Sunburst Anthias - Any experiences?

[dirtyreefer]

I have two Sunburst Anthias (one male, one female) on hold at my LFS. They arrived last night and so far today they are not eating as of yet. I heard these buggers can be hard to get eating, does anybody else have any experience with these guys?

 

[dirtyreefer]

Nobody?

 

[iamwhatiam52]

Great fish.
Mine were timid at first and stayed hidden most of the first two weeks.

THEY ARE MOST LIKELY TO EAT IF THE FOOD GOES FLYING PAST THEM IN A STRONG CURRENT

They eat mysids and chopped bits of shrimp clam and squid, but can be picky at times, refusing to eat food from a particular package.

 

[dirtyreefer]

Hey THANK YOU for your response! I did quite a bit of reading on here as well as online before purchasing my pair (male and female) 3 days ago. I made sure they were eating in the store before my purchase. They are gorgeous fish. My male is swimming out in the open all the time, he seems to have settled in quite nicely while the female is out about half the time, while hiding the other half.

I have tried feeding brine, mysis, and cyclopeeze (both frozen and flake), but they still have yet to take a big bite. I have enough flow in my SPS tank, but the food flies right by them. I see the male swimming towards a piece flying by, but never takes that bite.

Just wondering how long it took you get yours to eat?

 

[drowzee]

just give them time. i have one and stayed shy but is now eating brine and mysis very well. when i brought him home he stayed hidden for several hours but comes feeding time he took a couple of bites. i turned off my closed loop pump when feeding so food moves around with just the sump pump. good luck.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

Mine didn't eat for a week.

 

[dirtyreefer]

I saw the male nibbling on a brine/mysis mix I put in today, so things are looking good. The female is still a little more reclusive and docile, so it may take her longer although she comes out quite a bit now.

 

[jiggy]

to get anthias to eat i put a cube of frozen brine and/or mysis in a tupperware with tankwater.. let it thaw out and mix it around.. then dump some of the water from the tupperware into the tank so the fish can smell it and they know theres food in the water. then feed them.

 

[package]

I am on my third try with them. I attempted to keep 3, twice, three was not such a good number perhaps.

I had the 2 sets of 3 in a 125g soft reef with 660w of VHOs. The stayed sort of in the shade, seemed to eat well. Each time they died off one by one over a period of about 8-9 months.

This time I have 2 in a 75g soft reef with 260w of Power compacts. They are in an office environment and the room temperature stays in the low 70s. This along with the less light allows me to keep the temperature in the tank lower (75/76).

I think the lower temperature along with the less light has helped with them. They are each on one side of the tank and eat very well. They will not eat flake food. I feed them frozen meaty cubes throughout the day. If there is something they do not like, they spit it out.
I have had them close to a year, they look perfect (very long tail fins) and are getting larger. They are with a coral beauty and Tomini tang, so there is no aggression in the tank as well.

 

[dirtyreefer]

Ya since these are deepwater fish, I guess their natural habitat would consist of the lower temps you are providing. Good point. Unless you had two females and one male that last time you kept them, I think the males would end up fighting to the death.

 

[lvreefer]

Just saw your post.
From what I have witnessed is these guys do better on there own unless you have a pair, good find by the way!! They perfer lower light, however I have one in a bright tank that has adapted very well. It took a while to get him to feed, but I feed Cyclop-eeze and Hikari Mysis shrimp, both frozen. He doesn't touch the cyclop, however he didn't start feeding on mysis until I mixed the two together. Keep your salinity, temp and pH especial stable and all other parameters in check and you should be fine as long as they are eating. I keep my tank at 1.025, 78-79, 8.1 - 8.3. Above anything else acclimate by drip and turn off lights for the first day.