Lyretail Anthias - How many total

[foozed]

Hi Reefers! So, we tried 3 Lyretails in QT and only 1 survived to make the MT. The survivor was the aggressive and ultimately we think the cause of the others perishishing. The question we have now is...how many to get for this next round of QT?? We have the one that made it to the MT....do we get odds or evens for QT? We've heard odds...but given we have 1 in the main...we will either start with evens or end with evens...

 

[somebloke]

Here's my recent story but witha different type of Anthias, Carberryi.

Bought three. When they got in the display tank everything was initially great. After about a week, one of the three had a tailfin chomped. The only two other fish were a Kole Tang and a Blue-Spotted Jawfish, neither of which seemed to be aggressive. Watched for a bit and finally saw a brief but aggressive chase from one of the other Carberryi.

So I moved it to QT for isolation. All the parameters were good but, all alone, it just hid all day, wouldn't eat well at all, and seemed to be slowly deteriorating. What I suspect is that it was actually not doing well without a "society." Who knows. After about 9 days of that and some minor recovery on his tailfin, I decided to add him back but with three other Carberryi at the same time. My hope was that a larger group would be more "diffuse" and chill.

All six are doing great after about 3.5 weeks and the tail has healed substantially. I did add a brine hatchet and continuous slow rate feeder, which they seem to like (they hang out against the top current waiting for the baby brine to emerge, and chomp then up. There almost seems to be a short of rotation where the last prizewinner turns around, takes a swim to the other side of the tank and back, right to the end of the line. It's not a strict but rather a rough pattern, and kinda cool to see.

So, I took a risk with the whole thing by adding the three new fish with no QT, but this is a temporary 55g while I am gradually assembling a 125g. No corals yet. If there are any health issues, I'll just turn the 55 into a QT and accelerate assembly of the 125g as a display.

Loving these Anthias.

Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk

 

[foozed]

Here's my recent story but witha different type of Anthias, Carberryi.

Bought three. When they got in the display tank everything was initially great. After about a week, one of the three had a tailfin chomped. The only two other fish were a Kole Tang and a Blue-Spotted Jawfish, neither of which seemed to be aggressive. Watched for a bit and finally saw a brief but aggressive chase from one of the other Carberryi.

So I moved it to QT for isolation. All the parameters were good but, all alone, it just hid all day, wouldn't eat well at all, and seemed to be slowly deteriorating. What I suspect is that it was actually not doing well without a "society." Who knows. After about 9 days of that and some minor recovery on his tailfin, I decided to add him back but with three other Carberryi at the same time. My hope was that a larger group would be more "diffuse" and chill.

All six are doing great after about 3.5 weeks and the tail has healed substantially. I did add a brine hatchet and continuous slow rate feeder, which they seem to like (they hang out against the top current waiting for the baby brine to emerge, and chomp then up. There almost seems to be a short of rotation where the last prizewinner turns around, takes a swim to the other side of the tank and back, right to the end of the line. It's not a strict but rather a rough pattern, and kinda cool to see.

So, I took a risk with the whole thing by adding the three new fish with no QT, but this is a temporary 55g while I am gradually assembling a 125g. No corals yet. If there are any health issues, I'll just turn the 55 into a QT and accelerate assembly of the 125g as a display.

Loving these Anthias.

Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk

Thanks for sharing your experience! That seems to be the story across the board with anthias...social and need numbers to diffuse the aggression! Do you have a more dominant one turning male?

Would love to see a pic of them together, Carberryis are very pretty!

We have an opportunity to QT a new round...sounds like at least 3 but maybe 4-5 would be better...hmmm

Anyone have experience mixed anthias types? Our LFS has lyretails with bartletts and one other type...

 

[ca1ore]

Depends on the size of the display. Best approach I have found with anthias, and lyres particularly, is to add at least 3 females. Let them decide who gets to be the male. Lots of space and frequent feedings will help to mitigate aggression.

 

[Joe0813]

For whatever reason I can not keep this fish alive. I always buy 3 females and they eat everything but then they die. ive tried this three times in my 180 gallon and they never make it

 

[ca1ore]

Anthias are a group of fish (well, pseudoanthias actually) that really cry out for QT. They often come with flukes, intestinal worms, pop eye or even uronema. QT allows you to address these and get them up to a healthy body weight. My issues with Lyretails was that they'd winnow down to just one dominant fish over time. Got to have space and frequent feedings.

 

[somebloke]

Anthias are a group of fish (well, pseudoanthias actually) that really cry out for QT. They often come with flukes, intestinal worms, pop eye or even uronema. QT allows you to address these and get them up to a healthy body weight. My issues with Lyretails was that they'd winnow down to just one dominant fish over time. Got to have space and frequent feedings.

Would you do a prophylactic treatment of any type on incoming Anthias?

Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk