Anthias for beginners

Willistein

Active member
I've never kept these before but I'm considering it in the next month maybe. Is there a species that is more hardy than others? Do they pretty much all require multiple daily feedings? Tell me your success stories:D

tank: 120
fish: hippo tang, yellow tang, ocellaris, and a semi-agressive coral beauty.

Is the coral beauty going to pose a threat?
 
how old and established is your tank? I would say they are a little more tough to keep than a lot of other kinds of fish. I have had success with my Bartletts Anthias, I have 3 (2 females and 1 male). the male beats the CRAP out of the females but they are all still going strong for 2.5 years. I feed mine twice a day and it seems everyone's happy. put a screen on top of your tank if u haven't already or they WILL make it onto your floor guaranteed
 
I've had good success with lyretails. They don't seem to be exceptionally long-lived in my experience. (~3 years)

Freeze-dried Cyclopeeze in an autofeeder with NLS pellets worked well for me.

I would get a group of small young females, and a slightly larger fish that already has male coloration and spiked dorsal fin. Folks run into problems when multiple females change gender simultaneously to take over the dominant role.
 
Lyretails by far easiest. IME the key is adapting them to pellets which may take a week or two. Just mix pellets in with frozen food and gradually wean off the frozen. Mine have done fine with just feeding 2x daily.
 
The tank is a little over 2 years old. I would say it's pretty established - it's gone through all the different algae phases and now corals are thriving and current fish are very happy. The only fish issues I've had in the last year involved the intake screen of my maxi-mods which really ****ed me off... I think I need to do something to shield them similar to the MP40 mesh covers. Anyways, thanks for the tips.
 

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