I have kept a ton of these and one of my favorite Anthias.
They are shy fish though and can struggle sometimes with boisterous fish but in most case will eventually be fine. They may hide for a long time. They also are not very hardy at first and do not ship real well but if you get them through the first few weeks they can be a pretty hardy.
The hard part with them is getting them to eat. They are not to hard to get on frozen but flake and pellets can be hard and some never will. I have only had a few that did not take to flake.
Also they like smaller food like Cyclops, I start out with PE calanus for most finicky planktonic feeders like these. Any of the Cyclops or even the Reef nutrition stuff like tiger feast is a good start. Some Mysis can be a little big but I forget the brand that has the smaller ones, they can work too, this is one of their favorites once eating. Brineshimp can be fed and as a last resort live brine. They also like their food moving at first to trigger a strike, so putting the food in in the flow can help. Also putting them in a larger quarantine by themselves to get them on frozen first before putting them with the rest can go along way.
I have found flake far easier to get them on than pellets. I start mixing a little flake in with the frozen food a few weeks after they have been eating frozen. I let it soak in the juices of the frozen food for a bit and feed both together. Even once eating flake I still feed some frozen for nutrition.
They also need a few more feedings than a average fish. A auto feeder may or may not work because most fish figure them out and get the food before it gets to the shyer fish. I used to have a trigger that knew when it was going to go off. Some fish hear them and move up.
They also like flow.
I have kept males and sub males together with no aggression unlike some other anthias. They are a very peaceful fish. They also mix well with other anthias.
They like a nice overhang to school under. This fish actually shoals in a reef unlike most other anthias and why they are one of my favorites.
Dispar anthias also have exactly the same care and are sometime hard to tell apart from ignitus.
Again one of my favorite because they shoal and not to hard to get on some dry food. They do require a little more care because they do need more feeding like some of the other anthias. For this reason I have not kept them in a while, I am just to busy to feed. A great fish if you can give them a little extra care.
