Lots of Anthias?

[NDreefer1]

Ive heard rumors that you can get away with putting seemingly insane numbers of anthias in a smaller tank if you introduce them all in a group. Somthing along the lines of how cichlid tanks are sometimes stocked, the theory being that aggression will be evenly dispersed among a large number of individuals, and usually it works.

The only examples ive seen of people doing this were a few european tanks a long time ago, and then his months TOTM.

I'm seriously considering getting 8-10 barletts or lyretails for a 90G mainly softie/LPS reef. Nutirent levels will be a problem but I've got a monster becket and should be safe in that department. 40W UV as well to (hopefully) keep any parisites to a minimum. No other fish except for a pair of percs...

Am I crazy or could this work? I dont want to waste money or fish, but it would look really nice.

 

[bigdee65]

IME Anthias need a lot of swimming space and I think 8-10 is way to many for a 90g tank (or any 4ft tank for that matter). I have 6 in a 6ft tank and they are aways on the move darting around. I QTed them in a 29g tank for 6 weeks and I noticed they acted way different in the smaller tank (not moving around much and always hiding from each other).

In this hobby some things work for one but not another so can 10 Anthias be housed in a 90g for a period of time? Maybe. But if you are looking to keep these fish for years then I would suggest not putting that many in that size tank.

If you want to lower the number to say 1 male and 2 or 3 females then get the Bartletts as they are not as aggressive towards each other as the Lyretails are.

 

[Frankie1]

anthias

anthias

i have bartlets and dispars anthias and the dispars are less aggressive than the bartlets.

frankie

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

i have 1 male 8 female lyretails in my 210g.....wouldn't think of putting them in anything smaller than a 6' 125g(try 1 male-4 females)
-JMO

 

[tom obrecht]

I'd have to agree with some of the comments. I think you can have a large anthias load in a tank as long as space permits. I don't want to bust your bubble but I think a 90 really isn't large enough to house groups of this species. Sorry.

 

[NDreefer1]

Thanks for all the replies. I was thinking this would be a long shot and come to think of it all the anthias-heavy tanks ive seen are much bigger then mine.

Think Ill look into getting a single fathead anthias instead...