- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Well it seems like this seasonally available and uncommon anthid has begun to show up again in the trade in recent weeks. I am curious how people who acquired them last time around have done with them? My experience is as follows:
This is a fish that needs to acclimated carefully. They often suffer from swim bladder issues related to capture and improper handling. I isolated my individual in a container in the display system with some algae so it had something to hold onto if it wanted and where the other tank inhabitants could see it and get used to it's presence. I slowly added small amounts of frozen mysis to the container and by the 3rd day it was eating them, but was still extremely shy.
After a week, I felt comfortable releasing it into the main display where it was not bothered by other tankmates, but still hid for most of the day. It would spend most of the time in a nose down position that I thought indicated a continued swim blader issue, but I then noticed that when the lights went out, it righted itself easily and swam effortlessly around the tank. It seems the nose down posture is a normal defensive stance.
Over the course of the coming months it became less and less shy, and was what I would term an aggressive eater, greedily taking frozen and pellets and even flake foods. Then, one day, about 6months in captivity after I innocently rearranged a few rocks, it stopped eating completely, refused to come out and perished over the course of a few weeks.
Why ? Who knows, but I would like to hear from others about their experiences. If nothing else, I think it wise to treat these fish delicately particularly in the beginning as we have little long term husbandry information on them.
Randy
This is a fish that needs to acclimated carefully. They often suffer from swim bladder issues related to capture and improper handling. I isolated my individual in a container in the display system with some algae so it had something to hold onto if it wanted and where the other tank inhabitants could see it and get used to it's presence. I slowly added small amounts of frozen mysis to the container and by the 3rd day it was eating them, but was still extremely shy.
After a week, I felt comfortable releasing it into the main display where it was not bothered by other tankmates, but still hid for most of the day. It would spend most of the time in a nose down position that I thought indicated a continued swim blader issue, but I then noticed that when the lights went out, it righted itself easily and swam effortlessly around the tank. It seems the nose down posture is a normal defensive stance.
Over the course of the coming months it became less and less shy, and was what I would term an aggressive eater, greedily taking frozen and pellets and even flake foods. Then, one day, about 6months in captivity after I innocently rearranged a few rocks, it stopped eating completely, refused to come out and perished over the course of a few weeks.
Why ? Who knows, but I would like to hear from others about their experiences. If nothing else, I think it wise to treat these fish delicately particularly in the beginning as we have little long term husbandry information on them.
Randy
