banggai cardinals

[MarineTeng]

I just got a second banggai cardinal to go along with my other one, my question is how long does it take for them to start showing aggression if they're the same gender.
The established one i think killed the other one i had in there, so it's the dominate kind (male i believe?)
so my new one and the established one like to hang out and it's been a couple days now and i haven't seen anything.
i know it's hard to visually tell the difference between male and females so i'm trying it with this method and unfortunately lost one, so i want to be more careful this time.
thanks for the help

 

[leebca]

I hope somebody will have the answer to your questions.

Generally, these fish, though they don't swim around much, should be in a larger aquarium which reduces aggression. In your size aquarium with four Anemonefishes (I assume are young) will be tense for the Cardinals. If the Cardinals you have/had are large enough to be adults and are displaying that kind of behavior, then a larger aquarium would be an improvement for all the fish inhabitants.

Beyond the above I have no other help on your post. Perhaps others do.

 

[MarineTeng]

my signature is rather outdated, i they are the only two fish in a 20 long

 

[csababubbles]

my question is how long does it take for them to start showing aggression if they're the same gender.

sometimes right away, sometimes several days. once you see one cowering in the upper corner of your tank you have to get him out of there because soon it will be dead.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I have been told by more than one knowledgeable reefer, that two are typically OK, but with three, two will often pair and kill the third.
Mike

 

[csababubbles]

absolutely correct. i had a trio for several months. then one day one of them decided he did not like the third one and proceeded to make his life miserable. needless to say i had to scoop him out of there before he killed him. basically you can keep either one or two (if they decide to pair up). having a group of them will work sometimes for a while but eventually you will be left with just one or two.

 

[pitmam01]

I added three at once about 6 months ago. I still have all three although one of them doesn't hang out as much, with the other two.

 

[Reeferdude]

I've got one Cardinal in a 46gal with only two other fish and with it's territorial behavior I don't think I'd put another in with it.

 

[MarineTeng]

i do hope to try and breed them so that'll require another one, so far they still like to hang out together, i haven't seen any aggression yet