Bonded pair Banggai cardinals now fighting

[trmiv]

A few months ago I purchased a bonded pair of Banggai cardinals from the Divers Den. They went through quarantine together fine, but were often on different sides of the 10g. Once I put them in my 120 they again were mainly apart often hanging out on opposite ends. Sometimes they'd be next to each other but there was no aggression. Then they'd separate again with the female going to the right side of my tank and the male staying on the left. Oddly the male always hangs out with my pair of occelaris clowns.

Fast forward to yesterday and now the carindals don't even tolerate each other. The male will relentlessly attack the female when she is out of her hiding spot. To add to it the clowns will join in on this and attack the female too. Then after the female hides again the male cardinal and the two clowns will head back to their corner of the tank. The male cardinal is always directly under or within a few inches next to the clowns. I've also noticed that the male cardinal will follow the clowns around the tank when they leave their corner.

Anyone seen anything like this? I know unbonded carindals will fight but these were sold to me as a bonded pair. Also why on earth is the male attached at the hip (the fin?) to my clowns? It seems at this point I really need to get rid of one of the cardinals?

[dweber618]

I purchased a "bonded" pair of longnose hawkfish from DD a while ago. Guess what? One hated the other. From day one in QT one of them relentlessly chased and attacked the other. I contacted DD and was told to separate them, and they would re-bond. Nope. One of the fish died within the two week period. Between stress of shipping (?) and the attacking it refused to eat.

Not sure what the answer to your problem us, but figured I'd share my experience of buying bonded fish from DD.

[ThRoewer]

Ate they really male and female or maybe both of the same sex? All the pairs I put together got along. And one of them is in a rather small acclimatization box for months now.

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[Moort82]

I agree that they likely aren't a pair and were just sexually immature previously. Once they get to a certain size they can be nasty. I looked after a group of 200+ and you would find individuals cowering in the corners almost daily.

[Betaktical]

No clue about the fighting but I do have one large banggai that swims with my ocellaris pair all day. Never any aggression or anything. I like it cause it keeps him active and out in the water column


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[trmiv]

I don't know for sure. I assumed since they were sold to me as a bonded pair that they were male and female, but I haven't really tried to look closely since until yesterday they were fine together. I've seen the method with the vents to sex them, I'll have to try that. At this point the smaller one is hiding so much it's hard to get a good look. I'm going to try to wrangle that one into a critter carrier.

Really annoyed that Live Aquaria Divers Den sold them to me as a bonded pair if they in fact aren't.

[d-man]

Lovers quarrel. Time for a divorce.

Jk, yes as stated before, probably paired as immature babies and now as adults they are fighting for territory.

[Flaring Afro]

Yeah, it sounds like it just isn't going to work at this point. I'd email live aquaria. Maybe you can get some kind of credit for another order, at the very least.

[trmiv]

I emailed Live aquaria and they were not much help. . They told me they sometimes get aggressive in new environments and to partition them. But they were fine in the new environment and became aggressive after a two months.

[trmiv]

So using this method http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?m=72814 they both appear to be male. Each of them have the two vents. If that's the case there is really no way these were ever a "bonded pair" as Live aquaria claims right?

[ThRoewer]

So what did LA say about that?

[trmiv]

I emailed them that info but I haven't heard back yet.

[trmiv]

So they got back to me. They want pics to prove they are both male. Should be interesting trying to take pictures of these two tonight in enough detail to show the vents.

[ThRoewer]

I think they pair them too young. They need to be mature when paired. And to call them bonded they need to have spawned at least once.

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[Moort82]

I think they pair them too young. They need to be mature when paired. And to call them bonded they need to have spawned at least once.

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That would be my definition of bonded as well. Unfortunately not everyone's though.

[kaxt]

So I know this is an older thread, but I was wondering what happened with this? I ordered a bonded pair of Banggais maybe 4 months ago. They have always been in different areas of the tank from each other and one of them has doubled in size while the other hasn't grown much at all. I finally got a good look the other night, and they are both definitely males. I was thinking about notifying Live Aquaria, but don't want to waist my time if they won't be helpful. At $60 for a bonded pair they should at least be opposite sexes! They are on sale for $14 right now singly.

[trmiv]

The bigger one eventually bullied the smaller one to death. I thought they were fine but it escalated quickly and next thing I knew the larger one had killed the smaller one