Long term success with Anthias

[brad]

I am debating doing a group of anthias in my 270. Probably either Pseudoanthias pleurotaenia (my favorite for looks) or Pseudanthias squamipinnis (hardiest). I don't want to do this unless I there is a good chance of longterm (3+ years) success. I'd like to hear from anyone who kept a school of either of these longterm, any tips, other anthias species to consider (not too expensive, not to difficult to care for), etc. If this is too difficult, I may just stick to easier fish.

 

[ca1ore]

I am sure there are folks who have done this, but it is quite tricky IMO. I have successfully kept a single male Squampinis alive in my tank long term (over 5 years), but it requires heavy and frequent feeding. Groups are always problematic - I suspect because even our big tanks aren't really big enough. Every time I tried a group of Squamps (never tried any other species), things generally were OK for a while, but eventually the lowest member of the school (picked on the most) would get sick and die, followed buy the next lowest, and on.

I forget, Pleurotaenia - is that the square spot? I guess I could google it

 

[brad]

Pleurotaenia is the square spot. My avatar is left over from when I kept a group of unknown anthias in my 120, the last of which died 10 years ago. I'd have 8 healthy fish, in a month I'd have 7 healthy fish and 1 starved looking one, and then in another month I'd have 6 healthy fish and 1 starved looking one, until I got down to just 1 healthy fish. Given the size of this system, and hoping people learned something in the last decade, I wanted to give it another try.