Why my anthias lost its color ?

S

Seng

New member
I have keeping 40+ anthias in my 150gal for about 5~7 months . all are healthy and feeding well . but most of them lost their original color compare to the beginning . I'm not talking about male turning to female . They are barletts , lyretail , purple queen , square , imelda , dispar , hutchii , scribbled and tricolor anthias .

Some people told that is due to strong lighting as I'm using a 400w and 2 x 250w MH lighting . Some say due to not feeding live food as I'm feeding frozen brine shrimp and pellet food only .

Anybody please advise how to bring back the anthias color ?
 
I don't know that it would help, but I would add more frozen to the diet than just brine; it has very little nutritional value.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12740311#post12740311 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chibils
I don't know that it would help, but I would add more frozen to the diet than just brine; it has very little nutritional value.
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Thanks for the suggestion . As I only can get frozen mysis shrimp and it is the only available in our market besides brine shrimp but the anthias seems don't like to taste mysis in my case . Any others recommended food for anthias ?
 
I had the same thing happen to my male Lyretail. He looks like a big female now. I don't feed pellet but I do feed Rod's, frozen mysis, and frozen brine.

Gary - on the cyclopeeze are you talking about the frozen stuff that comes in a bar? I've tried that stuff multiple times and they are so tiny that the fish just ignore them. Is there another bigger kind?

Ken
 
I firmly believe that males will only keep their color in the presence of females. If ALL of your anthias are washing out, it can be attested to diet. If only the males are, you have social group issues.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12745224#post12745224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
I firmly believe that males will only keep their color in the presence of females. If ALL of your anthias are washing out, it can be attested to diet. If only the males are, you have social group issues.
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all of my anthias include male and female also turning lighter color after months . I'm feeding mix pellet food with Fauna Marine , Ocean Nutrition , Kent marine and Spectrum food . Maybe I need to change another brand to have a try . In my country , there have not much choice . :( I'm starting to feed my anthias with frozen mysis today but mostly refuse to take it . Will continue feeding until they eat the mysis and will try feeding with frozen mysis only to see any improvement on the color for few months .
 
Re: Why my anthias lost its color ?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12739980#post12739980 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Seng
Some say due to not feeding live food as I'm feeding frozen brine shrimp and pellet food only .
Click to expand...

That is my guess right there. Not varied at all, and not very good either.

I feed all things meaty and frozen to my anthias....

squid, plankton, shrimp, mysis (jumbo, regular, mini, PE), scallop, krill, brine, formula one, VHP formula etc.

Dry foods soaked with vitachem or selcon:
formula one and two flakes, prime reef flakes, New life spectrum pellets.

I'm frankly surprised and impressed that you've kept all those anthias (including purple queens :eek2: ) alive on brine and pellets for that long! Why can't I ever find the pellet eating tukas at the LFS :mad:

:D
 
Mine like the freeze dried cyclops eeze along with all the stuff SD mentioned.
I soak the freeze dried in tank water first
 
Some picture for my anthias color comparison . I'm not sure some turning to female or not but all the female color also changing lighter too .

any idea is it related to water parameter ?
Ca = 400~420
kH = 9~10
Ph = 8.3~8.4
Mg = 1300
PO4 = 0.1
NO3 = 50+ ( now manage to bring down to 25 already )
Salinity = 1.025
Temperature = 25~26C

Or related to strong lighting ?
1 x XM 20kk 400w and 2 x Hamilton 14kk 250w and 2 x 110w VHO actinic in a 4.5 feet tank .

Any suggestion or comment are welcome ... Thanks in advance .


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Re: Re: Why my anthias lost its color ?

Re: Re: Why my anthias lost its color ?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12747179#post12747179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
That is my guess right there. Not varied at all, and not very good either.

I feed all things meaty and frozen to my anthias....

squid, plankton, shrimp, mysis (jumbo, regular, mini, PE), scallop, krill, brine, formula one, VHP formula etc.

Dry foods soaked with vitachem or selcon:
formula one and two flakes, prime reef flakes, New life spectrum pellets.

I'm frankly surprised and impressed that you've kept all those anthias (including purple queens :eek2: ) alive on brine and pellets for that long! Why can't I ever find the pellet eating tukas at the LFS :mad:

:D
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I just put 10 purple queen in the tank at the beginning so they won't too shy and always hiding . One of it come out and all will follow . feeding frozen Dhapia ( actually not really know what is it , its a frozen and very tiny food something like rotifer ) and slowly train for brine shrimp and pellet . 4 out of 10 are survive only and never plan to add anymore .
 
I can only suggest 2 things possibly. First, diet. Defintiely try to provide a variable diet. Cyclopeeze bis supposed to do wonders for coloring. secondly, is it possible onre of your bulbs has a crack? That looksm like UV burn. I think thats highly unlikely, but maybe you know something I dont.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12755499#post12755499 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
I can only suggest 2 things possibly. First, diet. Defintiely try to provide a variable diet. Cyclopeeze bis supposed to do wonders for coloring. secondly, is it possible onre of your bulbs has a crack? That looksm like UV burn. I think thats highly unlikely, but maybe you know something I dont.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the comment . I'm start feeding with cyclopeeze slowly cause my nitrate at very high side so will not feeding daily at this moment . I'm just replace all with new bulb last months and all MH are single ended and fire up with Icecap Eballast . The anthias color fading is not after MH bulb replacement but slowly happen after many months . I have others fish as Queen angel , Majestic angel , multicolor angel , watanabe angel , Gramma Loreto , Orchid dottyback , Lopez tang , green wrasse , yellow wrasse etc but all color become nicer day by day , only anthias color turning fading so thinking about something are not suit to anthias in my tank :( They can survive and feeding well for many months so hope cyclopeeze will bring back their color soon ... :)
 
How high is the nitrate? I hate to be obvious, but high nitrate could be a cause for color loss if the fish aren't comfortable at the higher levels.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12763711#post12763711 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DugJ
How high is the nitrate? I hate to be obvious, but high nitrate could be a cause for color loss if the fish aren't comfortable at the higher levels.
Click to expand...

My nitrate currently about 25 by salifert testkit after install sulphur reactor . Before that are 50+ and the SR just about 3~4 weeks in my tank . Hope can bring it down as low as possible cause I'm feeding heavily ... :p
 
The 'dhapia' is probably daphina. They're small freshwater bugs. Because they're freshwater, they aren't the best in the world for reef fish. Try cyclop-eeze instead.
 
I only keep Lyretail anthias, so I can't commend on other type of anthias. But for my lyretails, I kept a pair for 7 years before and they just lost the color after about a year and would never get the color back again. I fed them alot of Mysis and Brine Shrimp and the fishes were fat and healthy but just couldn't get the color. After they died, my friend gave me another pair and it was so colorful in his tank but once it get to my tank, they lose the color after about 6 months. So I start to feed them a bunch of frozen food like Mysis and brine shrimp, fresh oysters, clams, jumbo shrimps, squid from asian markets. All of those stuffs I bought from asian market, I would froze them and each day, I only take out a small pieces and chopped it up into really small pieces that the anthias would eat. I also bought another type of frozen food at the petstore called Ocean Plankton. I think this stuffs really help with the colors as well. Anthias will get used to a certain type of foods and they will refuse to eat a new type of meat.. But if you keep feeding it, they will eat. Its a lot of work with Anthias. I feed them twice in the morning before work and 3 times once I get home in the evening. Its also very expensive but the color on the male lyretail anthias is unbelievable. it is just as colorful as the day it arrived at the store or even better. My anthias also lay eggs few times a month.
 
I also would probably lean towards attributing the loss of color to the intensity of the lights. For whatever reason, I have seen this happen countless times before, and suddenly that $50 hot pink showstopper is just a peach colored minnow making it's way through the crowd of fish. I may be off, but my vote is the lighting issue
 
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