Anthias Frustration

[MammoDoc]

My recent Anthias experience has been a little frustrating. 1 of 6 Ignitus that I received from LA made it through QT (probable uronema infection), and 1 of 4 Resplendents and 1 of an additional 5 Ignitus are left in QT now, the others have perished.

I knew anthias were "moderate" fish to keep, mostly because of their feeding requirements and pecking order, but I didn't expect this kind of death. I haven't experienced it with any other fish in 13 years of reefing. Is this the norm in your experience for Anthias? Could it be a bad batch of recent fish? People had suggested that 1 or 2 in a group of 7 might not make it, but to only have 1 survivor seems odd and tragic.

 

[FishTruck]

At least you kept them in QT.

I have had them disappear into the rockwork... never to be seen again. Usually... this is related to something picking on them (I think).

Were they shipped though cold weather?

 

[MammoDoc]

Not really cold -- 40s. Their water was warm when I opened the box. I would try to buy locally, but no one here carries more than Dispars and Lyretails.

Some have said that Ignitus can ship poorly, I just wasn't expecting this. And now my wife is telling me that the stress they are causing me isn't worth it. I guess she doesn't feel for the poor fish!

 

[James983]

With Anthias I find picking them out in the LFS is your best bet because most types do not ship well. You should of course make sure they are alert and eating before purchase. Even then some Anthias are difficult to keep.

 

[m0nkie]

I got 6 princess anthias.. 5 made it through QT.. then a month later I have 1.. the last one has been doing well..

I just bought a trio of dispar.. i'll see how that goes..

I've had lyratails, dispar, borb and fathead anthias together without problem

 

[MammoDoc]

The initial batch of Ignitus form LA were "small" and one was obviously diseased with a big hemorrhagic patch on its side. The others actually looked good, until they also developed a similar patch. The lone survivor developed a small hemorrhagic patch, but it went away with Metroplex, Prazipro and Paraguard -- not sure which drug actually did the trick, and all were treated the same.

Of the second group of Ignitus which were "medium", 2 were obviously in bad shape. One had the hemorrhagic patches and one's gills looked inflammed. But the others looked fat and healthy. Same with the Resplendents. LA's guarantee is great, and they credited me for the fish. Before I get more, I am wondering if a diferrent species would be better. Should I wait a while to see if they get healthier fish?

 

[suta4242]

The haemorrhaging patches are indicative either of uronema, or systemic bacterial infection, or both.

You're in a hard spot if you can't pick them personally or get them from a collector, at least as far as uronema goes. I've seen this quite a bit on imported squarebacks and tukas, or sometimes on older local stock that's been sitting around for a while. In this case even otherwise hardy species can be touchy.

That aside, anthias on the whole are best for attentive fish keepers. You need to keep them in the optimum harem size (it varies between species and changes if theres a loss), feed them very regularly, keep them with appropriate tank mates (especially in smaller tanks or with little cover). Also, for true deepwater species, aggression can be minimised by maintaining lower temperatures.

Sorry to hear of your experience, but hope this changes for you in the future.

:wave:

 

[MammoDoc]

I appreciate that. They will be going into a 420 with almost all peaceful wrasses and less beligerent tangs. The one Ignitus that made it through QT is in the DT and doing well. So if they make it through QT, I think they would be fine. I'm feeding 4-5 times per day. So I think my setup is fine for anthias, if they can make it that far :sad2:

 

[CedzAquAddictio]

I had a similar experience with two separate orders of anthias from LA last year. One group was lyertails, one was dispar. My QT was in good healthy order as several other fish made it through with no issue. It got so bad that I had to start a separate QT just for anthias after the first batch. When the second batch showed similar issues, I gave up on anthias from them for a while to see if any possible issues with the suppliers would go away. Against my normal practices, I got some from a LFS, and had no issues at all with them...

 

[MammoDoc]

That's interesting. I'm feeling like that is the way I may have to go too. Thanks for sharing your experience, I was beginning to think it was me, especially seeing many people with successful harems. With my 1st batch, I had 2 wrasses that were in QT with the anthias. The wrasses are fine, so it almost seemed like the anthias were doomed before I received them.

 

[CedzAquAddictio]

From my experience, that's probably the case. I went through about 14 anthias from LA last year. Most of the other fish (non-anthias) I ordered from them were fine while going through QT, and are doing well in my DT. With the anthias from LA, I had about a 85% mortality rate. I didn't trust the one or two anthias that survived, so they were given away after notifying the new owner of the issues I've had...

 

[MammoDoc]

I was thinking of trying BZ, but their guarantee is not as long as LA.

Some of the anthias I have in QT are acting funny. 3 or them are lying down or are in a corner of the QT. 2 are swimming around, eating and act fine. There are no marks on them and they have been this way for a few days. The 3 inactive ones are not eating, but will look at me when I approach the tank. I have no idea what is going on with them.

 

[davocean]

I don't think it is anything specific to LA, it just seems like many ship poorly, who knows what issues there could be where they are collected and when they are collected at the time.
I've known people that bought groups that did not even survive the initial FW dip, and those were LFS purchases.

 

[m0nkie]

I just bought 3 dispar from picturesque aquatics. They arrived very healthy looking and eating.

With all these issues lately, im avoiding major distributors

 

[m0nkie]

Bartlett*, not Dispar..

 

[mattcoug]

It may depend on specific anthias types - I lost 5 pictilis anthias I ordered in Nov from LA within a week to uronema. On a separate order I got a batch of lytails that had 60% survive, 40% were doa presumably because they were delayed over the weekend in transit.

In any case, I think there is something wrong with these fish to be getting these kinds of death rates. LA has a good guarantee so I am now sitting on a large credit on file. I haven't had this kind of problem with non-anthias fish.

 

[MammoDoc]

I'm in the same boat Matt, sitting on a large credit.

I wanted to try the Carberryi, Ignitus and Resplendent given that RC members have stated that they are not as aggressive as Lyretails and relatively hardy, and others have had extremely agressive Lyretails. But it seems like most people with Lyretails have not had problems with their other fish or with too much aggression. So I might give them a try since it seems like they may be a little more likely to survive. Does that seem reasonable?

 

[davocean]

Well, the one standout memory of someone losing a bunch of newly bought anthias just doing the FW dip were carbs, and that was one of our anthia experts on here.
They all can ship poorly or come w/ disease or parasites.
I never expect all that I bought to survive the initial QT, but the ones that do usually seem pretty hardy.
My exp w/ lyretails came w/ better luck than most other anthia and never saw what I would call aggressive behavior, just basically a male chasing females now and then.
I do think my lyretails helped me keep other species that were a little more timid.
I had dispars and carbs that were more timid until I added lyretails.
The lyretails out and about and eating assertively seemed to bring them out to join them.
Lyretails, carberryi, and dispars have been a great mix for me, ignitus is on my list for future anthias additions.
I don't want anything too difficult or problematic, so I will probably keep it to just that mix

 

[shred5]

Well this patch thing seems to be a seasonal thing. Quality Marine had said that somewhere in another post. I have seen a ton of post on this lately so it does seem to be true.

My supplier has had a hard time getting any anthias right now. Probably the same reason.


Ignitus do not ship well. Usually one out of 3 die and they go into shock real easily. They also need a lot of feedings or they just whither away.

Anthias is not a easy fish period. One reason is some are impossible to get to eat. Most will never eat anything but frozen and wont touch pellet or flake. Some come from deep water and do not adjust well to heavily lit reef.
Lyretails are the hardy ones that eat pretty much anything but they are extremely mean fish and in most cases should be kept singly same with bartlett's.

 

[MammoDoc]

My one small female lone Ignitus survivor is doing well in my DT as the only anthias in the tank, swimming with the Naso, Orange Shoulder, Hippo and 10 wrasses! So I think she is adjusted :lolspin:

David's response its what is confusing me -- some say their lyretails are no problem and others say they are super mean! I had a mystery wrasse in my other tank that was a mean major wrasse-hole to my other wrasses, so I don't want to repeat that experience. Tank is a 420; will size help mitigate aggression with the lyretail? Some have said yes.