Anthias Photo Library

[mattyice]

well my main concern is that the only good place around here cant get me in any female ignitus, unless when im there i can tell the wholesaler that i need what he calls dispars but 4-5 of them have to have blue eye rings with no yellow fork in the tail and then ONLY one male which has the fork in the tail, another option is to go with a school of about 5 bartletts but then at that point they seem to be hard to distinguish between male and female, which brings me to my last choices, to buy bigger, more aggressive anthias that seem to be hardier which leaves me with Bimac's, Squarespots, lyretails, and Pictilis

im not too much of a fan of lyretails so that throws them out, i have a few options i could go with but i still have time to think about it

 

[32flavors]

I have a male squarespot that is still hiding all the time. He was coming out and swimming in the open, but I moved my tank a week ago and he has been hiding ever since. He's come out a few times, but when he does, he bolts through the tank like lightening, bouncing off the bottom and even jumping once (thank God my tank is covered!). I added a female squaminipinis in hopes it would chill him out. No change yet. Is this typical? I know he's eating but I've never seen a fish so traumatized by a move.... Oh my, as I sit here typing, my 18 year old cat has JUST discovered my tank. I've never had furniture right next to it where he could get nose to nose with the fish (he and my firefish are trying to figure each other out). Again, glad my tank is covered!!

Concerned in Chico ('bout the anthias, not the cat)

 

[mattyice]

welli passed up the chance on a pictilis pair today even though the male was 90 and the female was 55 just because the male wasnt eating at all and the female wasnt eating very well and the male had an eye parasite so no no on that

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10247671#post10247671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mattyice
welli passed up the chance on a pictilis pair today even though the male was 90 and the female was 55 just because the male wasnt eating at all and the female wasnt eating very well and the male had an eye parasite so no no on that

Good call. I think anthias are enough trouble when starting out with healthy individuals

 

[mattyice]

yeah this place had the most amazing selection of livestock in terms of rarity but the prices were so outrageous

1100 - male cross hatch trigger
600 - female crosshatch trigger
1400 - for the pair on sale!!!
350 - passer angel about 8"
475 - goldflake angel
90 - an infected male pictilis
450 - queen trigger
65 - baby flame angels
95 - female bluethroat

and thats not even the worst of it, all of the workers were young punks that werent doing anything, the owner was just sitting behind the counter eating food without helping anyone out, the store looked like crap because there were just tanks laying everywhere, just crap laying all over the place, and the first thing when you pull in is you see broken tanks sitting in front of the place, i will definitely not drive an hour to go to that place again, but i will say it is the first place that i have seen a complete supermale lyretail anthias and i was definitely impressed by it, it was about 5" long, passed the red stage to be more of a golden orange color, streamers on every fin on the fish, and the first dorsal spine that you see males display was about 2-3" on this guy, even more wierd two supermales in a 675G tank but they were right next to eachother the entire time

 

[SDguy]

In that size tank having more than one lyretail male is not surprising. I think someone on RC has two in his 300g tank.

BTW, they were right next to each other the entire time because that's what they do...constantly sizing each other up. I saw it over and over at the Georgia Aquarium with lyretails.

And yes, those prices are crazy. Just order from LiveAquaria then...

 

[giller]

What a coincidance (sp?) just visited the geogria aquarium a few days ago. Anyone looking for real anthias that it the place to be. I almost had to sit down when I saw pictilis and bimacs swimming with achilles tangs, moorish idols, and black tip reef sharks. Truly amazing.

 

[SDguy]

Bartlett anthias pair:

Ignitus anthias. Orange male...pink probably submale:

My mixed school (bartlett, ignitus, lyretail):

 

[mattyice]

the pink one is a submale, i can tell by the fork in the tail, females will have an all orange tail and a blue ring around the eyes, but that is a beautiful school

after seeing the supermale lyretail i kinda want to get a small school of them, and by supermale i mean completely full supermale with tail streamers everywhere and more of a dark golden orange

 

[SDguy]

Yeah, I've seen the pics of the dinky female ignitus. These guys are huge! I've seen no aggression in the least so far, so I'm happy. And the pic doesn't show it, but they both have blue eye rings.

Be aware, that lyretails from different areas get diffrent male colors. Mine is a Maldive lyretail. Some of the more red versions come from closer to the Red Sea, I suspect, since the Red Sea males are very red, with yellow scales. Indo ones are purple/lavender with red fins and no yellow highlights on the scales.

 

[mattyice]

i kind of miss my ignitus, the best thing for me to do is to give the LFS owner a description of the females and males and then get them that way, plus i know i can get just about any species of anthias i like so i might even be able to get a trio of pictilis

 

[SDguy]

I have to admit, a LFS here has a pair of pictilis now for weeks, they look very fat...just a little faded though. Unfortunately they want hundreds of dollars for them

 

[mattyice]

for the pair? or each? i must say that the way to go in terms of fish is to buy online or to find somewhere close that sells online at a good deal

 

[SDguy]

They were asking $300 -$400 (can't quite remember) for a trio, but I never saw a second female, so not sure what was going on there...point is they were pricey. And they were HUGE! after seeing the ones at the GA, I would never try to keep them in anything less than a multi hundred gallon system.

 

[chase33]

I'm interested in purchasing Lyretails. Are they aggressive toward inverts (shrimps in particular) and how often should they be fed?

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10275124#post10275124 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chase33
I'm interested in purchasing Lyretails. Are they aggressive toward inverts (shrimps in particular) and how often should they be fed?

They are reef and shrimp safe (though I suppose a REALLY large male could conceivably eat a TINY shrimp). They should be fed a least twice a day at first. As time goes on, you can adjust the feedings to more or less depending on the fish's needs.

 

[38bill]

Here is my Pseudanthias Truncatus. The photo does not do this fish justice. The scales seem to be prizmatic and as the fish swims and the light changes, the body colors go from purple/pink to orange (This photo was taken with a flash). I have seen this Anthias sold as: Pink Anthias, Purple Anthias and Trunacated Anthias.

 

[38bill]

Another photo attempt. Trying to get the photo to open with the posting.

 

[SDguy]

Nice anthias! I've seen these for sale lately, but they've always been very pale and rather unattractive at the stores.

 

[mattyice]

Peter thats a problem with LFS, i think that since their water quality cant be perfect like a home tanks can achieve the fish are going to look more pale, also remember most of the food they are going to feed is just going to be bring or pellets so the true colors of the fish wont come out, my ignitus looked pale pink until i brought them home where they really colored up and looked their best