anthias owners

[NYPDFrogman]

looking to put some anthias in my 450
anyone with experience with them
suggestions welcome
I'm looking for fish to swim upper 1/2 of my tank

 

[DontXtripNfall]

I have a pair of bartletts, I enjoy them!

 

[Bob 1000]

I had a school of bartletts 7.. They swim good but I now have a school of orange bar gobies5 and a school of borbs5.. Try to get the queen anthias they look better than all the anthias..

 

[prattreef]

I would go with a mixed school of Bartletts and Dispars. A nice variant of Squammapinnis is a good choice too. Any other species move into the moderate to difficult to keep arena. The purple queens are very hard to keep.

Start with all females and let one change into a male. If you can't resist, buy only 1 male. Anthias dominance hierarchies are complex and more often than not they will eventually fight and slowly whittle themselves down to 1 individual. Your tank is large which is a plus. I'd get a big group if you can ( 10-12 individuals)

 

[tosiek]

I have squammi's and love them. But mine have been easy to care for and do not demand 3x a day feeding as other squammi owners have run into.

Just make sure you understand the pro's/cons of getting the single male or even a big group of females. Most likely they will fight and you will lose 2-3 before a dominant male is established and sometimes is better to grab a group/haram already established from the get go if you find some in really good condition and have been in the store tanks long enough. (GA usually has healthy harams that sometimes hang around for a week or two)

Anthias add up quick on larger harams. Squammi's usually go for 40-60$ per, that really hurts the pocket if you lose 2 from the haram.

 

[kamikazee83]

I have a blotchy and I love this guy. The first week or so, he was in the bottom, hiding. Now he is mostly in the top half of the tank and he is a model citizen

 

[tosiek]

Blotchy's will hide more often than not. All depends on other tankmates.

 

[Tangs Rule]

I have 3 blotchy's as well, they mostly hang around the middle to upper half of the tank and acclimated very easily. They eat anything I feed them.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Just don't put any of those blotchy radioactive chicken pox anthias in your tank.

 

[NYPDFrogman]

not into the blochy's they are cool but not what I'm after

The fish tank in Lodi had 3 barrlets but I didn't know if they were males or females they ate in tank didn't seem to fight
I was concerned that if I picked them up could I add more at a later date
apparently not much coming out of Hawaii and Marshall isl right now due to weather and sea conditions.

they did have 3 large square 1 male 1 female and one that looked like it was changing
again I was concerned what I could mix together

 

[prattreef]

not into the blochy's they are cool but not what I'm after

The fish tank in Lodi had 3 barrlets but I didn't know if they were males or females they ate in tank didn't seem to fight
I was concerned that if I picked them up could I add more at a later date
apparently not much coming out of Hawaii and Marshall isl right now due to weather and sea conditions.

they did have 3 large square 1 male 1 female and one that looked like it was changing
again I was concerned what I could mix together

IME you will be better off waiting to get the number of individuals you want at the same time. Introducing some later is possible, but riskier.

The square backs tend to not fare very well for some reason.

 

[JLAudio]

Good thread. I want to add a small school to my 125 perhaps 4 or so, but was always turned off by 3X a day eating reccommendation

 

[Alex]

I bought 4 females and 1 male lyretails. soon one of the females became a male and killed the male. they are very beautiful fish and excellent eaters.

 

[House of Laughter]

I agree with prattreef - and queen anthias never fair well either - usually die within weeks.

Dispars and bartletts shoal together and often mimic - great in odd numbers. Also makes for confusion when buying as many store owners are not savvy enough to differentiate - especially when they mimic - be careful not to pay $50 for a $18 fish.

You can also try Evansii or Carberryi - but those can get pricey as well.

FWIW

House

 

[NYPDFrogman]

I agree with prattreef - and queen anthias never fair well either - usually die within weeks.

Dispars and bartletts shoal together and often mimic - great in odd numbers. Also makes for confusion when buying as many store owners are not savvy enough to differentiate - especially when they mimic - be careful not to pay $50 for a $18 fish.

You can also try Evansii or Carberryi - but those can get pricey as well.

FWIW

House

well find me some!