Wow. A lot of activity since I last posted. For those simply responding to my questions, I appreciate the input. I also appreciate the opinions of the rest of you, whether you disagree with what I have done or have defended me to others. I have always owned animals of all kinds, and do consider myself a responsible aquarist/pet owner. Most of my previous pets were in my youth and were native fauna that I caught, housed, observed, learned about, then released in the location of collection. I am currently one semester away from obtaining my M.S. in Population and Conservation Biology, too. I know that this may not necessarily mean anything as to the nature of my character, but I assure all of you that I do care about the world and everything in it. I do what I can to conserve wildlife. That being said, I am also an avid hunter and fisherman. These are not mutually exclusive (animal loving and hunting), nor do I believe that the opinions of those of you which disagree about my "irresponsible" acts and those that claim that this is the basis of American liberty are mutually exclusive.

I bought my first triplet knowing little of the species. I was, however, informed by the pet shop that they were very hardy and that few people have trouble with them. I never noticed them taking food, tried to research it, found very little, and they eventually died. I was told by an individual who has a 75gal tank about a year later that they recommend having a "cardinal only" tank, because they are submissive to other hyperactive and large fishes. He recommended at least five per "shoal," and this is what I purchased, because he had seven in his 75gal (5 bangai and 2 pajama), and had even had one pair successfully spawn. He had the babies to prove it. However, this did not work out well for me either. It seems that his luck with this approach, although it sounded reasonable, didn't necessarily mean that it is the best approach. They died, one at a time, over the next few months. I quit buying them for a while. Then, about a year or so ago, I read an article about them. It talked of their behavior and feeding habits, as well as the potential threat to the species due to their mouth-brooding nature and persistent wild collection. Since this article, I have come across similar articles discussing this issue. I, at this point, decided to refrain from purchasing any unless they were cb or unless they exhibited a strong feeding response in the store. However, I had a hippo tang, a six-line wrasse, a royal gramma, and a flame hawk by this point, so I didn't even bother with the notion of purchasing another cardinal. Also, through this time, I upgraded my equipment (skimmer, lighting, powerheads, RO water system), and my coral has exploded over the last year or so. I gave the tang back to the owner (long story) and the gramma died (I presume of old age). The wrasse jumped (I had to remove the back two pieces of glass canopy to incorporate the larger skimmer). Since these fish have been gone, I have noticed a massive increase in various -pods. I went to a shop to get a green or red brittle star. They had some very large bangai's and a separate tank with about 10 smaller bangai's. I talked to the dude about them. He said that they ate well, and that they were "potentially cb." Well, you know as well as I do what this could mean--it means "buy my fish." Then, he said that they respond to a hand coming to the tank, because they were habituated to food coming from it. He presented his hand. They rushed it. He dropped some Rod's in there, and they went nuts. Since I figured my tank was in the best condition that it could be in, I got 3--but I didn't know what it was that they were picking out of the Rod's. I had trouble getting them to swallow food. I posted a forum about it. Then, instead of waiting for a response, I went searching for something that they might eat. I found cyclops. They love it. We'll see what happens. If they don't make it, I'll never purchase any more. I also figure that if they are wild caught, and if I can't get them to do well in my tank, that chances are they won't do that well in someone else's tank. I promise, they could be in worse hands.