Princess Anthias - left with one

[iced98lx]

The LFS I buy from had 2 princess anthias in stock, I bought both and they placed an order for six more. Sadly I lost one directly after acclimation (likely my fault). The LFS only got one single fish in, and it didn't make it through acclimation (they are excellent at it, so I trust it wouldn't have made it in my tank either, frankly).

Now, everyone is sold out, and no one seems to know when more will appear.

The goal was 8 7 females and 1 male, clearly that's not going to happen now, so my question is:

What should I do with this fish?

Will it thrive alone? (I'm reading yes, but better with a group)

Can I have a grouping of other Anthias with it?

Anyone know where one more about the seasonality of Princess Anthias? I'd wait if more would be entering the trade soon.

Thanks!

 

[eatbreakfast]

Parvirostris anthias are of similar temperament as princess, but a bit hardier. Other good companion anthias would be dispars, pulcherrimus, and randalls. It might be ok on its own but a group would be better.

 

[iced98lx]

So I can group my single anthia with some dispars or sunsets and be OK?

 

[suta4242]

I would not keep it alone; they definitely need other similar species to thrive. JME

Not sure which anthias are locally available to you, but I would mix them with relatively peaceful smaller species eg aurulentus, possibly flavoguttatus if you can get several, or lori...

:wave:

HTH and good luck!

 

[eatbreakfast]

The above choices are good companions, though aurulentis is not available as often as smithvanezi, and I would recommend against lori as they are notoriously difficult to get eating.

 

[suta4242]

Lori are hard to get eating???

Guess we're on different sides of the pond as locally caught lori are, IMO, one of the easiest anthias to keep aside from dispars. My guess is maybe yours have spent a long time in transit, or been shipped under stressful conditions etc... But if that's the general consensus in your region then I agree, avoid them and stick to hardier species with similar temperament to smithvanizi. :beer:

 

[MIKE NY]

As mentioned they do better in groups of either the same species or other similar peaceful species. Mine shoaled with my Dispars, Randall's and Purple Queens. Mine also took a few days before they felt comfortable enough to come out and start feeding.

 

[iced98lx]

my LFS is coming through the way it sounds, waiting to hear how many the wholesaler has..

Very excited.

 

[iced98lx]

Acclimating some fish!

 

[iced98lx]

Four Princess Two Saddles, one more Princess inbound.

 

[SDguy]

I'll be interested to see how the saddles work out. I found them to be quite aggressive with each other long term, but not sure about with other species. LADD has had sunsets lately, too, BTW Just sayin'

 

[iced98lx]

I'll be interested to see how the saddles work out. I found them to be quite aggressive with each other long term, but not sure about with other species. LADD has had sunsets lately, too, BTW Just sayin'

I too will be curious to see how they do. They are all in one grouping right now, so that is interesting to me. LFS says more saddles are coming, so might add a third, so there are 5 princess and 3 saddles. Unclear to me if that would help the aggression or not.

 

[suta4242]

When I got princess a year or two back the harem came in with two flavoguttatus. They schooled together without issue and seemed very similar temperament wise. Of course, your mileage may vary....:dance:

Edit: are these in a qt or a DT? In either case to minimise aggression you need to feed so that the weakest member has enough to eat. If a group gets along okay, but one member dies, the interaction between the survivors can change dramatically, sometimes for the worse.

 

[iced98lx]

When I got princess a year or two back the harem came in with two flavoguttatus. They schooled together without issue and seemed very similar temperament wise. Of course, your mileage may vary....:dance:

Edit: are these in a qt or a DT? In either case to minimise aggression you need to feed so that the weakest member has enough to eat. If a group gets along okay, but one member dies, the interaction between the survivors can change dramatically, sometimes for the worse.

Thanks for the great information!! These are in a "DT" but are the only fish (and will continue to be for the next 8 + weeks) in the DT. I've been feeding LRS Reef Frenzy three times a day, and will continue to do so.

 

[SDguy]

How is everyone doing?

 

[iced98lx]

How is everyone doing?

not good

I think one came in with something ugly. I had a group of 5 eating, and happy.

One by one they showed tail damage, heavy breathing and then stop eating. I notice all three on one day, the next they're dead.

I'm down to two princesses left, one that was the original one and one new one.The original is breathing heavy and not eating, the other has tail damage but is eating so far. I can't get her to come out of the rocks far enough for a good picture, and the little snots crawl into the rocks and die so I have only gotten one body and it was too rotted out to see anything.

I knew this was a possibility and a risk of not having them in an isolated QT tank for treatment, but if they all go the tank will run fallow for a good while before any additional introductions. Also, I would have treated the tank but, and this sounds bad, but the wife and I were both knocked pretty flat on our asses with the flu while this was going on and it didn't really go off in my head that this was obviously not natural until today when the two that had been doing so well suddenly had symptoms. Silly I know, but sometimes life gets in the way.

It's very frustrating but mostly expensive with about $600 in losses if they all go.

 

[airtime23]

From what I've read, Princess Anthias are difficult to keep.

I had three in QT just last week. All three never ate (mysis, brine, rotifers, Cyclops, pellets, flake...nada). One died after 4 days. Two days later, after still no signs of eating and the fish looking even more stressed, I took the remaining two back to the LFS and they gave me credit for them.

I'm not going to try them again.