Purple Anthias Eating Like Pig! But only if...

[adddo]

Forgot to point out that none of them have shown any signs of changing to a male as of yet, im not sure what to look for regarding that, any change in their behavior? growth? etc, i do know what a male look like, just not sure if there is a way of telling if one of my females are starting to change into a male.

So any info on that would be appreciated.

Also sorry for any bad spelling/grammar since english isnt my first language.

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8244716#post8244716 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adddo
Forgot to point out that none of them have shown any signs of changing to a male as of yet, im not sure what to look for regarding that, any change in their behavior? growth? etc, i do know what a male look like, just not sure if there is a way of telling if one of my females are starting to change into a male.

So any info on that would be appreciated.

Also sorry for any bad spelling/grammar since english isnt my first language.

LOL your English is better than that of many people who were born here!

They sound very robust/healthy!

Basically one of the females will start keeping the others "in line" (American idiom - not literally in a line) She'll be letting them know who's boss quite regularly and the others will be obediant. She may show the "U" swimming which is a fast dip under the other females & back up again. You may see her pectoral fins begin to elongate (get longer than those of the other girls.)


I'll go ahead and post the changes for those who don't know the differences. If you have tukas with the yellow stripes ( as opposed to pascalus no stripe) The males lose the yellow stripe but develop some yellow on the "throat", they become deeper purple and develop an even darker purple spot on the dorsal fin (toward the posterior- it develops close to the body and may even be partly on the upper body adjacent to the fin)

I would love to stay posted on your fish and wish you the very best of luck with them.

You know - it would be interesting if temperature turned out to be the "key" wouldn't it? What a simple thing for so many to have ignored. i think the tukas are considered slightly less difficult than the pascalus -tukas are found down to 98 feet (30m) but pascalus are found down farther to 195 feet (60m) - Could they less tolerant of warmth than the tukas???

Oh well that's just speculation -

 

[adddo]

Thank you very much for the information, i will keep an eye on them to see if anyone behaves the way you described. One of them is a tad bit bigger then the rest so might be something going on there.

About the temperature, yes i dont know if it is the key, but i do think it plays into the general wellbeing of these fishes? Hopefully these will prosper and maybe we can get one step closer to knowing more about the care of these fishes.

Ill update here every now and then or when something out of the ordinary happens

 

[adddo]

They are still eating and are healthy. None have as of yet displayed any intention of changing to a male though.

They now eat anything i put in the tank be it pellets, artemia, my homemade mix.. anything basically.

Showing vibrant colors especially when the MH turns off.

 

[SDguy]

How neat! Let's see some pics!

 

[adddo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8534656#post8534656 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
How neat! Let's see some pics!

Ill try to get som pic of them tonight. I must warn you though.. neither me nor my camera are very good, but ill give it a shot.

 

[Serioussnaps]

The key with anthias is that they like FINE foods(not fine like good, but fine as in particle size) What i had to do with mysis was put it in the blender with some tank water and chop it all up then put into the tank....anthias started eating it up. Does your female even try to eat it then spit it out?

Sweetwater zoo is liked by some, cyclopeeze, you know the drill but yeah until you try other avenues or until she eats definitely enrich in some selcon which i do anyways. I really miss my dispars, had to get rid of them as i moved down to a 55 g SPS tank, anthias dont like the smaller tanks and i cant cover the tank.

Good luck!

 

[adddo]

 

[adddo]

Ill try and getter better pictures later.

 

[jadette]

I have a pair of purple queens and they have been thriving in my tank for almost 2 months now. I have to admit that I did no research before buying them at my LFS (something that my husband is still lecturing me over), so I was a bit worried when I read that they were picky eaters after the fact.

They have been successfully eating frozen mysis and brine shrimp and I'll feed them 2-3 times a day. The only problem I have is that they're really slow eaters and I'll have to put enough food in the tank to completely satisfy my percula clowns, else they get very little leftovers to choose from. The mysis shrimp do seem too big for them and I often see them spitting out the larger pieces. I'll have to try chopping them up.

Hopefully, I'm doing something right and they'll continue to thrive in the tank. I'll have to post pics soon.

 

[TWallace]

I picked up 2 female tukas from an LFS a few days ago, not knowing that they were picky eaters. I have successfully kept P. truncatus and P. bartlettorum (still have the Bartlett's) so I thought I would be successful with this anthias as well. The tukas are in my 12g QT and have not eaten anything yet. I've tried cyclopeeze flake, blood worms, frozen mysis, frozen brine, formula one (both flake and frozen), reef prime frozen and formula one pellets. All foods were completely ignored by both. I should have asked the LFS to feed them before purchasing, but like I said, I didn't know these were picky eaters.

I'm going to try blending up some frozen mysis in my blender to reduce the size and see if they like that.

 

[TWallace]

No luck, blended up mysis was also ignored. I'm wondering if they were in the main tank with the other fish they'd eat. I'll probably give that a shot after they've been in QT for a week. I really don't want them to starve to death.

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8859179#post8859179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TWallace
No luck, blended up mysis was also ignored. I'm wondering if they were in the main tank with the other fish they'd eat. I'll probably give that a shot after they've been in QT for a week. I really don't want them to starve to death.

They will eat the live just hatched brine, I think. All you need is a kit from the LFS ($10-12) and an empty 2 liter soda container, and an air pump. The longer they go without eating, the less likely your chances are of having success with them.

Are you keeping the water "cool"? I'd aim for for 74 degrees F.

You just cut the bottom of the bottle off and screw it in to the base

 

[adddo]

Mine are still eating, growing and looking happy.

The last couple of motnhs i have been drawing back some on the feeding trying to get them used to 2 feeds a day, and have noticed nothing negative at all.

 

[nyvp]

congrats adddo keep it up we are all cheering for you

 

[adddo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9406352#post9406352 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nyvp
congrats adddo keep it up we are all cheering for you

Thanks!

Yeah they are still thriving in my tank.

Upgrade in the works tho, we'll see how they like that!

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8994266#post8994266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adddo
Mine are still eating, growing and looking happy.

The last couple of motnhs i have been drawing back some on the feeding trying to get them used to 2 feeds a day, and have noticed nothing negative at all.

That's wonderful! Would you mind posting a little more about your tank? Especially temperature, how long you've had them so far and are you still feeding them the same foods? "frozen artemia and cyklopeeze and a couple of times a wek i put in some phytoplankton (they like that). " What exactly is the phytoplankton, by the way?

 

[SDguy]

Wow, I've never heard of anthias eating phytoplankton (algal plankton?)

While I'm happy adddo is having success, I am I little bummed that he doesn't seem to be doing anyhting unique/special. I was hoping for a revelation of sorts to be able to say, Ah ha, that's what needs to be done!

 

[adddo]

Well, although i dont think its revolutionary i think the fact that i keep my tank on the lower side of the temperature is a big factor in keeping these Anthias succesfully (sofar) As i wrote earlier in the thread, tank stays stable at 78F with the help of a chiller. These Anthias live at a greater depth than most others, maybe this is what makes it work for me. Or maybe im just lucky?

Cant say i've seen them actually eating the phyto but they seem more aggresive while eating at the times that i mix phyto with the other food. Its JS' Phytoplan.

Angel, the last few months they've only gotten the frozen mix (Artemia, Homemade seafoodmix and cyclo) 2-3 times a week. their basefood has been pellets (Salifert Energy Plus and ON Formula Two Small) Temp is still stable at 78F, i have lots of flow in my tank ~60x turnover. its on the smallish side, only 90G, but im currently setting up a 150G that they will be moving into in about a weeks time.

They do have lots of hidingplaces in the rock that they still use when im having my hands in the tank.

I skim heavily (Deltec APF 600 for tanks up to 240G)

Nitrates/Phosphates at zero. Salinity 1.026. PH 8.0-8.2

I really dont do anything else that is even mildly 'out of the ordinary'

I still think that keeping the tank just a bit cooler then most others is a big plus for these fishes.

Ill try to get some pics of them when i've moved them to the new tank.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9414879#post9414879 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adddo
These Anthias live at a greater depth than most others, maybe this is what makes it work for me. Or maybe im just lucky?

Interesting...I have actually read the opposite...which is why they are so commonly available and cheap, relatively to other anthias.