Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > Marine Fish Forums > Anemones & Clownfish
Blogs FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 08/18/2006, 09:51 AM   #1
eclecticvibe
Premium Member
 
eclecticvibe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 583
Bangai Cardinal hosting in anemone

Is it common to see a bangai cardinal host in an anemone? I have a large H. Crispa and a S. Gigantea. There are a pair of A. Polymnus that host in the Crispa and occasionally take a vacation to the Gigantea. I had a very small bangai that was tank raised from a previous adult pair I owned. When I added the baby bangai to my reef, it showed immediate interest in the anemones. It spends a lot of time with the clownfish. It doesn't swim in the anemones like the clowns do, but it stays very near them all the time. I do see it occasionally touching the anemones' tentacles. Is this normal or is my cardinal just into S&M?


__________________
Jay

Current Tank Info: Taking it all down.
eclecticvibe is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 08/18/2006, 10:05 AM   #2
TheVillageIdiot
Registered Member
 
TheVillageIdiot's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Woodstock, GA
Posts: 894
I'm just going to take a completely uneducated stab at this one, but I believe Bangaii like to have urchins around for camoflage. Perhaps in the absence of urchins, the bangaii like the tentacles as a substitute for the spines of the urchin?


__________________
Click my little red house!

Current Tank Info: 65g Anemone Tank
TheVillageIdiot is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 08/18/2006, 10:28 AM   #3
eclecticvibe
Premium Member
 
eclecticvibe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 583
I'd thought of that too. I do have several urchins in the tank, but none of the long spined variety. It's a reasonable conclusion.


__________________
Jay

Current Tank Info: Taking it all down.
eclecticvibe is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/14/2006, 07:23 PM   #4
catdoc
Premium Member
 
catdoc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Bloomington, IN
Posts: 1,449
I found this thread as a result of my own search to this interesting observation! I added a large long-spined urchin and a pair of immature bangaii to my display tank this weekend. The bangaii were lurking in the darkest corner of my 125 until this evening, when I found them hovering over my maroon's favorite rbta! The urchin is right next to the rbta and one bangaii is hiding within its spines but the other is hovering/touching the anemone.

What amazes me is that my clowns are oblivious to the bangaii. Can't they SEE them?? The clowns have been getting pretty territorial and the female looks to be gravid (they had stopped spawning after a recent tank re-do) so I think they're preparing to spawn, yet they don't care that this pair of fish is in their home turf. What gives? Any ideas on this? Is it that they don't see the bangaii as a threat or is the camoflauge of the bangaii so effective that they really don't see them?

Fun to watch, whatever the reason.


__________________
Christy

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
-George Eliot

Current Tank Info: 55 gallon w/spawning onyx percs, bangaii pair & pink spotted goby w/ gbta, softies
catdoc is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/14/2006, 08:01 PM   #5
eclecticvibe
Premium Member
 
eclecticvibe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Indianapolis
Posts: 583
My pair of polymnus are the same way. They chase every other fish away, but never the bangaii. The bangaii spends much more time near the S. gigantea, and the clowns spend more time in the H. Crispa. But the male spends quite a bit of time in near the bangaii when his partner kicks him to the curb so she can have the whole anemone to herself.


__________________
Jay

Current Tank Info: Taking it all down.
eclecticvibe is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 09/14/2006, 08:17 PM   #6
delphinus
Registered Member
 
delphinus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Calgary, AB., Canada
Posts: 1,453
Yeah, Banggai cardinals are known to hover in anemones. I can't remember if it's typically a juvenile behaviour that they grow out of, or whether it's just in the absence of an urchin. At any rate, it is documented that they can do it. In my case the fish associated with a BTA until she was less shy and eventually grew out of the need to hover in close. (Once she discovered how much she liked mysis she was like a pet asking me for more food all the time!)


__________________
-Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!

Current Tank Info: 280g Reef, 65g FOWLR
delphinus is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 03/10/2019, 07:19 PM   #7
KingOfAll_Tyrants
Registered Member
 
KingOfAll_Tyrants's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: East Coast US
Posts: 95
Resurrecting this thread because this is the first one I found in google about this.

But I was reading an old journal article (Ontogenetic Shift in Habitat Preference by Pterapogon kauderni, a Shallow Water CoralReef Apogonid, with Direct Development
by Alejandro A. Vagelli) which basically says that in a survey he did (he is one of the Bangai experts), 44% of the populations were in branching corals, 35% in sea urchin spines, and about 20% in various anemones.

So it does seem they will live in anemones sometimes. Presumably if one large enough is available, and it's the best habitat for them.


__________________
Purple tyrannosaurs. Yes....

Current Tank Info: In planning stages. Kessil 360we, eshopps rs-75 sump
KingOfAll_Tyrants is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 03/20/2019, 09:16 PM   #8
Yin_Yang247
Registered Member
 
Yin_Yang247's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Earth
Posts: 80
Thanks for the info!
Glad you revived this post!


Yin_Yang247 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:42 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.