purple queen anthias

[colinsoon]

how tough are they to keep? cos i juz got a few today, and they are looking very healthy... but it seems that they are a very tough bunch to keep. i am suddenly suffering from a lack of confidence to keep them... any thing to comment or share bout them? any success stories?

[Qxnviolet]

Fd one of mine dead on the sandbed today....ZzzZZzZz...have yours start to feed yet? Mine simply refuses to eat anything....

[YzF]

They are one of the most difficult anthais around. Most of the time refuse to feed. Tried almost everything but in vain. Read somewhere that numbers in the school greatly improve the chance of surviving.

I stay away from them after trying twice. Non of them feeds.

[Qxnviolet]

I got 5 of them abt a month back...till now they refuse to eat anything. 1 died yesterday, think i'll stay away from this fish too.

[PerculaClownfish]

yes, if they are stress they can be really difficult to keep!!Cause they just love to hide and hide and hide...although,Jireh stocks usually eats..alot!!

[Dazza]

i hv a male n 2 females... feeding them on live brine shrimps ... the impt thing is getting them to feed.. once thats accomplished, then the rest is easier

[Qxnviolet]

Haha, cool. U got them to feed. I flooded my tank with live brine and they didnt touch them too...ZzZZz.

[colinsoon]

dazza. how u got them to eat? wat did they first eat?

[cyclop]

Have you tried cyclopeezes? They also love fresh fish (especially those small silver/bait fish) or prawn meat - both finely chopped. All fish love them anyway.

[colinsoon]

tried cyclopeeze, but nvr eat... anyway juz wondering, if they are always hiding inside, how would i know if they have died....?

[cyclop]

That's the trouble with purple queens and some other anthias - they go into hiding for safety when first introduced into the tank.

Since they do not swim around it's a problem getting them to feed. How about trying to find out roughly where they are hiding and then use a target feeder to squirt some cyclopeezes around that area. Hopefully, they will take some cyclopeezes to keep them alive long enough to get use to their new environment and start swimming around to look for more food. Otherwise, their bodies will waste away and slowly die of starvation.

Form experience and close observation, anthias seem to prefer mysis shrimps to brine shrimps. Of course cyclopeezes and all fishes' favourite but the trouble is that they are too small for the fishes to fill their stomach. Anthias, because they love swimming around in fast moving water, they expend more energy and therefore need to be fed more frequently each day.

[colinsoon]

the anthias in my tank are swimming around, though the spend 90% of their time in hiding. its just that whenever they are out, i try to feed them, but then, when i get everything prepared, they are already back into hidding....

[Qxnviolet]

My anthais spends 50% of the time outside swimming....but they still wun eat anything. zzZzzZzZz

[Dazza]

i pour phyto & Seachem's entice into pail containing live brine shrimps. After abt 4-5 days of trying, my purple anthias started eating... hvg greedy tank mates helps i guess as i hv yt, common clowns, tomato clown, mandarn, target fish, purple patch anthia n a few damsels n they always rush whenever anyone goes near tank.. goes crazy when food is thrown in... even when one of them excrete, the rest will rush n gobble haha..

[Dazza]

now the 3 purple queens oso join in the rush but a bit more clever as they dont gobble sh*t haha

[laona]

bro barnecle keeping PQA right?? can ask him?? or its e Blue eyes Anthias?

[colinsoon]

blue eyes...