sucessful anthias keeping

[johntanjm]

Hey all,

recently I've taken a keen interest in keeping Anthias. I used to not think very much of them until I purchased my first 4. Their colors were bright and they schooled together making them very eye-pleasing. however in a matter of days, they withered away. didn't feed and one by one just died. at first i thot perhaps my tank wasn't matured enough so 2 months later i bought another 4, same thing happened.

I understand from other reefers that anthias once acclimatized are active and greedy fishes so i don't know what's wrong. In my tank I have a moorish and the moorish has been with me for months so i don't think my water parameters are far off.

Does anyone have tips to share on sucessful anthias keeping? i just placed an order with my LFS for 8 pieces of dispar anthias. 1 male, 7 female so they can grp to form a harem. any insights such as acclimatizing, feeding etc. will be very helpful to me!

Thanks all!

[biohazard_dna03]

Hey all,

recently I've taken a keen interest in keeping Anthias. I used to not think very much of them until I purchased my first 4. Their colors were bright and they schooled together making them very eye-pleasing. however in a matter of days, they withered away. didn't feed and one by one just died. at first i thot perhaps my tank wasn't matured enough so 2 months later i bought another 4, same thing happened.

I understand from other reefers that anthias once acclimatized are active and greedy fishes so i don't know what's wrong. In my tank I have a moorish and the moorish has been with me for months so i don't think my water parameters are far off.

Does anyone have tips to share on sucessful anthias keeping? i just placed an order with my LFS for 8 pieces of dispar anthias. 1 male, 7 female so they can grp to form a harem. any insights such as acclimatizing, feeding etc. will be very helpful to me!

Thanks all!

u don't have to worry about your anthias gender since they can change the gender according to the group introduced initially...i have 3 dispars and three bule eyes ...actually i bought 8 dispar and 6 blue eyes first then no one eats pallets so with some advise from reefers i started to hatch brine shrimp and feed them then slowly i start to feed them with pallets and brine shrimp together and now its all seems good.but now i have only 3 dispars and 3 blue eyes( all taking pallets only now..very lazy to hatch brine shrimp nowdayz)...waiting for new shipment to buy more of them....good luck..tq

[piero]

U got to start them feeding by having lots of brine shrimp in your tank. Preferrably with some garlic added to improve their immune system.

As U have said, once they start feeding, they wun stop.

[johntanjm]

how to add garlic flavor to live brine?

[johntanjm]

how to add garlic flavor to live brine?

[piero]

how to add garlic flavor to live brine?

Feed live ones. Get them to come out to feed.

Then feed frozen BS (mixed with garlic) with live brine shrimp and slowly change it to 100% frozen BS with garlic and then with some dry food with BS....

The process will take quite a while. As long as you are patient and the source of the anthias is good, shd be able to keep most of them alive.

[Achilles Tang]

they love cyclop-eze.... try it.

[iskay]

Dry Cyclo-peeze from can seems almost powder like. Does fishes love them?

[Achilles Tang]

do you need to feed the frozen ones. Turn off the water circulation. And drop the thawed cyclopeze into the water... the anthias will go nuts!

[iskay]

I see. The frozen ones always come in huge packaging so never tried.

[johntanjm]

alright alright! sounds exciting! thanks guys for all the tips. I'm excited abt keeping anthias!

[reeftask]

alright alright! sounds exciting! thanks guys for all the tips. I'm excited abt keeping anthias!

Just remember to buy more anthias, preferable above 6 because they are school fishes. Not they are school students but they always remain in groups in nature. If too less, they will feel insecure and stressed. Do not house them with aggressive fishes.

[kimwailee]

alright alright! sounds exciting! thanks guys for all the tips. I'm excited abt keeping anthias!

For me.. I just feed them with loose very small dry Seaweed (for Tangs).. they love it.. for the first week.. at the same time pallet train... now feeding both Seaweed and pallet. no casualties.

[piero]

do you need to feed the frozen ones. Turn off the water circulation. And drop the thawed cyclopeze into the water... the anthias will go nuts!

AT is right. Look out at aquarama. That's when u can buy it at damn good price

[mitlancer]

Are Anthias supposed to be hardy fish? I used to have 2 Pink Anthias but now left 1 and had been with me for 6 months alone and even went through of 4 months of hell and neglecting (due to Reservist, work and overseas all crashing in consecutive months from Feb till now)!! So ashame that all my corals went RIP except my very first Blasto that I bought (plus all fishes including a Blue Tang, 2 clowns, 1 Dotty back, 1 Boxer shrimp and of cos this Pink Anthias) still survive with unbelievable water condition.

Temp was max at 32 degrees.

Both my white and blue LEDs were down, left with the 21W florescent tube.

No water change at all for 4 months.

Full of algae.

Not to mention is a ALanT** wall mount tank with no chiller but only a small hang-on skimmer.

Now, just managed to do 30% water change on Sunday, replace my T5 florescent with 39W Atnic Blue.

So I was really wondering if Anthias should be hardy.... any expert advice? I am thinking of getting more anthias to accompany this one but worry this old bird may not accept others liao.

Sigh.

[onizukaa]

whats the normal price range for anthias?

[johntanjm]

i've seen anthias as cheap as $5 a piece. I've bought some at $8, $15, $20

recent iwarna shipment was 3 pieces for $100

i think there are alot of species hence the wide price range.

[onizukaa]

i've seen anthias as cheap as $5 a piece. I've bought some at $8, $15, $20

recent iwarna shipment was 3 pieces for $100

i think there are alot of species hence the wide price range.

ic, thanks bro for the advice.

think AQ got from last shipment (if i not wrong).

but, do anthias react like damsel (ah beng in the tank and whack new bird) ?

Am going to take out all damsel and replace with anthias (if they school will be nice).

[dieran_green]

depends on the species... most will leave other fishes alone

[onizukaa]

ok. will do research before purchasing it as usual . for those bro who keep anthias, kindly state the breed / price <-- haha dont want be carrot head :x .

today put in green wrasse and it's whack by yellow damsel (put in damsel in main tank to look nicer, but.. seems that even small damsel is so ah-beng)

Hopefull Anthias will be a better choice!

[Thexder]

ok. will do research before purchasing it as usual . for those bro who keep anthias, kindly state the breed / price <-- haha dont want be carrot head :x .

today put in green wrasse and it's whack by yellow damsel (put in damsel in main tank to look nicer, but.. seems that even small damsel is so ah-beng)

Hopefull Anthias will be a better choice!

I have a blotchy anthias, bought from a reefer here. $60 for 3" size.

I suppose your yellow damsel is the first fish in the tank. Damsels are known to be highly territorial and aggressive. Either you get rid of the damsel or you introduce fishes that are much bigger than it. I have a yellow tail damsel which was the first fish introduced. Later I put in tangs which are at least twice its size. Once you have more fishes in the tank which are larger than the damsel, its unable to claim much territory without getting whacked by a larger fish. After a while it just kuai kuai mind its own business

[onizukaa]

Starting there's many damsel in the tank, after a while, found it hard to introduce fishes, i cleared all the damsel (removing rocks all those).

After a while, it's quite plain... LOL. so decided to add a few colourful one (indeed it looks a lot nicer with small fishes swimming around)

However, the small damsel is growing and growing tremendously fast man.. now the wrasse have to remain in the sump which is a safe area for it till i re-scape to get all damsel out again.

Found that anthias is only more agressive to it's own kind (but different breed).

It should be quite a peaceful fish and it schools.

hmm. so might be a good choice to get those cheap one..

any 1 spot cheap and nice anthias? lol. not those type that jervis brought =p

I have a blotchy anthias, bought from a reefer here. $60 for 3" size.

I suppose your yellow damsel is the first fish in the tank. Damsels are known to be highly territorial and aggressive. Either you get rid of the damsel or you introduce fishes that are much bigger than it. I have a yellow tail damsel which was the first fish introduced. Later I put in tangs which are at least twice its size. Once you have more fishes in the tank which are larger than the damsel, its unable to claim much territory without getting whacked by a larger fish. After a while it just kuai kuai mind its own business

[Thexder]

If you like schooling fishes, you can try chromis.

[nwyk153]

my female squareback anthias is the most territorial fish in my tank. It like to chase around my wrasses and sometimes my koran and lamark's angel!

[mitlancer]

Starting there's many damsel in the tank, after a while, found it hard to introduce fishes, i cleared all the damsel (removing rocks all those).

After a while, it's quite plain... LOL. so decided to add a few colourful one (indeed it looks a lot nicer with small fishes swimming around)

However, the small damsel is growing and growing tremendously fast man.. now the wrasse have to remain in the sump which is a safe area for it till i re-scape to get all damsel out again.

Found that anthias is only more agressive to it's own kind (but different breed).

It should be quite a peaceful fish and it schools.

hmm. so might be a good choice to get those cheap one..

any 1 spot cheap and nice anthias? lol. not those type that jervis brought =p

I think those pink anthias are quite cheap n nice. I got around $5-$6 each.

Those Fairy Tale ones are pretty nice too when in school.... not too ex too.

I stopped Damsels after all died during my first crash years ago....