Keeping Intermediate/Difficult Anthias

[LobsterOfJustice]

Hey all,

I've been keeping anthias most of my time in the hobby, and I think I'm ready to branch out in to some of the more difficult, smaller species. Species I have experience with in the past: Lyretails, Bimaculatus, Sunburst, Squarespot. I would personally classify all of these as relatively easy as far as anthias go. Sometimes there can be social complications with the lyretails, but I have not found them (or the others on my list) to be a particularly demanding fish.

I want to mix it up and get some new experience. I considered dispar, ignitus, or bicolor... but then I got tempted by some of the smaller guys like Randalls and Resplendent (LiveAquaria lists both as "moderate").

Then there is the Lori complex, which for a long time I have completely written off as impossible, but I wanted to see if people are having any success with any of these species. LiveAquaria has the Lori and Central Pacific (which I'm drooling over...) both listed as "moderate" - the same classification as Lyretails, which surprised me.

So after all that rambling, where does that leave me? I'm looking for some interesting anthias that aren't impossible to keep. I don't mind a challenge, I don't mind them requiring intermediate/advanced care. I just dont want to try something that absolutely nobody is having success with. I recently set up a dosing pump to feed live baby brine shrimp to the tank every 15 minutes (I'm hatching them several times a week, then transferring them to a separate dosing container with aeration). Eventually I would like to use this setup to alternate between feeding live baby brine as well as frozen cyclops/copepods.

So please feel free to share any experiences you have with some of the more intermediate/difficult anthias available in the hobby.

 

[Reefnub]

I have some experience with mixing many different small species of anthias.
Resplendent, Carberryi, Dispar, Ignitus, Lyretail, Sunburst and even Barlett mix fine together ime.


Bartlett and lyretail are a bit more aggressive than the rest, maybe a small chase, but they become friends again. I hope this helps, GL!

 

[o2manyfish]

I think the Dispar should be in the easy group.

I have kept them with evansi and carberryi and those three group together and follow directions well.

I have a tiny purple queen who looks like its on the verge of starving, but has been hanging with the Dipar for about 8 months. Eats like crazy gotten a little larger, but just doesn't gain much weight.

Dave B

 

[ca1ore]

I've 'wrestled' with princess, purple queen and flavoguttatus (prolly spelled it wrong) and they are all a pain in the a$$. With rare exception, the don't do well with aggressive tankmates and need to be fed multiple times per day with small foods. Resplendent/Randalls are much easier. Where the aforementioned trio of species failed to thrive in my main display, a quintet if resplendents have done very well. They still need 3 feedings a day, but are much less picky. They are jumpers, though, so a screen is necessary.

 

[MrCaveman]

Ive had excellent luck with dispar and squarespot anthias keeping 7 dispar and 11 squarespots together in the same tank. Main thing is feeding a lot for the first few weeks in order to encourrage new/hiding anthias to come out. Once theyre out most of the time and have a good weight ill from heavy feeding I go back to regular 2 a day feeding schedule. My dispars love pellets food. Ive been really wanting a group of flavoguttatus eventually. I also prefer to get smallish sized anthias as in my experience they eat more readily. Also if you want a large male squarespot I recomend getting a group of females and let them figure out whos gonna be male.