anthias??????

[steri]

Are these schooling fish, pairing fish, or both? A LFS by me has 4 of them. I believe he called them Sunburst Anthias. They are almost all pink with little specks of yellow throughut their body. The store is selling htem for $40 each. I really really like them, but can only afford to have 2 in my tank for size and space purposes.

If I only got 2 anthias, would they be okay together, or would they really just be better off in a larger school?

What I read leads me to believe they are schooling fish, but would do well in pairs. I do know if I get any, I should for sure get more then one.

 

[steri]

Here is a link to the fish. They are sunburst Anthias.

http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/anthias/sunburstanthias

 

[tush]

I have a reef tank...
from my experience (the hard way) anthias kept in small groups or paired are not nice...the LFS told me 3 would work...
um... NO... the big one thinks he runs the tank.. he even fights with his own reflection... the middle one is okay... and the small one thinks he is a jawfish...they do NOT like each other in any way, shape or form and never hang out together...(they are now known as the d*mn anthias!)
i cannot catch them to find them a new home... (have tried mulitple methods short of tearing down the whole tank...)

if i knew then what i know now, i never would have bought them for a reef!

 

[Lotus99]

I believe the problems come if you have more than one male for every few females. If you get them young as females, one will change to a male.

Some are better suited to new fishkeepers than others, apparently. I believe the starburst (sometimes called fathead) are among the more delicate species.