Looking for Purple Queen Anthias

Emerald Bay gets them in from time to time. Gotta be careful, though, as I believe they're often mistaken for a more common anthias. Sean/Chris/Scott etc. would be able to help out with that, though.

Brandon
 
They usually get them in regularly at fins and Fur. I have one. have bought a total of 3 from there. they are very shy little fish, and are notoriously hard to get to eat. i have had my lone ranger for a month and have never witnessed it eat. it is getting food somewhere, but I dont know. From what I have read, while absolutely pretty, they are hard to keep. when and if mine goes to the fishbowl in teh sky, I will go with something more readily feeding.
 
they are a fish that even the experts cannot keep. I wouldn't recommend them at all. For a tank that runs a bit cooler (77 I believe you said yours runs at) I would wait it out and order some ventralis from divers den. They have been kept with some success and IMO are the best looking of the anthias.
 
Purple queens are beautiful but the success rate with them in aquariums is extremely low. IMO they should be left in the ocean. There are several types of anthias that tend to do much better in captivity. I'm not trying to peach just saying if you buy some the chances of you having any left in 4 to 6 months is practically 0%.
 
ventralis are beautiful but i cant find them anywhere.

I will attempt the purple queen ones when i get a bigger tank with a better copepod population.

I could be that they have a strong group dynamic and need to kept in certain ratios of male/female.

I heard the same thing about my green mandarin though....that they dont make in captivity..mine never eats anything i give it, been in my tank for almost a year now. Its huge.
 
mandarins have been bred in captivity. Lots of people keep them quite successfully. The only real requirement for them is that you have an ample supply of copepods. They are fairly common in reefs now.

Purple queen anthias are a different story. I don't think there are any success stories with these fish.

just putting it out there so you know.
 
That's the thing that stinks with keeping fish, even the ones that have bad success rates, it's seems like every once in a while, someone with no clue will manage to keep them alive and healthy. It's weird.

I literally debated for more than a year about getting a Mandarin, mainly because I didn't want to get a fish and slowly starve it over time, or have it decimate my pod population. I finally bought one 2 months ago at fishy business, and it's eaten frozen from day one. Crazy stuff.
 
I think the important thing to remember with these fish is that they are a deep water species. Even if you are lucky enough to keep them alive (and the odds are against you), they hide just about 100% of the time that you can actually see them... unless you've got night vision goggles, in which case their pretty purple color is more of a green tinge :)

I had good success with lyretail anthias and bought a few purple queens on a whim when I just happened to see them at a store. I figured that their behavior would be similar to other anthias I knew more about... it was, for sure, one of my lessons in "always do your research" and I have to agree with fishdoc that you probably should just leave them in the ocean.
 
what about feeding anthias? Im sure you guys heard that they have to be fed several times a day. I've had many Anthias, they eat just like any other fish in my experience.
 
the purple queen I have is out 75% of the day or more. however, it is shy and when I get close, it hides. also, when feeding time comes, it hides as the tangs get pretty rambunctios during the feeding frenzy. I think this is why I never see it eat. I may try a different time of day and see if I can get it on cyclopeze. when it is out, it is usually in the top half of hte water column and in the strong current.
 
ai-reefer said:
what about feeding anthias? Im sure you guys heard that they have to be fed several times a day. I've had many Anthias, they eat just like any other fish in my experience.
Click to expand...

I sure hope so as I am not home to feed fish throughout the day. :)

Just to be clear I am in no way trying to tell anyone what to do or put anyone down for trying something "difficult". The survival rate of the PQ's is dang near impossible and with so many other better suited "challenges" why not go for something with a better chance of success?
 
I kept one awhile back for over a year before it jumped. It didn't eat for the first month and I wasn't sure it would make it. I would not recommend the purple queen to anyone, however. Good luck which ever way you decide to go.
 
i bought three purple queens a month ago (one male and two females). the one female died the first week. The second female died last week with some black infection bulging near its head. the male still alive and doesnt eat any food that i put inside the tank. However, i normally see him moving his mouth as he was eating everytime my squarebacks would mate and release eggs in the water column. I think his eating them.

I have one male squareback and 4 females (2 breeding) and they are eating lots of pellets, frozen, cyclopeeze, and basically all food put into the aquarium. they mate thrice a week if not everyday multiple times a day.

My tank is 100 gals.
 
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