Purple Queen Anthias

[Kruss7]

Hello, I have a store near me that has tons of Purple Queen Anthias and selling for a decent price. I can visually watch some of them eating different frozen food and liquid foods.

I am debating buying some for my 220G peninsula which is currently empty and ready to start stocking. I have a setup to feed frozen food many times throughout the day with a dosing pump. My main concerns are the following

1. How many should I get?
2. For people that have had success getting them established do they kill eachother off?
3. How do they handle copper and other meds?
4. Is it best to put them in as my first group of fish before I start putting my more aggressive fish in from my other tanks? (Tank is all cycled media)

Anyone else who has successfully kept this please let me know how long you’ve kept them and any tips please!

 

[griss]

I'm no expert on Anthias (only had Lyretails a long time ago when I had the 450). I've never kept Queen Anthias but, I believe all Anthias do best in groups.

I think @Dr. Reef and @HumbleFish would be your best bet for an answer.

 

[Dr. Reef]

we have bad luck with them all the time.

 

[HumbleFish]

Purple queen anthias are notoriously difficult. Most refuse to eat, and those that do can go on a hunger strike at the first signs of stress.

When I would QT them, they would usually only eat live baby brine shrimp, small fish eggs or frozen calanus.

They will also eat pods BUT they have to be the kind that live in the water column (e.g. tigger pods). They don't pick off of the rock or substrate.

It would be optimal to just put them right in a DT environment, but to forgo QT is dangerous because they are prone to Uronema.

 

[nikon187]

dont do it