Need Help Please - Feeding Anthias Pictilus

pitmindi

New member
Hi I bought a male and female Pictilus Anthias last week. It was an impulse purchase, because they were so pretty, without researching them first. They are hard to feed. I was told they eat eagerly frozen mysis shrimp, but they just ignore the mysis and it just sits there to pollute my tank. My only other fish are 2 small tank bred clowns, that are lots of fun to feed and hardly any food gets wasted into the tank water with the clowns. The only food the anthias have eaten are live brine shrimp, and I cant keep going out to buy fresh brine for them! I need to be careful not to overfeed my tank since it is only 3 months old and I dont want high ammonia, etc. I only feed 1 time a day on weekdays, and 2-3 times on weekends. I also feed the whole tank since I have feather dusters and corals. I feed alternating phytoplankton (phytofeast or DT's) and oyster feast and roti feast. I dont want the anthias to starve, but I dont want to upset the bacteria balance in my tank. I have a 90 gallon tank with a 20 gallon eco-system refugiam with caulerpa macro algae. Any suggestions???
 
Yes, take the anthias back. Not an easy fish, especially so early in your fish keeping career. What kind of mysis are you feeding?
 
the manager at the store said not to feed them for 2 days then to try the frozen mysis again and they will eat the mysis. He said they were eating frozen mysis and pellets in the store. Tonight I only fed my clowns. I put a tiny bit of flakes on the top then they come to the front and I drop pellets 1 or 2 at a time and they catch most of them, thus little waste to pollute the tank. I like eager feeders like the clowns!!! I should have bought another pair of tank-raised clowns instead.
 
No, you should only have one pair of clowns per tank. Otherwise you are likely to end up with WWIII at some point.
 
Back
Top