Will anthias eat nori??

[sensei]

I have several tangs in my 470g dt, when they eat nori from the clip little pieces of nori come loose in water and some of the other fish feed from them.
Anthias need to be feed several times a day. I only feed meaty food 1 time a day, so I was wondering if the algae the comes out from the clip of nori would also feed the anthias. If that is the case they would have food several times a day.

how many anthias can I add?
Can I mix several types? if so would they school together?
should I add a male, or just females?

tank has a lot of flow: 6 MP60s and 3 gyres 250.

fish in tank are:
3 yellow tangs
1 purple tang
1 Naso tang
1 Powder blue tang
1 Unicorn tang
1 Sailfing tang
5 cardinal
1 flame dwarf angel
8 fairry wrasses


Thanks a lot

 

[Pericyte]

I do see anthias go after the little pieces of nori. They probably get some kind of nutrition from it, but I'm not sure it's a substitute for meaty food or pellets.

I have good luck feeding anthias twice a day with meaty food (and lots of nori). For meaty food, the first feeding is just a cube of cyclopeeze which allows all the fish to get a tiny bit of food. The second time is the real feeding with cyclopeeze and mysis shrimp.

As for how many anthias to add and what kind, the sky's the limit in a 470 DT lol. You'll have to post a picture. I would say start with 10, quarantine them! Anthias are notorious carriers of pathogens. I have great luck mixing species. I think it curbs them killing each other. I would try to get all females, someone from each species will turn male eventually. Right now I have lyretails, dispars, carberryi, and a bartlett. I would start with some of them, then move on to more expensive anthias if that's what you want to do. There's a bit of a learning curve, and feed them a lot in quarantine!! Once they're in the DT they seem pretty hardy. Good luck!

 

[Pericyte]

Also, most of them shoal together to some degree. The bartlett seems to do whatever he wants, incidentally he is also my favorite, go figure.

 

[sensei]

Thanks Pericyte,

It is a really good idea to feed cyclopeeze since they are small all can have something to eat; when I feed the myses I fell some of the fish seem to get all the food.
do you prepare the cubes of cyclopeeze?
if so how do you measure the cube?

 

[Pericyte]

I had the same concern when I used to feed my fish just mysis shrimp. Some fish seemed to take the lion (fishes) share. The cyclopeeze seem to be a good alternative. I just use a cube of the San Francisco Bay Cyclops (3.5 oz cubes, 30 pack). It just happens to be what my local fish store sells (not too many options in Columbia, mo lol). I'm sure I could order something online, but this works for now. One cube goes a long way, but I would just experiment to see what your fish need, I'm sure your cuc will be happy to take care of any extras. Your DT is bigger than mine, so you might need 2. I just put it in a turkey baster and distribute the cyclopeeze across the top of the tank.

 

[d-man]

Mine eat everything. But I just throw my nori in the tank and all my fish just frenzy. It gets blown around as well as dragged by fish. After a few minutes very small particles are everywhere and that's when the anthias take action

 

[sensei]

Thanks a lot for the answers.

another question,
If I start with 10 anthias, should I start with 2 or 3 species?
I ask becuase if I distribute them in 3 species it would be 3 anthias of each or 5 of each if it is two species.
I would think 30 anthies would look great but I am a little unsure of how to many to choose of each species?
If I end up having several males of different species would they fight?

thanks again

 

[tkeracer619]

Definitely get them hooked on pellets with an autofeeder.

 

[ca1ore]

Well, depends a lot on the species of pseudoanthias. My Bartlett eats just about anything, but the others ignore nori.

 

[sensei]

to be successfull with Anthies do most people use autofeeders?
I am concerned of autofeeders malfunctioning, I never had one

 

[jda]

Yes. All of mine will eat NLS and Formula 2 pellets. I mix them together in Ehiem auto feeders - if you ever saw one you will see that they cannot really dump food into the tank if they malfunction. They like other types of pellets like ERA, but those don't work in my auto feeders with the shape.

Mine will eat nori if some other fish tears it off - I have never seen them at a clip.

 

[sensei]

jda
what do you mean by NLS?

thanks

 

[jda]

New Life Spectrum is a food brand.

 

[Pericyte]

Thanks a lot for the answers.

another question,
If I start with 10 anthias, should I start with 2 or 3 species?
I ask becuase if I distribute them in 3 species it would be 3 anthias of each or 5 of each if it is two species.
I would think 30 anthies would look great but I am a little unsure of how to many to choose of each species?
If I end up having several males of different species would they fight?

thanks again

I have seen bickering between males of different species, but not the same level of aggression as two males of the same species. That is part of the reason why I like mixing anthia species, that and I love the different colors.

I have never had 30 anthias, so someone with more experience might want to step in. But I would say buy them as females and get three different species. See which ones you like to add more later.

 

[ca1ore]

Like I said earlier, depends a lot on the species. Easier ones like Bartlett or lyretails will eat pellets and maybe floating nori. My bimacs also will eat pellets (though it took them a while to get there). The harder/smaller species generally will not eat pellets. I have resplendents and some carberryi, and they will only take frozen.