Any experience with Ventralis Anthias?

[t0mmy108]

i still considered everyones oppinions and decided to give a friend a call. Briane Greene, diver, collector and owner of twilightaquatics.net in Hawaii shared some of his knowledge with me yesterday. He collects a lot of really rare fish from Micronesia and Hawaii, especially deep water species. Most of the fish he has come from similar habitats as the Ventalis do. He's been able to acclimate them to waters ranging between 72 and 80 degrees. I have a pair of flame wrasse and pair of rhomboidalis wrasse (he's got like 30 of them) comming from him in a couple of weeks. a phone conversation with him and you could learn a lot about deep water fish. He studied marine fish at the University of Hawaii and keeps some of the coolest fish I've ever seen.

 

[t0mmy108]

Well, all the anthias were released tonight. The two females hung out for a while then went into the rock work. The male on the other hand, won't hide. It likes to swim out in the open. Even when I run the cleaning magnet across the tank or adjust a coral around, he seems to not be very skittish. Here's a shot with flash out in the open.

 

[Sanfernando]

How are the ventralis doing?

 

[t0mmy108]

good. Been working so much and haven't really had time to enjoy them. But I definately determine which cave is the "Ventralis Cave."

I'll post a pic the next time they are out.

 

[Purple Haze]

looking good.

 

[heuerfan]

Congrats, they are awesome! What are you feeding them?

 

[Angel*Fish]

What beauties!

Would you mind posting what's in your "seafood delight" recipe. I have a couple of tukas & after 2 months one still refuses anything but freshly hatched artemia

 

[t0mmy108]

this time I just used what was available. I used some fresh peeled gulf shrimp, fresh salmon, frozen krill, frozen freshwater mysis shrimp, frozen squid, mussels, formula one pellets, nori and fresh minced garlic. Blended it into a mush and frozen in sheets.

Some cavework....

 

[t0mmy108]

still kicking

 

[Gobey]

how about now?

 

[t0mmy108]

yes, all three are still with me. I added a few fairy wrasse over the weekend along with six dispar anthias. I've only seen 4 of six dispars come out so far. My bimaculatus chased a couple dispars around but the ventralis don't seem to be bothered or is bothering the new additions. This past week, my copperband butterfly that looked like it had a big red sore on it's anal fin and was having trouble breathing. To be safe, I took it out and fed it to my red carpet in the other tank.

 

[t0mmy108]

this is the best picture I could get of the male tonight. I guess the girls didn't want to come out to play....
also, here are a the new tankmates...lineatus, red margin, exquisite, sunburst, mccosker's, goemetric hawk, laboutes, bluespot jaw and the anthias...

 

[Gobey]

I must admit, you have the who's who of reef fish...God speed.

My only experience with the blue spot jaw (I tried 3..) is that they live to get out of tanks. Cover it well!!!

I admire your selection of fish and wish you the best of luck...

Rich

 

[blstravler]

I really like the idea of the fish carrier to introduce the fish into the tank, kudos on keeping them going.

Keep us posted from time to time.

 

[Julio]

nice collection of fish, how are the ventralis doing?

 

[t0mmy108]

they are doing well, thanks. I thought I lost one female but she showed up eventually. they eat the mush i make and are pretty much ignored by the other fish. the male isn't intimidated by my sohal anymore. he used to swim for the rocks when the sohal swam to his side of the tank. now he stays out. anyone interested should order some. Liveaquaria emailed me to let me know more came in.

 

[blstravler]

t0mmy108

If you like Anthias a lot you should check out the book, "Basslets & Hamlets and their relatives; A comprehensive Guide to Selected Serranidae and Plesiopidae" by Rudie H Kuiter. Incredible book on Athias, you would not believe some of the color of the deep water anthias, amazing. Event better then the Ventralis if you can beleive it, then again most of them would probably not make their way into the aquarium trade. However the book is very imformational

Regards-
Keith

 

[t0mmy108]

I'll have to get that one. I read through Scott Michael's "Reef Fishes," volume 1 and 1/4 of that is on anthias. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Maximus]

Hi Tommy,
Where did you get the ventralis from? I've been thinking about adding a couple to my tank. I know that it's a gamble, but I like the odds

 

[t0mmy108]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6860446#post6860446 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Maximus
Hi Tommy,
Where did you get the ventralis from? I've been thinking about adding a couple to my tank. I know that it's a gamble, but I like the odds

liveaquaria.com

they have a 14 day guarantee on them. you can't go wrong.