Bartletts Anthias not eating

[cjr579]

I've been having him in my tank for over 2 weeks now and I rarely see him eat. All the other fish (yellow tangs,yellow belly, purple tang,clowns,wrasse) all swarm at the food. He just sits there and lets everyone else eat and doesn't even attempt to eat. I've tried frozen brine, spectrum .5mm pellets, 1mm pellets, and some algae flake food. I originally had 2 anthias but 1 disappeared after a few days in my tank.

Any idea what food I can try next? It just seems like he is real lazy

 

[leveldrummer]

soak some food in garlic and introduce it, see if that perks him up some.

 

[indyjaco]

might need to be put in a QT tank to get his appetite back.

Does the stomach look sunken in?

 

[cjr579]

might need to be put in a QT tank to get his appetite back.

Does the stomach look sunken in?

Not really. Looks pretty normal to me. Here are some pictures from my phone

The spectrum pellets i have have garlic. I'll try soaking them in garlic and see if that works.

 

[indyjaco]

You might want to try and feed both halves of your tank at the same time. Hopefully then there will be enough for the anthias to grab some food and keep the tangs away from it.

I know with mine, my Hippo will grab every piece possible. I'll have to catch him off guard sometimes.

 

[TankStudy]

Looks kind of like an evansi anthias.

Is there a visible yellow belt line on this anthias? It appears as a yellow vertical line halfway down the fish. A male bartlett should have this.

However, if this is an evansi, you will need remove him and try live foods w/ frozen until you can get him just to except frozen. Evansi's are hit and miss for people. Bartletts usually are pretty non-picky eatters.

Your fish doesn't appear to be starved yet but you may need to work on getting him to eat soon.

 

[cjr579]

Looks kind of like an evansi anthias.

Is there a visible yellow belt line on this anthias? It appears as a yellow vertical line halfway down the fish. A male bartlett should have this.

However, if this is an evansi, you will need remove him and try live foods w/ frozen until you can get him just to except frozen. Evansi's are hit and miss for people. Bartletts usually are pretty non-picky eatters.

Your fish doesn't appear to be starved yet but you may need to work on getting him to eat soon.

It was sold to me as a bartletts but looking at pictures of the evansi its hard to determine the difference between the 2. I don't see the yellow vertical line as you've described

 

[Jamey1010]

Maybe try some live blackworms

you might have to call around but at least one of you lfs should have some

 

[TankStudy]

I would treat it like an evansi then. Sometimes picky eaters that may require training to accept frozen.

 

[cjr579]

Well I bought some live black worms from the lfs and dumped a few into the tank and my anthias still does not want to eat.

 

[Twwety]

Mine seem to pass up any frozen or pellet food for Cyclop-eeze. Would also get past the bigger fish easily or freshly hatched brine shrimp. Maybe try feeding with power heads on so they can feed from the water column.

 

[RJT]

If it is an evansi it takes a few weeks to ween them sometimes. Keep feeding cyclopeze. IME that is the best food. They don't care about black worms or pellets. Mysis will work eventually and there has to be a power head to move the food or they won't eat it. In time they will eat pellets and anything else. Garlic didn't work on them either.

 

[RJT]

If you can quarantine them it will give her a better chance.

 

[suta4242]

You probably already know this but freshly caught anthias usually equate changing patterns of flow to food availability. ie low flow doesn't evoke a good feeding response.

Now, if the flow suddenly changes they think a new wave of plankton (food) is on its way. Even freshly caught ventralis respond to this. Its also why a lot of people have difficulty teaching them to eat in constant low flow environments eg some QTs . Finally don't initially expect him to eat any food that falls to the floor.


hth and good luck!