▷ Banggai Cardinalfish | All information and details

The Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) is a member of the cardinalfish family. It is also called «Kauderni» or «Cardinalfish» and is native to the Indian Ocean. In its natural habitat, it lives in large groups at depths of up to 10 meters. There it is usually found on coral reefs or seagrass meadows. After its import, it quickly became very popular in seawater aquaristics, which is mainly due to its easy breeding.

The gender differences

The Kauderni has no external sex differences. During the breeding season, the male can be identified by the fact that he carries the spawn in his mouth.

Everything about breeding

From about a year the Kauderni is sexually mature. Once a healthy pair has mated, they will spawn about every six weeks. A brood consists of 5 to 25 eggs. For the success of the offspring, it is important to feed the male with high-quality and plenty of food before spawning begins: As a mouthbrooder, he carries the spawn in his mouth for up to a month and cannot eat anything during that time.

Once the young are finally released by the male, they should be placed in a separate rearing tank. In the beginning, a size of 50 liters is sufficient, in the further course of the offspring 150 liters are appropriate. When setting up, macroalgae, diadem sea urchins or artificial sea urchins offer the young animals sufficient hiding places. Due to their nature, they will seek shelter between the spines of the sea urchins and the algae, which is why higher algae are recommended. The lighting only plays a subordinate role in the successful growth of the juvenile fish – weak light is perfectly sufficient. The water quality is more important: it must not contain detectable traces of ammonium (NH4) and nitrite (NO2). The rhythm when changing the water is individual and is made up of the tank size, the feed load and the type of filtering.

Socialization in aquarium keeping

In the wild, the Banggai cardinalfish lives in larger groups of up to two hundred animals. In terms of keeping, however, living together in the community becomes a problem: with advancing age, the fish develops aggressiveness towards its fellow fish. If more than two or three animals are kept together, the majority usually either die from stress or are killed. Keeping them in pairs is therefore advisable and keeping them in groups is only recommended for young animals. You should avoid keeping them alone, otherwise the fish threatens to become solitary. On the other hand, it behaves peacefully towards other groups of fish, but remains largely passive in its interaction and rarely interferes.

Where to buy the Banggai Cardinalfish?

With the difficult task of sexing, it’s a good idea to purchase the fish from an experienced local stockist to obtain a pair.