I received Reef Fishes Vol. 1 nearly two weeks ago and have read the anthias section nearly every night since then in anticipation for a future tank where I would like to keep multiple anthias. I have scraped nearly every ounce of information together I can from the Web--which is fairly sparce, even on BB's.
I am surprised at the amoung of misinformation out there about anthias in general. They are best treated on a "per species" basis when it comes to requirements, which a lot of people don't seem to realize. But what confuses me is the general lack of these fish in the American hobby.
I researching anthias, I have read about quite a few different species--many of which are nearly impossible to get in the states or rarely make it into the hobby. Why is this? Granted, collection is one issue, but there are several other shallow-water species that make it to other areas such as Europe, but we never see here. I have seen instances where both Scott Michael and Robert Fenner comment on how great Fish X is, but that it's a shame we rarely see it in the states, and may never see it much do to peculiarities in the trade. What's with that? An example is Pseudanthias ignitus(Flame anthias) which is supposedly more hardy than the Dispar anthias, but I have yet to hear of anyone in the U.S. keeping or even seeing one. But right now at FFE they are having a sale on Dispars. What's the deal?
There have been many new "waves" and advances in the hobby over the last few years, especially in keeping corals and SPS. Personally I think that anthias husbandry is a wide-open door. They have always been thought of as hard to keep (which many of them are), but with the breakthroughs in zooplankton production, etc. I think it is only a matter of time before we start becoming more successful in keeping this type of fish. But we can't really do that unless we can obtain them.
I am just curious if anyone can explain this to me.
I am surprised at the amoung of misinformation out there about anthias in general. They are best treated on a "per species" basis when it comes to requirements, which a lot of people don't seem to realize. But what confuses me is the general lack of these fish in the American hobby.
I researching anthias, I have read about quite a few different species--many of which are nearly impossible to get in the states or rarely make it into the hobby. Why is this? Granted, collection is one issue, but there are several other shallow-water species that make it to other areas such as Europe, but we never see here. I have seen instances where both Scott Michael and Robert Fenner comment on how great Fish X is, but that it's a shame we rarely see it in the states, and may never see it much do to peculiarities in the trade. What's with that? An example is Pseudanthias ignitus(Flame anthias) which is supposedly more hardy than the Dispar anthias, but I have yet to hear of anyone in the U.S. keeping or even seeing one. But right now at FFE they are having a sale on Dispars. What's the deal?
There have been many new "waves" and advances in the hobby over the last few years, especially in keeping corals and SPS. Personally I think that anthias husbandry is a wide-open door. They have always been thought of as hard to keep (which many of them are), but with the breakthroughs in zooplankton production, etc. I think it is only a matter of time before we start becoming more successful in keeping this type of fish. But we can't really do that unless we can obtain them.
I am just curious if anyone can explain this to me.
