For those who keep anthias . . .

Here's my two cents... Have 1 male lyretail with two female they are all over my 265. Have two female squarespot one of which is about to change (taking her time about it) also all over the tank. one male each of Hutchi and Olive.. the Hutchi seems to hang with the lyretail females , the Olive seems to be the loner of the tank.. nobody picks on him and he also is found all over my tank. as far as feeding , I must be the exception as i only feed one time most days..lyretails over 2 years in the tank, next was the squares. about a little over a year . then the olive went in about 6 months ago and most recently the Hutchi about two months ago. still on the lookout for some ladies for the Olive and Hutchi. I think any of these would be considered easy to keep as I do nothing special to keep them... Good luck , in this hobby there is always a thing that in your next tank you will never add again. I'm guessing Anthias are never on that list..... Ray
 
The even more interesting thing is that some of them turned males in the tank while there were other males present, and except for the Bartlett's I only see some really minor aggression from time to time, the Bartlett's did fight a bit more till they scattered to different parts of the tank and things calmed down for most of the time.

The only serious explanation I could think of, is the point that I have lots of similar sized fish mostly wrasses and anthias, and the tank is very full and active, that seems somehow to keep the fish behaved, but I would wait at least another half year before I come to any conclusion on long term success with this mix.

the other explanation would be that my fish are an-alphabets and didn't read the books on aggression between fish.
 
SDguy said:
Interesting. Mine have pretty specific dynamics in my 150g. The three lyretails are really just all over the place. The 5 dispars used to all hang out in a pretty tight ball on the left side of the tank. Recently a female turned male, and ousted the first male, who now resides in the right/middle of the tank. The 3 bartletts and one carberryi that thinks it's a bartlett all hang out on the far right side of the tank.
Click to expand...


Mine all use the whole tank as well and the male lyretail will give a tank length balls to the wall pursuit or dive bombing of one of the others regularly.
The dispars stay kind of tegether but in the pack and like to be near the big squammi.
They just seem to tend to congregate in an area in front of the left side vortec regularly to surf. Never the right side or back wall vortecs.
Also in the morning with just actinics for the first 2 hrs all the anthias and the 3 or 4 chromis will hang together mid tank, mid water facing left.

Lost my 3 year old bartlett recently but
I love 'em all and want more.
 
I can't believe you don't have WW3 between the tricolor males. Mine tried to kill each other even in the acclimation bucket. The many fish of the same size/color makes sense.
 
fishcraze on here has soem barletts i believe and when i was round at his house we got talking, he had a female that was bigger than the male he bought when he introduced them, and the large female became the male and the small male became female


gmigmi said:
The even more interesting thing is that some of them turned males in the tank while there were other males present, and except for the Bartlett's I only see some really minor aggression from time to time, the Bartlett's did fight a bit more till they scattered to different parts of the tank and things calmed down for most of the time.

The only serious explanation I could think of, is the point that I have lots of similar sized fish mostly wrasses and anthias, and the tank is very full and active, that seems somehow to keep the fish behaved, but I would wait at least another half year before I come to any conclusion on long term success with this mix.

the other explanation would be that my fish are an-alphabets and didn't read the books on aggression between fish.
Click to expand...
 
I've got 10 Lyretails in my 180. The 8 females are all smaller juveniles, the 2 males I would consider sub-adult. They have a bit of size and are getting some nicer coloring. They are not full at full adult coloration though.

I started with the 2 males and 1 female. Then added 3 females a month later, then added 4 females a month after that.


I've had the original 3 for almost a year now. They get fed once at 6PM and again at 8:30 PM Tuesday/Thursday/Friday.

Saturday or Sunday they get fed at 2PM and then again around 4-5 PM.

Food is a homemade frozen mix I make 90% of the time. Sometimes they get the small NLS Thera A Pellets instead.



Sorry to hijack. But I am interested in grabbing some Barlets as well. Should I just get 2-3 and just assume they will all be male eventually?

I've got a 6' 180 Gallon. Stock list is below:

-Powder Blue Tang (W/ me 2.5 years)
-Yellow Tang (W/ Me 3 years)
-Blue Throat Trigger (W/ Me 1 year)
-Pair of mated Ocellaris Clowns (With me 1.5 Years)
-Sixline Wrasse(With me 4 years)
-Male Green Mandarin (With me 1 year)
-Yellow Watchman Goby (With me 4 Years)
-10 Lyretail Anthias (8 Female 2 Male with me from 8-10 months depending on when they were added)
 
I have 4 Lyretail Anthias (from Maldives). I think these guys are much brighter than the regular lyretails. Very hardy fish. The males turn bright red instead of lavendar. IMO, the females are a much brighter orange, too. I bought 5 females, one got sucked up in a powerhead during QT, so now left with 4. I QT'd for a month with just Prazipro. One is already changing to a male, but not bright red yet. I fed only one heavy feeding per day of NLS pellets and they've survived since December, but will transition to twice a day since I'm seeing one of them losing weight. They will all be put in a 240 gallon soon, and I'll buy 3 more small females to complete the group. Oh I also got 1 Sunburst Anthias that does well with this group.
 
I am leaning towards Resplendent Anthias based on recommendations and reading. Any additional information on these? Thanks everyone!!!
 
ROBONE20 said:
I have 4 Lyretail Anthias (from Maldives). I think these guys are much brighter than the regular lyretails. Very hardy fish. The males turn bright red instead of lavendar. IMO, the females are a much brighter orange, too. I bought 5 females, one got sucked up in a powerhead during QT, so now left with 4. I QT'd for a month with just Prazipro. One is already changing to a male, but not bright red yet. I fed only one heavy feeding per day of NLS pellets and they've survived since December, but will transition to twice a day since I'm seeing one of them losing weight. They will all be put in a 240 gallon soon, and I'll buy 3 more small females to complete the group. Oh I also got 1 Sunburst Anthias that does well with this group.
Click to expand...

Agree with the Maldives Lyretails. They are brighter orange than their Tongan/Fuji counterparts. The males are nice two, burnt reddish coloration vs. purple/lavender. They can be hard to find for sale though.
 
The Maldive ones are the only ones my LFS brings in actually. He get's shipments once every 2-3 weeks and they always come in fairly small.
 
My pair that I posted earlier are Maldives lyretails. The male is not full color in that picture. This picture is after he got full color.
100_2652.jpg
 
Steve,

What tank are these anthias going to reside in?

In tanks with groups of various fish, they are not aggressive feeders at feeding time. They prefer smaller prey/ food items like enriched brine shrimp, small mysis, cyclopeeze, small sized roe, etc. They will also thrive on PE Mysis, size dependent. Generally, they are at the fringe of the feeding zone when food hits the water. They like to stare down & decide if the food item is tasty.

They will maintain small groupings with standard anthias social hierarchy. Generally, you end up with a dominant male, numerous sub/ initial phase males, and some females/ undetermined juveniles, depending upon the group number. They are not that aggressive towards conspecifics.

As you know, the unknown husbandry before you receive the fish is the greatest cause of fish loss. Resplendents take longer to acclimate to the tank community. as they are a smaller, slightly shy, anthias. Resplendents are more prone to reinfections after a standard quarantine period.

Good choice! A school of six to eight would like really nice. They would be excellent tankmates for p.ventralis/ hawaiiensis or p. parvirostris,
 
Barracuda said:
Steve,

What tank are these anthias going to reside in?

In tanks with groups of various fish, they are not aggressive feeders at feeding time. They prefer smaller prey/ food items like enriched brine shrimp, small mysis, cyclopeeze, small sized roe, etc. They will also thrive on PE Mysis, size dependent. Generally, they are at the fringe of the feeding zone when food hits the water. They like to stare down & decide if the food item is tasty.

They will maintain small groupings with standard anthias social hierarchy. Generally, you end up with a dominant male, numerous sub/ initial phase males, and some females/ undetermined juveniles, depending upon the group number. They are not that aggressive towards conspecifics.

As you know, the unknown husbandry before you receive the fish is the greatest cause of fish loss. Resplendents take longer to acclimate to the tank community. as they are a smaller, slightly shy, anthias. Resplendents are more prone to reinfections after a standard quarantine period.

Good choice! A school of six to eight would like really nice. They would be excellent tankmates for p.ventralis/ hawaiiensis or p. parvirostris,
Click to expand...

They are going into an established 330 gallon tank. Which anthias group would you recommend? That tank gets fed PE mysis (morning), NLS pellets (twice per day), spirulina flake (once per day).
 
Also, is it better to mix species or have multiple of a single species?
The husbandry before I acquire them is somewhat under control although nothing in this hobby is truly under control.
 
No problem in mixing in your size tank, I would begin with the calmer types and then add the bolder ones.
 
Barracuda said:
...
Generally, they are at the fringe of the feeding zone when food hits the water. They like to stare down & decide if the food item is tasty.
...
Click to expand...

I only have the one resplendent in my group, but this is exactly how mine acts.
It will join the frenzy from the edge for a few seconds when the food hits the water but then moves to the side head down and waits for drifting pieces it selects.
 
Go with the squareback anthias (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia) if you can afford them. You cannot argue with the color. Success with anthias is pretty simple, heres what i've learned:

- Get an auto-feeder and feed pellets heavily to fatten them up. Anthias are planktivores and benefit from vitamin enriched cyclops feedings as well. Be ready to handle an increase in your bioload as well.

- Lots of flow, this is where wave-makers come in handy. Even though relatively small fish, they really love their space and current.

- Get only females. I have 2 males and 2 female lyretails in my 150 and there was a lot of aggression for awhile because I bought a male and one of my fems already started to change.

What size is your tank Snorvich? Bartlett's are the best choice for a smaller sized tank but honestly not much color for the price. Lyretails are relatively cheap but the males get very large.
 
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