one huge cardinal...

[Magnum Man]

so, this is in my South American Tetra tank... I've tried a couple times to get a big school of cardinals, as I love them... 1st try, resulted in small to medium cardinals being hunted, and eaten by the one angel in the tank... something about the color and size, the angel would just not leave them alone, and soon all were gone... the angel has not messed with other similar sized small fish, and finding jumbo cardinals has been difficult, but I added a dozen jumbo's a while back... the angel didn't seem to hunt them, being larger, but they still slowly disappeared, leaving just one, that has been in this tank for close to a year now... it has continued to grow, and is now huge, and seems happy to school with the rest of tetras... I have never seen one this big... it's a touch over 2 inches long, and has a good girth... not exactly sure how much bigger it can get???

once I get another tank set up ( requires a little house fixing, before I set it up ) I'll move the angel, and just have tetras in this tank, and order another large school of cardinals

is this considered as big as they can get??? it's almost as big as the emperor types

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This is huge cardinal.

I found that if I fed live BBS for the first week after I got new cardinals or rummy nose that this increased their lifespans greatly once in my tank.

 

[fishorama]

That just looks like a healthy adult cardinal to me. I've gained some weight over the years, haven't many of us? It looks more male to me so, congrats on a pretty fish!

 

[GaryE]

To me, that's a standard, healthy adult cardinal beside a smallish, still growing emperor.