Experience With Purple Queen Anthias - Must feed often

[spiritwalker]

Excellent thread.. Lots of good information here.. I hope it's not too frowned upon to resurrect a 3-4 year old thread but I figured it would be good to keep the information together/flowing.

I picked up 5 of these purple queen anthias from a local fish store.. I was aware of the risk and feeding demands and was up for the challenge.. Figured they had a better chance with me that most other aquariasts.. LOL

I brought them home and placed them in QT. I performed Tank Transfer Method as my QT process and moved them through the 12 day process. Given the frequent feeding requirements I was careful to watch ammonia levels, used Prime to neutralize it, and the fish got moved to a fresh sterilized tank every 72 hours. All 5 made it through the QT process and were placed in the main display tank on the 12th day.

They seemed to take to eating SF Bay Brand Cyclops fairly quickly. This is what I primarily fed during QT along with some mysis for a few other fish I QT'd at the same time.

Today, we are at 26 days since I brought them home. They seem to have adjusted well to my display tank. My rock is structured in a way that provides MANY holes they can get in a hide. 4 of the 5 come out to swim and feed regularly. 1 seems to stay back and for all I know could be dead. I saw all 5 out together a few days ago but without seeing all 5 who knows.. Hopefully the 5th is getting food while in hiding. I also can not tell if it is the same one that hangs back in hiding.

At about the 12 day mark I started hatching baby brine shrimp and feeding those as well. They took to eating them right away.

So, 26 days in they are showing strong feeding response and seem to have plumped up bellies compared to when I got them.

Lately I have been making food soup for the tank and pour in a shot every couple hours throughout the day.. I get a water bottle and fill with RODI and place the following foods in it:
* LRS Reef Frenzy (chopped fine)
* SF Bay Brand Cyclops
* SF Bay Brand Fish Eggs

In addition I occasionally throw in some of the BBS that I hatch.

I plan on trying the SF Bay Brand Reef Plankton and possibly others.

My other fish and corals are loving the extra food and frequent feedings. I have not increased my food load significantly however I am spreading it throughout the day.

I'll probably look into making a DIY auto feeder that can dispense plankton soup throughout the day. I can use one of my outlets on my APEX to control the feedings.

Those of you that have had good luck feeding pellets I'd appreciate a brand/product name I can try.

Any of you early posters having multi-year success?

Cheers,
Jerid

 

[shred5]

There are 3 issues to me with this fish.
One getting them to eat.
Two if you get them to eat the other challenge is getting them to eat a wide enough variety of food to get the nutrition they need. Getting them to eat live is not to hard but feeding stuff like live BBS just is not enough nutrition.

3rd issue is enough feedings. They seem to need allot of feeding a day. This is the biggest problem I see for most people. Some of anthias require more feedings than other fish and the queen seems to be on that list. Problem is auto feeders feed mainly pellets or flake. Getting these guys on dry food is near impossible.
I think the biggest break through for this fish is when the froze food autofeeder becomes available. This fish maybe not as hard to keep finally.

 

[spiritwalker]

There are 3 issues to me with this fish.
One getting them to eat.
Two if you get them to eat the other challenge is getting them to eat a wide enough variety of food to get the nutrition they need. Getting them to eat live is not to hard but feeding stuff like live BBS just is not enough nutrition.

3rd issue is enough feedings. They seem to need allot of feeding a day. This is the biggest problem I see for most people. Some of anthias require more feedings than other fish and the queen seems to be on that list. Problem is auto feeders feed mainly pellets or flake. Getting these guys on dry food is near impossible.
I think the biggest break through for this fish is when the froze food autofeeder becomes available. This fish maybe not as hard to keep finally.

Yea, when I'm home I'm feeding the tank what seems to be almost every hour or two.. I built a prototype auto feeder last night and need to work out a couple kinks.. I think I'll be able to put live BBS and/or defrosted frozen cyclops, and other reef plankton in and have it dispense periodically throughout the day.. I dont think there would be any problem keeping defrosted frozen food in RODI water during the day. Obviously it would eventually rot if left at tank temp for too long but as a daily feeder it should work fine and a great option if I'm going to be away for the day.. I think I have the APEX program figured out using the OSC function but it's not ideal. Looking for additional coding options.

 

[spiritwalker]

So, Not sure what happened with my 5th fish.. I have not seen it in about 4 days so I'm assuming it died and was consumed by the reef.. either that or it is just in lock down mode. 4 others seem to be happy campers.

I built an auto feeder.. Need to make some enhancements before I put it into production but it is working well to dispense defrosted plankton and fish eggs in RODI water. It is controlled by my APEX and is scheduled to run for 4 seconds every 30 minutes.

Here is a video showing it dispense at the 7 second mark. Keep an eye on the upper right side of the tank. After it dispenses you will see the fish respond to the food in the tank. I'm pretty happy with how this is working.

https://youtu.be/CXgn8k3Hjx0

 

[spiritwalker]

30 days today. All 5 purple queens still alive. The elusive 5th fish is finally out swimming with the others. The auto feeder is working very well feeding the fish every 30 min.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[shred5]

How are they still doing now?
There stomachs look a little sunken in the pictures but look pretty good, have they fattened up some?