Morgan's Anthias Tank

[ah^siao]

how many types of anthias is there inside?

[Morgan]

I have 10 species of anthias, 34 fishes total

[Terryz_]

Thats alot ler...

[Morgan]

AHHH!! You managed to ID the two!!

Pseudanthias parvirostris! Beautiful fish!!

Yes managed to find out the names...

Are you planning to get them? the Sunset I mean.

I also like to have Pseudanthias flavoguttatus...if it is available and is not ridiculous priced like the Pseudanthias pictilis

[Achilles Tang]

Yeah.... the pictilis is a dream anthia but I have yet to see a live specimen that will justify the $###### price.

The photos avail on the Net doesn't do it justice, I heard.

[nutx]

look as if you are living by the Ocean.......

very very nice....

[Achilles Tang]

My 3 evansi anthias (from the last PR shipment) are alive and well... they are just super shy but I hope they'll come out soon in the open.

My Randall is getting bolder by the day.

I think I will have to upgrade to a double beckett soon if I wish to keep more anthias without affecting my SPS. Aiyoh.

[Morgan]

AT, start a new tank

Keep all anthias separate from the sps.....only put your favourite species in the sps.

Would suggest that you somehow remove your bartletts...if you want to have some chance with the evansi. The colouration are almost the same and bartlett are very aggressive.

After the evansi has 'settled down', then it may be able to compete with the other fishes.

Randall is also very aggressive, and it will mark out and defend its territory.

[Kalib]

1 word: Nice

[Achilles Tang]

I got a chicken Randall.... its ok.

Nothing can beat my old truncate, even my male bartletts avoid it.

I guess the only way to keep anthias well is in a big school, which can then form their own smaller schools which seperate themselves from the more aggressive school.

These schools can then merge together as one during feeding time.

Start a new tank? I wish. I really wish.

[Morgan]

Randall don't stay chicken for long

Aggressive tankmate will harass the more timid ones to the point of it not eating.

If can be avoided, don't put anthias of the same colours together although it maybe from 2 different species unless you know that they will not fight or can remove the fish easily if have to.

That is why my anthias tank has limited LR....so catching them out is easy

I have already removed my bartlett, next on the list will be the square and then follow by the randall

[Achilles Tang]

Morgan, you want my alvyfoamer 648 just for your anthia tank?

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 848 double-beckett. LOL!

Its going to be a nightmare keeping pristine water quality with that much bioload and 5 x a day frozen food feeding WITH sps corals!

13 anthias I have now... (5 bartletts, 2 dispars, 3 evansi, 2 truncates, 1 randall) wanting to have at least 30 or more... I must be mad... but not as mad as some reefers here!

[Morgan]

No thanks for the skimmer don't need that kind of skimming at the moment. May need it if my anthias population goes up.

At least my anthias are not sharing the same water as my sps...so don't have to worry too much for now.

In your case you can only drool if there are beautiful anthias that the LFS bring in

Sometime it is good to be a little bit 'mad'.......

[ryz]

wah!! NICE! thinking of getting Purple Queens to accompany my 6 dispars.. but heard many accounts of failure now a bit hesitant.How much is an Evansi Anthias? Bartlett?

[KingFish]

A true master, but sadly a little MAD over anthias

Species only tank is still the way to go.

Our old SRC Resident Clownfish, Spade, who has gone AWOL for some time now, will kill to have a tank like Morgan's ...

Think I'll play some carousel music to lure him back ... can't wait to see his reaction

[blacknails]

Beautiful.. I ain't surprised at all if the anthia craze stays for long long..

[Morgan]

They are a very beautiful species of fish for a reef aquariums

But I have seen many that are not doing well cos of not eating or not eating enough.

Maybe Riodan can share how he is feeding his (especially the tukas) and what he is doing to maintain his water quality.

[spade]

A true master, but sadly a little MAD over anthias

Species only tank is still the way to go.

Our old SRC Resident Clownfish, Spade, who has gone AWOL for some time now, will kill to have a tank like Morgan's ...

Think I'll play some carousel music to lure him back ... can't wait to see his reaction

anno anno me taking on more simple anthias Lyretail, got 2 of these recently from RW, eat like a pig though...

[roidan]

They are a very beautiful species of fish for a reef aquariums

But I have seen many that are not doing well cos of not eating or not eating enough.

Maybe Riodan can share how he is feeding his (especially the tukas) and what he is doing to maintain his water quality.

mine eating well, and eating enough....

but....water quality

last time nitrates used to be at 0.something level...have to use low resolution scale...

since i started those 3 to 5 times a day feeding regime....nitrates become easily between 2PPM to 5PPM.....sigh...

tot that once pass 5ppm color mark, i have to take out some, but has been holding at this 2-5 PPM level for quite a few weeks already....

but this kinda water parameters are NOWAY for strict sps keepers, my LPS are ok nonetheless

[roidan]

anyway,

at this stage, i kinda regret mixing a few kind of anthias in the tank....should have been less greedy and stuck to one species...but predominantly the majority are purple queens....

read that sooner or latter, as time passes, the dominant species will bully out the weaker ones....and the bold ones will pick out the weaker ones that drfit off the main pack and terrorize it ...

i should have stuck to just purple queens instead of mixing a few other breeds.....

sigh....hope that the queens will not get bullied out of the way as the months pass....

my personal suggestion for those who want to start their anthias collecting to decide on a specific breed....and then just stock with that breed for long term success

[Joe_P]

anyway,

at this stage, i kinda regret mixing a few kind of anthias in the tank....should have been less greedy and stuck to one species...but predominantly the majority are purple queens....

read that sooner or latter, as time passes, the dominant species will bully out the weaker ones....and the bold ones will pick out the weaker ones that drfit off the main pack and terrorize it ...

i should have stuck to just purple queens instead of mixing a few other breeds.....

sigh....hope that the queens will not get bullied out of the way as the months pass....

my personal suggestion for those who want to start their anthias collecting to decide on a specific breed....and then just stock with that breed for long term success

Woah.... you managed to get those purple queens to feed??

and how long have they been in your reef??

If you do have long term success, I will most probably be knockin on your door asking for details as to how to keep them alive for so long...

that is after I have setup my new reef....

[roidan]

bro joep:

the pioneer batch have been with me since december/january...along the way add more and more to the current school size.....

i always see them feeding during meal times..din know wat's the problem with that portion especially many says they are hard to feed....but the problem for me is not whether they feed or not...but how i am going to balance feeding and water quality.....

headache...no hair algae "yet"...but got some patches of red slime...not very obvious from the photos, but its there...

phosphate readings are back to zero, probably bound up in the red slime and the phosphate absorbers that i use....

will be patient and see if the red slime burns out....

[Joe_P]

Awesome.... Looks like I will be headin over often...

Always love the colours of the purple queens but have refrained with the understanding taht they are almost impossible to keep....

Now there seems hope....

Maybe you could let out some of your secrets to keeping these alive since you have such a large school.....

[roidan]

no secrets lah....

maybe i was lucky to get the pioneer batch that were feeding....

from CF, a few males, a few females....they responded very well to what i fed them...cyclopeeze and even small size frozen food, which i in turned recommended bro deepblue to do so, which he feedback to me that the method was quite useful....

no special method...what i told him...was that the first few in the tank may hide in the rockwork...but although you cannot see them, you have to feed them.....and i flood the water column with feed at dawn and dusk and sparingly over the day light cycle....something i feel that sps keepers will not and may not do so at the risk of water quality drop...and i mean FLOOD

after a few days....can really see them coming out esp at dawn or dusk to eat....which has been the pattern till today...

now during normal hours, some will be swimming behind the rockworks...some will be in the water column, some hanging upside down in the caves/dens....but once the main pump is off, it seems that they can sense it and all will swim out and school...tat's when you see the whole horde of them...and it's SHOWTIME.....feeding time

[roidan]

oh yeah...

and they really exhibit herd behaviour....

some are always on the lookout, once they see others gather in the main column, they dart out to join in a second....and following them are sub schools of maybe 4 or 5 others sharing the same den/cave

but like i said, i really recommend those who wanna start out to decide on one species and stock only that.....like a whole tank of bartletts or whole tank of dispars or whole tank of tukas.....

i believe this is a better way of ensuring less infighting/intimidation