals were ORA and he thought I was asking about the corals....

He will give me a decent discount on my next fish purchase so at least it isn't a total loss. Also... the one remaining cardinal is eating like a champ.