Problem with Anthias! HELP please!

[Ohio]

I have had a beautiful Square Spot Anthias in my 120 for about 4 months. We lost power last week and I lost my Cyclopeeze that I feed him. LFS lost theirs too. I was able to replace my Rods food so I wasn't too worried. Unfortunately, my Anthias has declined the past few days. He is getting very skiny. So I went to another LFS and bought a selection of plankton food, dried and frozen. The Anthias comes out to eat every time I feed but does not eat the frozen zooplankton -just swims around and quickly goes back to his cave. He eats the larger dried plankton but goes back to hiding and spits it out. Its almost like he can't swallow. Nothing new has been introduced to the tank since i added him months ago. Am I doing something wrong? How much should he be eating? He used to swim around all the time with his mouth open eating, now it is a qiuck trip to the top when I feed and he quickly goes back to laying on the bottom. Any ideas about what is going on or what food I should try that he will eat and will put weight on him quickly? Thank you,Jenn

 

[snorvich]

Try nutramar ova.

 

[Ohio]

Try nutramar ova.

I have called around for this and live brine shrimp; cannot find any. I am going to order it but do you have any other ideas for the time being?

 

[Maaka]

I'm sure you have tried. But it doesn't touch mysis or pellets? Mine greedily devours both that is why i'm saying anything at all.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I assume you have a Pseudoanthias pleurotaenia; these guys have several common names. These are big anthias and will certainly eat all of the smaller planktavore foods, I think they also need a variety of larger and meatier foods. I have a trio that eat just about anything; mysis, spirulina enriched brine, bits of raw shrimp, live brine, etc. Baby guppies are a great treat for them. these aren't typical anthias foods, but Squarebacks aren't typical anthias and don't eat like them. Your comment about the dried plankton and not swallowing could be a real problem, I hope not. Long term use of freeze dried plankton should be avoided, IMO. Its been linked to a form of lockjaw in lionfish and I remember some other negative studies on the stuff. I no longer feed any of it to any fish.
If your fish isn't Pseudoanthias pleurotaenia, never mind. (ala Gilda Radner in the old SNL.)