[jdmhunt]

Yesterday I picked up a Kaudern's Cardinal and Blue tang (very small, will move to my 150g once it's larger) from lfs. All of my fish have come from same place. Tang is fine, cardinal is lying on side yawning (opening and closing mouth repeatedly) All of my fish, inverts and coral all seem to be doing very well. I did a 10gal water change yesterday w/ ro/di water. Just tested tank and these were results...

54gal tank - 50lbs live rock - lights on 12 off 12
Ph- 8.09
Nitrates - 5 (tank is towards end of setup cycle)
Nitrites - 0
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - 0.25
Alkalinity - 12
Calcium - 420
Temp - 80.1 (I aim for 79 but very hot weather is making this tough to achieve without a chiller)

Thank you - Brandon

 

[fsureefer]

It could just be stress, the heavy breathing is not a good sign though. Also, your alk is a little high but not terrible. What is your SG?

 

[jdmhunt]

1.025 test w/ refractometer. Alk is high b/c earlier in the week was using a ph buffer till someone suggested i stopped, it has actually come down lol.

 

[jdmhunt]

I just went out and checked on him and he died Does not make a lick of sense. All the other fish are acting norma

 

[Woskor]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your Banggai (Kaudern) Cardinal. I have 2 breeding pairs and 25 young at the moment. Have been breeding them for about 2 years and have raised about 50. And, yes I have lost several - from stress, not eating, Ich, egg binding, male being overbred thus starving, and for unknown reasons. The Banggai Cardinal is NOT always an easy fish if wild caught. Some die immediately, some individuals survive for several weeks-months then stop eating and die, some survive and readily eat, pair off and breed (and then are very aggressive to other Banggai). I would ALWAYS recommend captive bred/raised especially since this species is over collected in the wild and considered threatened in the wild. Difference in cost can be about $15 for a wild caught to about $30 for captive bred/raised - worth double the cost since the captive ones survive. That said, many LFS sell wild caught so that might be your only choice. I cannot say what was the cause of your fish loss since you checked the parameters and likely did the proper acclimation but this is not an "easy" fish as often indicated on many fish sites. Sometimes it is possible to save a fish when it is stressed, laying on its side, abnormal open mouth breathing, etc but the reality is without stressful diagnostic tests or a necropsy if it dies, it is difficult to determine the specific cause of its problem. When chosing a Banggai, be sure it is eating in the store and avoid if head pointing upward and fins pressed against the body even slightly. I feel my best success with my initial wild caught fish was purchasing two (or more) at a time and placing them in an isolation/holding tank and not in my display tank for several weeks. That way you can be sure they are eating well, target feed very nutritious diets, isolate for disease - esp Ich, and separate one (or two if paired off) for your display tank. Hope this helps.

 

[jdmhunt]

Wow, thank you Woskor for all the info. My LFS did say that they are wild caught. They double checked my water and I was good, so I'm thinking it was just stress. That fish had only been delivered to lfs 2 days prior to me picking it up. Thanks again!