Banggai Cardinal

The Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) is a silver fish crossed with three black bars, scattered with white spots and finished with long trailing fins that it holds stiffly as it hovers. It comes from a very small natural range in Indonesia where wild populations are under pressure, so captive-bred fish are the better choice wherever they can be had. In the aquarium it is slow, deliberate and easy to watch.

Aquarium care

• Adults reach about 8 cm.
• Hovers in mid-water, usually close to rockwork, a long-spined urchin or a stand of coral.
• Peaceful toward other species, but adults can be intolerant of each other in a small tank.
• Keep one, a bonded pair, or a properly sized group in a large tank rather than three or four crammed together.
• Takes frozen foods readily; some individuals are slow to accept dry food.
• Does not bother corals or ornamental invertebrates.

A good fit for a calm reef with clownfish, gobies, chromis and small wrasses. Avoid boisterous feeders that will outcompete it, and anything large enough to swallow it. Males brood the eggs in their mouths, so a settled pair sometimes breeds in the aquarium.

Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is available for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. See the saltwater fish collection.