LiveAquaria carberryi anthias

[davocean]

Peter/sdguy has the best and brightest anthias collection I've seen in person, so I definitely try to copy his routine.
He may say his carberryi's aren't as bright as he'd like, but his standards are pretty dang high IMO!LOL
If mine stay half as bright as his I'll be happy.

 

[snorvich]

Actually I copy Peter whenever I can!!

 

[SDguy]

Hey, thanks guys! But seriously, this topic has been on my mind lately, and here's why. A few months ago I noticed that my anthias have just become pale. I mean, the purple on my bartlett was almost white. I'd been lazy, and been feeding flakes and pellets, mostly. Even frozen raw shrimp/scallop didn't do much. Then I was going through my fish food freezer drawer, and noticed some old frozen Formula 1 and PE mysis that I really needed to use up. Within a week my anthias were 1000 times brighter. Was it the food? I'm not sure. I've tried the combo again, and don't seem to get the same results... so I'm not sure what the key is

 

[davocean]

If you haven't changed lighting or anything I'd say it has to be diet.
I was curious why you said PE mysis sparingly?

 

[SDguy]

It's messy, kills the skimmer head. Just generally not a great food for an already overstocked tank

 

[Makenna]

I will share what I am feeding the 5 anthias species that I keep. Perhaps we can find some similarities that help with color issues.

The Randalls are the only ones I have currently that have a lot of the red color, and it is vibrant and certainly getting better since I fist got them.

Bartlett
Randall
Lori
Fasciatus
Pictilis

I feed frozen only primarily because only the bartletts and one of the Randalls will eat dry.

Daily they get Hikari Brine w/Spirulina which make up about 60% of their feed (they all love it). The other 40% is made up of one of the following:

Hikari Mysis
PE Mysis (chopped up)
Rogger Reef Blend (grated)
Cycloopeeze
Nutramar Ova
FIsh Roe

Tues-Fri they get fed twice a day, Sat-Mon three times a day. Each feeding is equivalent to 1.5 cubes of frozen food (standard size).

Bobby

 

[SDguy]

Excellent detailed info, thank you!! How long have you had the various species?

 

[Makenna]

The Barttlets, Randalls, and Loris all around 6months or so.

The Fasciatus about 10 months,

The Pictilis a few weeks, they are still in QT.

 

[Jacob D]

I know the carberryi's that SDguy and I both got from the same local LFS here have been eating like little piggies, so that part seems easy to me so far.
Time will tell on keeping colors, fingers crossed.
I do feed cylopseze fairly regularly, as well as PE mysis.
I haven't seen them take spectrum pellets yet, hopefully they start to copy my Lyretails.

So how long have you guys had them for? Did they come from Live Aquaria or LFS?

I feed mine the following:
- Hikari Mysis.... 1x daily
- Hikari Spirulina Brine.... 1x daily
- Combo of flakes: F1, F2, Prime Reef, OSI Spirulina.... 2x daily
- NLS Pellet.... 2x daily
- Live black worms.... every other day
- Cyclop-eeze.... every other day

They looked outstanding for a couple of months, but slowly lost color over that time (I wasn't feeding cyclop-eeze). Looking back at some older pics I guess there was a time when they were pretty pale. I have a really hard time capturing their true color in photos, but I'd say in any case they have always looked much nicer in person than in the pics, but definitely not like they did when I first got them... their color was so bright I thought I had a bucket full of ventralis or something! Here are a few to compare...


Pale
<img src="http://familiadinardi.net/photos/d/516/2010-11_8042++640x800.jpg" style="border:4px solid #000;" />

Looking Better (same area of tank, same lighting)
<img src="http://familiadinardi.net/photos/d/672/2010-12_8437++640x800.jpg" style="border: 4px solid #000;" />

Recent shot in sunlight
<img src="http://familiadinardi.net/photos/d/686/2011-01_8535++570x800.JPG" style="border: 4px solid #000;" />

 

[SDguy]

I notice the paleness set in after a year or so. Lighting makes a difference...in appearance. My ambient room lighting, which I almost never have on, of course because of the tank, actually makes my anthias look GORGEOUS! I don't think phoenix 14K MH bulbs are great for anthias, truth be told.

 

[SDguy]

I have a really hard time capturing their true color in photos, but I'd say in any case they have always looked much nicer in person than in the pics, but definitely not like they did when I first got them... their color was so bright I thought I had a bucket full of ventralis or something!

You know, when I first got these 3 from LA, I looked at them in my office at work in their bags. They looked like hot pink highlighters! Now in my tank... still beautiful, but not the same. Apparently I need to throw some office lights over my reef

 

[MCCOOL]

My anthias all looked better under the 6500K C.F. Bulb I had over my QT, than they do in my t5 lit reef that uses a lot of blue spectrum light. If I turn the actinic t5's off and only run the daylights, the fish look better.

 

[snorvich]

Great thread with the detailed feeding schedule and lighting. I may have to rethink my 20 K lights.

 

[Makenna]

I think that part of the color issues may have to do with the higher Kelvin temp bulbs.

I say this because the 220g with all of my anthias in it is lit by all LED's. I never gave it much thought until this thread. So, tonight I watched the fish through the dimming process. I woudl say my normal color is around a 16K, of course as it ramps down to night, we get into the all blue/purple LED's.

The fish loose their boldness of color in the 20K+ range..The whites of course begin to glow, but the yellows on the bartletts become washed out and the red on the Loris do as well.

It woudl be interesting for someone with MH's to switch out one bulb to a 6500 for fun on the opposie end of a tank versus a 20k.

Steve, you up for it?? :wavehand:

 

[davocean]

So how long have you guys had them for? Did they come from Live Aquaria or LFS?

I happened to get some from the same batch as SDguy from our LFS about 2 1/2 -3 months ago I guess?
But this post came after that and from Liveaquaria.
We both said after the first batch how happy we were w/ them, but then seeing this post as a heads up made me think maybe liveaquaria's carberryi's were even maybe more colorful or fatter?
They certainly were a better deal at $22, I think I paid $30 or $32 a piece at LFS.

 

[SDguy]

Or, we can just be the crazies that supplement with 3000K lighting, instead of the blue LED's

 

[Monkeyfish]

A bit off topic, but since there're so many "anthias guys" on this thread...

I bought 4 Carberryi from a LFS and put them in 29g quarantine with a sponge filter, 2 koralia nanos and an HOB filter with chemipure and polyfilter pad. The fish ate mysis the first day. I changed about a gallon the next day to vacuum the leftovers. 2 days later they stopped eating and developed Ich so I added Cupramine and turned off the HOB filter. 2 days after that 2 of the fish were dead and the others had topped eating. I was concerned that the copper was the culprit so I did a 10g water change and turned the HOB back on. 12 hours later the surviving 2 anthias are huddled in the corner and still won't eat. I've fed mysis with garlic, Rod's food and nutramar ova. NO interest.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'd hate to lose these last 2 anthias.

 

[MCCOOL]

Have you tested ammonia, nitrite, etc. ?

It sounds like a water quality issue to me.

My anthias have never had a problem with cupramine, are you raising the copper level slowly? Over the course of a few days?

I'll generally wait until the fish are eating well, before medicating.

 

[SDguy]

IME anthias are not prone to ich at all. Are you sure it's ich?

 

[Makenna]

In addition to the above two comments, it seems very quick for the anthias to all show the cysts on their bodies in a bare bottom QT tank.

May be a silly question, but did your QT have an established Bio filter? Was the sponge filter seeded? That I am sure is where MCOOL is heading with the Ammonia/Nitrite readings.

Let us know.