Anthias selection help

rogergolf66

rogergolf66

im an addict lol
Ok so I have desided I want to add some more fish to my 4 ft. 120gal. I'm experienced reefer but never kept this species. What can you tell me. I'm looking for say the easiest to keep member of the family still with great color. What do u recommend and how many of what sex?

I have lots of flow and lots of sps in the tank if that maters at all.

Thanks

Roger
 
Lyretails are relatively hardy for the anthia species. Get one male and 3-4 females, maybe 3 depending on what else you currently have in the tank. Feed them small meals several times a day to keep them healthy and happy. Purple queen anthias are another possible option, they have awesome coloration but not sure how hardy they are on the Anthia scale? No Anthias are really "Hardy" like you might think of other species
 
I have hawaiian bicolors and lyretails and have had no problem. I was worried about the multiple feeding thing because I travel a lot for work so I went out and spent $50 on an Eheim fish feeder. You can set it to feed up to four times a day. It is a no-brainer. My anthias are going strong now on year 2.
 
Lyre tails are easy to keep have 2 diferent colorations depending on we're they are collected . Plus are just great to watch and inexpensive.
 
My experience with anthias hasn't been very good. Don't know why but they start out good and eventually fade till there to weak to move and all they do is chill in a certain spot without flow and slowly fade away.

I had two purple queens and two dispars that were doing great, the queens disapeared first withn three months and the dispars a few months later. They were all eating fine which boggles my mind why they didn't make it. It's possible my sailfin and yellow tangs harrased them so they hid often.

My recomendation if you want to add color is to go with wrasses, I picked up a nice male line-spot flasher wrasse from creative aquariums in tampa for $35, the streamers on the fins are just awesome to watch and it's reef safe while peacefull with all my other wrasses. I feed freeze dried cyclopeeze 4 times a day with the ehiem auto feeder, its set to feed small amount small amounts so all the food eventually gets eaten.

Anyway, best of luck with whichever route fish you go. Wrasses are jumpers so a tight lid is required :)

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+2890&pcatid=2890
 
Lyetails are a great, attractive and hardy choice. I prefer getting all small females and letting them work out who gets to be male.
 
imho, with anthias, if you feed them well, they will do fine.

I have a bunch of bartlett in my SPS reef, they get fed 4 times a day. NLS pellets.
 
Very interested in this topic as well.Was thinking of getting maybe 3 lyretails. Would that be ok with 6 chromis? Would they mix ok? Thanks
 
I've had very good luck with trios of anthias. I'd pass on the chromis... using up lots of biological space in a 75g on boring fish :o My opinion, anyway :)
 
Thanks everyone. I will look into the Lyretails and an auto feeder. What's the best food to feed them that I could put in a auto feeder?
 
rogergolf66 said:
Ok so a auto feeder and a feeding ring with flake or pellets they eat meaty stuff or algae stuff?
Click to expand...
Feeding ring is a great idea, that way you don't lose food to the overflow.

I have Formula One flake, NLS pellets (small) and I also add in coral vibrance or reef roids. I mix it all up and put in the auto-feeder. I figure I might as well feed the coral and filter feeders at the same time. Only a little bit is dispensed at a time (4 times a day).
 
Hey Roger I have 3 barttlets in my 105. I've had them for about three months I use an Ehiem auto feeder. I feed spectrum pellets 4x per day ( small as mounts) and feed frozen 1 per day. They are healthy and colorful.
 
chgries said:
Hey Roger I have 3 barttlets in my 105. I've had them for about three months I use an Ehiem auto feeder. I feed spectrum pellets 4x per day ( small as mounts) and feed frozen 1 per day. They are healthy and colorful.
Click to expand...

+1

I would use NLS Thera A small pellets with an Ehiem set on the lowest opening for 3-4 anthias. When you mix flake with the smaller pellets on a low opening setting, the flake will somewhat stop up the feeding opening or if you open the opening wider you'll dump too many pellets.

I feed my 6 dispars and 5 Carberryis twice a day with the feeder and different types of frozen in the evening to keep algae at bay. Although I've had to open the feeder up wider because I now have a small Sargassum Trigger that loves to pig out at the autofeeder.

Just watch the feeder at feeding time to make sure that the minimal amount of pellets make their way past the fish to your LR or substrate and adjust accordingly.

It may take a couple of weeks for wild caught anthias to get used to the feeder, but the anthias will normally camp out under the feeder during the day waiting for the little morsels to drop down.
 
IME paying for a male anthias, especially a lyretail, is a waste of money. Get all females and you will have a male in a few months.
 
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