Banggai cardinalfish
The Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, lives only around the Banggai Islands of Indonesia — one of the smallest ranges of any marine aquarium fish.
It is silver with bold black bars and white spotting, with long trailing fins.
It reaches about eight centimetres and lives three to five years. The male is a mouthbrooder: he holds the eggs and then the young in his mouth for around a month, not feeding throughout, and releases fully formed juveniles rather than larvae. That unusually direct development is why the species breeds readily in home aquariums — and why buying captive-bred is both easy and important, since wild collection has driven the species onto the endangered list.
- Origin
- Banggai Islands, Indonesia — a very small natural range
- Adult size
- About 8 cm
- Lifespan
- 3–5 years
- Minimum tank
- 115 litres for a pair
- Conservation
- Endangered in the wild; buy captive-bred
- Breeding
- Male mouthbroods eggs and young for about a month
3 banggai cardinalfish photos, newest first
Living with a banggai cardinalfish
Buy captive-bred. They are widely available, they ship and settle far better than wild-caught fish, and wild collection is the reason the species is endangered. This is one of the clearest cases in the marine hobby where the buyer's choice matters.
Keep a pair or a single fish. Groups sold as shoals fight as they mature, and in a home tank the losers are killed.
They are slow, deliberate feeders and will be outcompeted by fast tankmates. Target-feed if necessary.
They hover rather than swim and like a defined spot — long-spined urchins in the wild, branching coral or rockwork in a tank.
A male holding eggs will not eat for weeks and his jaw will look distended. That is normal; leave him alone.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual fishs vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
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