My notes and observations on Raising and Breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish

INTRODUCTION: The Banggai cardinalfish (BC) Pterapogon kauderni (a.k.a. the banner cardinal, black and silver high fin cardinal, and/or outhouse cardinal), is an attractively patterned black and silver cardinalfish. This species was initially collected and described by Gerald Allen in September 1995 [1] , and is primarily found in the mid waters off the remote Banggai island in the Indonesian archipelago. His initial observations were that these fish aggregated in small groups of 2 to 60 animals living among the spines of sea urchins. Allen has proposed that they are nocturnal feeders eating primarily planktonic crustaceans. Like most cardinalfish they have large eyes and reside in the crevices and beneath rock ledges by day, searching the bottom for food at night [2] . While BC attain a length of 2 to 2-1/2 inches Standard Length (SL), most specimens encountered in the tropical fish stores are 1 to 1 1/2″SL[3] .

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