Bartletts Anthias unusual behavior!

[jghoshal]

Please check out my videos of Bartlett's Anthias that I got 2 days back. He/She eats well when I give food and swims fine. But not sure what is he/she doing with its mouth on the front glass. He/She does this very frequently. Please help.

Video 1 -> http://youtu.be/jnE0KVAdmhU
Video 2 -> http://youtu.be/slGEpFYE6qs

75G
4 months old
Trying to setup a reef tank

 

[Dakota Reef]

Many anthias spend a fair amount of time trying to dominate their fellow anthias and yours seems to be unusually worked up by its own reflection. Shouldn't be a problem although its looks like he/she is a little pale which might indicate some other issue. That could just be the lighting though.

 

[jghoshal]

Thanks Dakota Reef. The lights that I have are x4 ATI Blue Plus, x1 ATI Aquablue Special, and x1 ATI Purple Plus. I will post some pictures once the light turns on today and would need your input on the coloration. It may be that the camera was not good enough to capture the right color.

Also what type of food I should give and how many times a day? I have x1 Yellow Tang, x2 yellow tail damsels and x1 cleaner shrimp so far.

 

[Dakota Reef]

Sorry, nothing wrong with your lighting. I meant the colors of the your Bartlett's could have been washed out in the photo by the tank's lighting.

There are many more knowledgeable anthias keepers on here than myself and hopefully one of them will chime in but, in general anthias do better if fed frequently (four or more) times a day with very small meaty foods. Finely chopped mysis, Nutramar Ova, and Cyclopeze would be my starting choices. Foods like Rogger's or Rod's frozen are also very high quality as long as they pieces aren't too big. Some people have had success with the smaller sizes of Spectrum pellets.

Over time you should be able to wean back to a couple feedings a day.

Lots of great anthias information in this section, just do some searching and you should see plenty of useful advice.

 

[MIKE NY]

yea it looks like it's just fighting with it's reflection and I find Bartlett's to be very easy to feed taking almost all types of foods from pellets to PE Mysis and like most other shoaling fish do better in a group..BTW it looks like either a subadult changing to male or female. The male will have a spiked dorsel fin like a Lyretail, but not as long and have a vertical mark in middle of it's body and as mentioned alot more colorful.....GL

 

[jghoshal]

Thanks for the input. Although, I have uploaded some pictures at the below link. Please let me know if you find anything abnormal.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jagann...hiasNovember212011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Thanks again.

 

[MIKE NY]

has good color and full bodied and it looks like it's changing to a male

 

[humaguy]

agree with the above, fighting with his reflection...put a mirror there and watch!

 

[jghoshal]

Thanks once again. Just curios, how do you determine/figure out that a female changing into a male?

 

[MIKE NY]

most do..LOL ...it has alot of purple down the sides for a female/juvi and it looks like it's starting to develop the mark on the side as well...watch for the the spike on the dorsel to develop also.