Can A Mated Pair Of Bangaii Cardinals "divorce?"

[GAB99]

I moved my 90 gallon down into the basement and I was careful to catch the clowns and release the clowns together but I figured that since my pair of bangaiis have mated twice (both successful spawns fry never made it) that they would be okay putting one in then getting the other one in 10 minutes later. Right now its day 3 of them being In the tank and now I noticed that one has had its left pelvic fin pretty torn up and has at least 1 bite on him. I know the two scrap every now and then (the other has got some minor tail fin damage as well) and in my experience if they dont like each other they usually kill each other overnight, but im still concerned.

they are all eating (trying to get them used to pellet and flake for vacation) and they still swim with each other so I dont know what to do other than hope they dont commit murder

 

[Donya]

The 10min separation probably isn't the issue so much as the overall shift. If they are staying together I would think it'll be ok but I'd also keep a breeder net on hand just in case. Have you seen the violence in action? If not I wouldn't rule out something like clowns doing it, since they can also be nippy fish when the environment shifts and territories have to be reestablished.

 

[GAB99]

Oh I know my clowns can be little turds to anything new in the tank, I wouldnt be surprised if it was them, since bangaiis dont really have teeth so they dont take chunks out of flesh like my cardinal has got.

my emerald crabs also can be quite nasty to any fish close by, but apart from those three things nothing else can really harm them, and seeing as how the tank is now very close to my room ill check in a bit and see how they are if I need to seperate the little guy.

apart from taking refuge behind the powerhead because of the flow it seems fine, the other one sticks close by unless it sees me , then it wants food.

 

[Donya]

I would guess the clowns or even the cardinals themselves before the crab. Emerald crabs' fish-catching is vastly overrated (generally has to be ill fish) and they don't tend to take big chunks either really, since all the pressure goes to the very tip of the claw unless they get the whole claw around something quite large.

 

[GAB99]

Well he made it another day but the damage is the worse ive ever seen on any fish ive had. Is there anything I can do to help recovery?

id upload a picture but itll have to be

 

[Donya]

I'd get the more damaged one into a breeder net/box ASAP and try to make sure the water quality stays top notch (which can be a bigger deal for minor injuries healing than the issue of being in a small space for a little while). If you can only isolate the one, watch closely for any signs of new damage on the other one if it's still unclear what the cause is. 

 

[GAB99]

Alright, easier said than done to catch though.

 

[GAB99]

Everything healed alright save for the very tips of the pelvic fins, but unfortunately I found the crabs going to town this afternoon. Had to play tug of war to Get what was left, so im alittle upset since now I have a bangaii with no mate and one that died when it was nearly recovered

 

[Donya]

Still probably the fish had already died or at least suffered other problems to the point of being badly debilitated before the crabs would have done it in. For example, the very first Bangai I had grew very well for several months and then, seemingly in full health, it had a spastic attack for a couple of seconds and then sank to the bottom dead. I still don't know what killed it (seizure? Who knows), but if I hadn't been feeding the tank just then to see it happen, I would have found exactly what you did. If the fish already had something wrong with it due to a ticking internal problem (or perhaps even something that went wrong in the environmental shifts or capturing process), subtle changes in behavior could easily have triggered the earlier aggression from its mate or from other fish. That's something I that hadn't occurred to me before with this thread, but it's one of those things that happens across lots of species. If it either died from an internal issue or got hit hard in another round of aggression while you weren't watching, it takes very little time for crabs to dismantle a near-death or already dead fish.

 

[GAB99]

Haha I never suspected the crabs because of what you said earlier, however guilty they look.

im trying to pull up info now if these cardinals mate for life or just with whoever their partner is, since id like to very carefully establish another pair.

and im sorry about what happened to your fish! That must have been incredibly frustrating since it was fine one second and the next it was dead for no reason.

 

[Donya]

Haha I never suspected the crabs because of what you said earlier, however guilty they look.

 
 
 
Sorry

  I've seen so many crabs falsely accused that I always jump to their defense straight away lol.
 
 
 

That must have been incredibly frustrating since it was fine one second and the next it was dead for no reason.

 
 
I will admit my first impulse was to be done with fish, but even the hardy fish can have random, unpreventable things like heart attacks...just one of those bummer things in the hobby. I do wonder if cardinals are a bit prone to something like that though despite their hardiness otherwise, since I've heard a few very similar instances from other people over time.  
 
 
 

im trying to pull up info now if these cardinals mate for life or just with whoever their partner is, since id like to very carefully establish another pair.

 
 
I don't know about Bangais specifically, but in some other cardinals I've read that the pair is mainly defined by which male is able to fend off competitors the best at the time. Seems there really is little info on that with Bangais though...weird. They are a long-lived species so I would have thought there would be something easier to find written on that. I do hope it's like those other cardinals, otherwise I'll be out of luck with my plans to eventually pair a clear male I've got, since his behavior suggests that he could well be paired to a damselfish.