Bartlett's Anthias
- Thread starter bif24701
- Start date
They don't always get much love from anthias enthusiasts, but I like them a lot. They are chippy and tend to mostly all turn male, but as long as you have some bigger fish to distract them and feed a lot they should persist. I have had some issue with them lately having body ulcerations so QT is recommended. Five in a 180 is good as long as it's not crowded with too much rock.
bif24701
New member
My past experience and what I have read they are the easiest to acclimate to a reef aquarium. If I get smaller ones maybe 10 at a time they only one should become a male and the other female.
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Not with Bartletts. Most vendors don't even give you the choice to buy males or females. The last batch I ordered were all sub males.
bif24701
New member
I assumed if they are small that they would still be young enough that one would become the dominant and the others would become female. Otherwise it would be impossible to do this would t?
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Big E
Premium Member
I ordered a group 5 Bartletts years ago and due to availability was only sent two. One male and female. They were perfect and if I get them again I'll just get a pair.
The male was very gentle with the female and they constantly interacted. They grouped up with my other dither fish and were fine without a group of other anthias.
This avoids problems with having all males and bullying/killing off each other.
The male was very gentle with the female and they constantly interacted. They grouped up with my other dither fish and were fine without a group of other anthias.
This avoids problems with having all males and bullying/killing off each other.
shred5
Premium Member
agreed and sometimes it is hard to tell.
Even if you were lucky enough to do it they usually still turn male. Why this is such a problem with bartletts I do no know, this never happened with any other anthias.. I know all anthias are fighting to be male but with others they do not unless the male dies. If you search this is does not happen to a few people this is common.
Lyretails females like to kill each others off to become next inline.
Seems the hardiest of the breed are harder to keep.
That is why I prefer dispar or ignitus anthias. They are peaceful, look out for each other and are not to hard to keep and I have had males live together just fine. Then what I do is add one lyretail and one bartlett.
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Most of my resplendents turned male, or sub-male. All the other species I've kept stuck with just one male. They do turn fast though. My big bimac male died recently (likely of old age) and it took the biggest female less than two weeks to make the change.
shred5
Premium Member
Never kept them, one of the few I have not.. Thought I might try them next, they are beautiful. Do they also fight or peaceful?
Thinking of dong mainly Wrasses and a huge harem of different anthias. Easier to keep ones anyway.
also have you tried Larry's fish eggs? Anthias go nuts over them.
Quite peaceful, not purple queen twitchy but still quite twitchy. They also don't do well in a tank with a lot of larger aggressive fish like tangs. I started out with seven and am now down to three largest (2-2 1/2"), though that trio have been stable for over a year now ..... all three are males :lol:
shred5
Premium Member
Queens and Tukas are way to much work and their survival rate is to low for me to keep. i just do not have the time for it anymore.
I bet we are getting close to keeping these fish with the better foods on the market and some of the ingenious ways people are able to feed frozen and live food 24 hrs a day to their tank now for nps tanks.
mounting refrigerators under the tank etc.
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shred5
Premium Member
When I see post like this all i can think of is the word yet!
Haha that's fair. But they've all been together for some time so I think I'm okay.
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