What kind of Anthias are these?

TWallace

New member
I picked this pair up at a LFS for $20 each. The larger one was in the store over a month, the smaller one two weeks. I'm assuming the smaller is a female. She's around 2 inches long, while the larger one is almost 4 inches. The LFS had them labeled as "Pink Anthias" and didn't know what species they were, or even if they were the same species.

Male:
anthias_male.jpg


Female:
anthias_female.jpg


Both together:
anthias.jpg


So far they look good in the quarantine tank. Both are already eating flake food and swimming around actively. They get along well, too. They were in different tanks in the LFS.
 
The little one is difficult to tell, but the larger fish looks most similar to Pseudanthias truncatus, IMO. If that is true, then I believe yours would be a female. I don't think the smaller one is the same species. Unfortunately, there are at least several other fish that look very similar, as well.
 
HI

truncatus may be a good guess, but I think it could also be a Pseudanthias hypselosoma. If you have access to the new book of Kuiter, check page 39. From what I understand, Kuiter grouped P. truncatus together with P. hypseolosoma.
I don't think that the fish in the bottom of the last pic is a different species, it also has the colored tips of the caudal fin, just less overall coloration (female?)

Good luck with these beautiful fishes

Jens
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7451903#post7451903 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jens Kallmeyer
HI

truncatus may be a good guess, but I think it could also be a Pseudanthias hypselosoma. If you have access to the new book of Kuiter, check page 39. From what I understand, Kuiter grouped P. truncatus together with P. hypseolosoma.
I don't think that the fish in the bottom of the last pic is a different species, it also has the colored tips of the caudal fin, just less overall coloration (female?)

Good luck with these beautiful fishes

Jens

P. hypselosoma was my other guess--however, it tends to lack the purplish coloration found in P. truncatus. Lighting in the tank may be influencing the color a bit more, though. The colored tips seemed like a good characteristic to go by, but there are at least three other similar species that possess the same thing. Really, your guess is as good as mine.
 
Thanks for the answers everyone. After Googling the latin names mentioned above, I think they both look more like P. truncatus. They have the lyretail shape like truncatus, both with red tips. All the images I've seen of P. hypselosoma have a different shaped tail, often with the entire edge of it red, where as on my fish only the top and bottom tips are red. You can't see it very well in my pics, but both have a faint horizontal stripe starting just below the eye and above the mouth that extends to the gills. I'm pretty certain that mine are both the same species given the identical markings like that stripe and the red tips on the tail. They're both eating very well. The larger one even tried to eat a drop of water sliding down the outside of the tank. They've eaten every kind of food I've given them so far.
 
I hope you don't mind my butting in, but I also have a fish that looks like above photo - I assumed it was hypselosoma - - can anyone post a link to a pic of truncatus? Mine has purple dorsal & eye w/ red/orange tail. Eye sometimes looks blue
 
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