Purple Queens anthias

[alex gonzales]

My local fish store just brought in a trio of purple queen anthias, and they are simply stunning! My question is, are they hardy fish from your experience? I have three dispar anthias and they are very hardy, eat anything I feed em. I have heard that purple queens are alot harder to keep, but so much lovlier. Let me know your experience, thanks. By the way, they are going into a 400 gal tank.

 

[snorvich]

Can you feed continuously or pretty close?

 

[alex gonzales]

Only about twice a day right now, but would consider an autofeeder.

 

[snorvich]

Only about twice a day right now, but would consider an autofeeder.

That is not going to work with this fish. I recommend not considering them.

 

[Reefnub]

I've heard purple queen are nearly impossible to keep and they require a different diet from the usual anthias.

 

[MIKE NY]

not impossible...just harder to aclimate them to accept foods. Mine took almost a week to come out and start feeding. They prefer smaller foods such as NutraMar Ova, Cyclopeeze etc so therefore they need to be fed more often, but once mine were accepting larger foods like mysis and even pellets I was able to cut down the feedings. I was lucky because it only took about 6-7 months for them to take larger foods. My male is actually a pretty tough fish standing up to the more aggressive anthias in my tank such as my Bartletts and Lyretails...

 

[aquaph8]

I started with a trio and QT'd them for weeks until they all ate really well. Upon introduction to the display my male got really shy and would never come out of the rocks and eventually starved. The two females did well for a long time until one stopped eating suddenly. Im now down to one and she is a very solid healthy fat fish. I only feed a couple times a day now and she does really well. If only I could have 10 just like her. So while not impossible, they are pretty tough. They are pretty hardy but getting them to eat something other than tiny specs is a challenge cause it takes a lot of tiny little specs to fill a belly.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

I would like to bump this as I just bought three for my 50g azoox tank. They seem to pic at the frozen cyclopeeze but havent looked at anything else. Im sure they are picking at some of the rotifers and oyster feast that I am feeding my tank, but Im not sure