Colouration of Barttlet's anthias

[DiscusHeckel]

Hello,

I have a single juvenile barttlet's anthias (~1.5 in), which looks like the fishes in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYTfYcdN8HE

I am wondering if its colour will improve as it gets bigger like the fish in this picture:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/images/products/Fish/large/pseudanthias_bartlettorum.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show%3D375&h=185&w=193&tbnid=NQQJd0FFrpPSpM:&zoom=1&tbnh=184&tbnw=191&usg=__ICM_ET5QcV3Qnl0UI6Gd8Xk0_f4=&docid=_U1BtzkpzxlLyM&itg=1&client=firefox-a&sa=X&ei=kW2YU7ToAq-y7AaolIH4BQ&ved=0CI0BEPwdMAo

Thanks

 

[ca1ore]

Yeah ...... well ........ I've seen hundreds of Bartletts over the years and have yet to encounter one that actually looked like that second photo (in person). They all looked essentially like the two in the video.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thanks for your reply.

 

[SDguy]

I remember seeing some at a wholesaler when they first came in. Stunning colors. But as mentioned they end up fading a bit over time. Lighting (and camera settings) help

 

[shayna123]

The 2 in the video are female, the pic is a male. When I got mine they were all female. I expected the dominate one to turn male, which it did. The problem was that 3 out of the 4 turned male which is unusual. They tousle around with each other but the tank is large and they seem to have worked it out. The 3 males I have look exactly like the 2nd pic if not better. These are the most stunning colored fish!

 

[ca1ore]

The 2 in the video are female, the pic is a male. When I got mine they were all female. I expected the dominate one to turn male, which it did. The problem was that 3 out of the 4 turned male which is unusual.

Actually, the upper/back one in the video is a male (or at least well on its way). Pink head, dorsal spine and yellow 'stripe' are all dead giveaways. Also not unusual for Bartlett's to end up as multiple males. I've had groups a few times, and always ended up with multiples - two out of three currently. Never had it happen with any other species. In fact, I have five Bimacs in my tanks and actually none have turned male unfortunately.

Like I said, I have never personally seen one as colorful as the OPs linked picture. May be it's a lighting thing, personal perceptions of color, or feeding - what do you feed yours?

 

[SDguy]

These are the ones I was talking about. Notice the cool red blotchy markings on the male's body (they were the first to fade). Those aren't camera tricks, they really had red blotches like that.

They ended up looking like any other Bartlett I've kept:

 

[ca1ore]

Still a very handsome fish. My two males don't have that blue edging to the tailfins though; is that unusual I wonder or just something that takes time to develop?

 

[MIKE NY]

here was my male..beautiful fish, but mean SOB..killed off all the others until there was one larger sub male left in the second pic...they bickered for many years to a draw...

 

[DiscusHeckel]

What makes a Barttlet's anthias lose its colour in time? Lack of female to show off? Diet? Water chemistry? Lack of competition? or ...?

I used to keep bimac anthias (females). Their colours changed just a little in time and some said for the better.

My juvenile male barttlet's colour look rather dull compared to some of the pictures posted in this thread. I am hoping it will improve as it gets older rather than getting even duller. I feed him with frozen food only (red plankton, cyclop-eeze, mysis, krill, etc.)

Cheers