ThRoewer
New member
On July 27th, after seeing them for a couple of weeks at a local store, I decided to give Ventralis Anthias another shot. I picked 2 females, one was the dominant female in the tank, the other a smaller but particularly healthy looking specimen. I added these to the quarantine tank with the Assessor randalli pair I had aquired a week earlier.
Both did fine on the first day and started going after live Tigger Pods right away.
Unfortunately, around noon on the next day, I found the smaller of the two dead without any signs of disease or injury from fights.
Here a video of the surviver on the 4th day, feeding on Tigger Pods:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zXAR0rYJ9ko" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
On July 31st I got 3 additional females from another store, two nearly equal in size to the first, while the third was quite a bit smaller.
And like with the first 2, the smallest didn't see the end of the second day in the tank. Again, no obvious cause of death could be seen.
The remaining 3 were doing fine.
Here all 3 feeding on Tigger Pods a day after I got the second batch:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ad-A4tPZU40" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Two days later:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-NHpVIExseA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I noticed that they would come out more out to eat if the flow was off. In general, they would be extremely shy and reclusive when the pump was on but a bit more outgoing when the pump was off. This did however not impact their food intake and they all had always pretty full stomachs. I usually gave them a scoop of Tigger pods and brine shrimp in the morning and another when I came home from work.
I had noticed a similar reluctance to come out of cover with my Amphiprion percula pair #2 after I had moved them to a new tank of their own. They, however, became instantly more outgoing after I added a Starcki damsel to their tank. Seeing another fish out in the open obviously convinced them that it was safe to get a bit further from their anemone.
A week after the first 2 Ventralis I had bought a pair of wild Amphiprion ocellaris from the Philippines. Like most ocellaris I have had over the years they were pretty outgoing and not overly fearful. So, by the time those two were 5 weeks into their quarantine and seemingly clean I decided to move them over to the Anthias and Assessors so those would feel more comfortable to come out.
And it definitely worked:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qd3csxlL6tY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They go after frozen and even flakes but still prefer Tigger Pods over everything else. In the 6 weeks between the first video and this, the first female has grown significantly and I hope she will soon start to change into a male. She is certainly not shy anymore and the bully of the tank.
By now they are now one week shy of completing their quarantine period and it is time to decide where to put these guy.
I would love to put them into my 100-gallon reef tank but I'm not sure if it is safe for them to be in a tank with a large gigantea. That would pretty much also exclude my anemonefish system of six 40B tanks with pretty much a fish-eating carpet anemone (3 haddoni & at least 2 gigantea) in each tank.
Another possibility would be to put them in the subtropical tank with my 3 Blue Spot Jawfish. But first, winter temperatures as low as 18 °C for and summer temperatures as high as 30 °C may be way too extreme for the Anthias who like it more in the lower half of the 20s. Secondly, I also have some serious doubt that the BSJ with their darting in and out of their burrows during feedings are tankmates the Anthias would feel comfortable with.
The last option would be to set up a new 75-gallon tank for the whole Philippine gang: Anthias, Assessors, Ocellaris, and lastly my blue Regal, who really could need a bigger tank by now...
Both did fine on the first day and started going after live Tigger Pods right away.
Unfortunately, around noon on the next day, I found the smaller of the two dead without any signs of disease or injury from fights.
Here a video of the surviver on the 4th day, feeding on Tigger Pods:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zXAR0rYJ9ko" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
On July 31st I got 3 additional females from another store, two nearly equal in size to the first, while the third was quite a bit smaller.
And like with the first 2, the smallest didn't see the end of the second day in the tank. Again, no obvious cause of death could be seen.
The remaining 3 were doing fine.
Here all 3 feeding on Tigger Pods a day after I got the second batch:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ad-A4tPZU40" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Two days later:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-NHpVIExseA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I noticed that they would come out more out to eat if the flow was off. In general, they would be extremely shy and reclusive when the pump was on but a bit more outgoing when the pump was off. This did however not impact their food intake and they all had always pretty full stomachs. I usually gave them a scoop of Tigger pods and brine shrimp in the morning and another when I came home from work.
I had noticed a similar reluctance to come out of cover with my Amphiprion percula pair #2 after I had moved them to a new tank of their own. They, however, became instantly more outgoing after I added a Starcki damsel to their tank. Seeing another fish out in the open obviously convinced them that it was safe to get a bit further from their anemone.
A week after the first 2 Ventralis I had bought a pair of wild Amphiprion ocellaris from the Philippines. Like most ocellaris I have had over the years they were pretty outgoing and not overly fearful. So, by the time those two were 5 weeks into their quarantine and seemingly clean I decided to move them over to the Anthias and Assessors so those would feel more comfortable to come out.
And it definitely worked:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qd3csxlL6tY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They go after frozen and even flakes but still prefer Tigger Pods over everything else. In the 6 weeks between the first video and this, the first female has grown significantly and I hope she will soon start to change into a male. She is certainly not shy anymore and the bully of the tank.
By now they are now one week shy of completing their quarantine period and it is time to decide where to put these guy.
I would love to put them into my 100-gallon reef tank but I'm not sure if it is safe for them to be in a tank with a large gigantea. That would pretty much also exclude my anemonefish system of six 40B tanks with pretty much a fish-eating carpet anemone (3 haddoni & at least 2 gigantea) in each tank.
Another possibility would be to put them in the subtropical tank with my 3 Blue Spot Jawfish. But first, winter temperatures as low as 18 °C for and summer temperatures as high as 30 °C may be way too extreme for the Anthias who like it more in the lower half of the 20s. Secondly, I also have some serious doubt that the BSJ with their darting in and out of their burrows during feedings are tankmates the Anthias would feel comfortable with.
The last option would be to set up a new 75-gallon tank for the whole Philippine gang: Anthias, Assessors, Ocellaris, and lastly my blue Regal, who really could need a bigger tank by now...
