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described as suitable beginners' fishes for
marine aquarists. They don't pose any
especially high demands as regards water
quality and are not particularly susceptible to
disease.Almost all cardinalfishesprefer to feed
on small crustaceans and can be fed without
problem on frozen foods (
Mysis, Gammarus,
Artemia
,etc).Obviously cardinalfishes will also
eat small fishes and shrimps that will fit into
their mouths, and so care is regarded in the
selection of tankmates. But corals, anemones,
and all other sessile invertebrates plus
echinoderms (starfishes,sea urchins,etc) have
nothing to fear from cardinalfishes.
It is best to buy a group of 8-12 specimens
right from the start. As with many other
perciforms, intraspecific aggression is
appreciably less in large groups than if only a
few specimens are kept.
Sexual dimorphism
Naturally it is essential to have individuals of
both sexes for successful breeding. There
are, however, only relatively few reliable sex
differences in cardinalfishes. As a rule males
have a larger head and a larger mouth and
are also somewhat larger overall than
females. In the case of the Banggai
Cardinalfish the form of the genital papilla
has also been described as a sex difference
(Mai, 2004).
It is,however,very unlikely that youwon't get
both sexes if you buy 10 individuals. Pairs
that form naturally from a group are also
more likely to breed reliably than pairs put
together arbitrarily, or at least that is what
breeders of the Banggai Cardinalfish say.
Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus
grows to around 13 cm long. Females have
less yellow on the caudal peduncle.
Male
Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus.
Apogonichthyoides pseudotaeniatus
can grow up to 14 cm long.
rueppellii
,forexample,producesrelativelylarge
and at the same time feweggs (50-280).
Here is a summary of the clutch sizes
published to date (after Neira,1991):
Apogon affinis
, size of parent fishes 5.5-9 cm,
21,000 eggs per egg-ball
Apogon imberbis
, size of parent fishes not
given (the species grows to amaximumof 15
cm long),22,000 eggs per egg-ball
Apogon lineatus
, size of parent fishes 5.5 - 8.5
cm,3,200 -13,250 eggs per egg-ball
Apogon maculatus
, size of parent fishes
around 6 cm,75-100 eggs per egg-ball.
Ostorhinchus rueppellii
, size of parent fishes
4.5 - 8.5 cm,50-280 eggs per egg-ball.
Sphaeramiaorbicularis
,size of parent fishes 7-
9 cm,6,100-11,700 eggs per egg-ball.
Vincentia conspersa
, size of parent fishes 9.5
cm,150 eggs per egg-ball.
In some species, for example
Sphaeramia
orbicularis
, a link has been established
between reproductive behavior and the
phases of the moon in the wild, but not in
others.The brooding period varies fromeight
days (at 27-30 °C) in
Sphaeramiaorbicularis
to
up to 28 days in
Pterapogon kauderni
.
Whenwe consider that thereareactually very
many species of cardinalfishes and each of
them probably has its own special
characteristics,then there is obviously a wide
field of activity available to experimentally-
minded aquarists with breeding ambitions.
Cardinalfishes in the aquarium
Cardinalfishes can without reservation be
