adding a different kind of anthias

robert serafino · Nov 12, 2021

I have 9 Lyretails in a 180 6 females 2 males and 1 sub male they been in there or almost a year can I add different kind of Anthias to the tank now or will the get killed. I would add females

blaxsun · Nov 12, 2021

I have a marcia's and male red fairy anthias with my three female lyretail anthias.

Saltees · Jan 12, 2022

robert serafino said:
I have 9 Lyretails in a 180 6 females 2 males and 1 sub male they been in there or almost a year can I add different kind of Anthias to the tank now or will the get killed. I would add females

IMHO I don't have issues with adding different Anthias, I have the following in my 120G.

7 Lyretail Anthia (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) - 1M6F
4 Hutchii Anthia (Pseudanthias huchtii) - 1M3F
3 Evansi Anthia (Pseudanthias evansi) - 1M2F
2 Blotched Anthia (Odontanthias borbonius)

These will not be my last anthias, and I feed hourly small amount of pellets. As I'm replying I have another Lyretail turning male, do you face aggression issue amongst same specie? I'm always in the opinion that only one male per anthia specie can be in a tank, especially my 120G.

robert serafino · Jan 12, 2022

I ended up putting 4 bimacks in 1 big male 3 med females very little fighting with the lyrtails. Now total 4 males total . They all get together very well. The colors on the bimacks are unbelievable. All my male have a picking order. The bimack is king and the lyrtail follow his lead

Saltyanimals · Jan 17, 2022

Saltees said:
IMHO I don't have issues with adding different Anthias, I have the following in my 120G.

7 Lyretail Anthia (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) - 1M6F
4 Hutchii Anthia (Pseudanthias huchtii) - 1M3F
3 Evansi Anthia (Pseudanthias evansi) - 1M2F
2 Blotched Anthia (Odontanthias borbonius)

These will not be my last anthias, and I feed hourly small amount of pellets. As I'm replying I have another Lyretail turning male, do you face aggression issue amongst same specie? I'm always in the opinion that only one male per anthia specie can be in a tank, especially my 120G.

How long has that list been in your tank? I have 3 lyretails now with one dominate which I starting to change, however it seems to be stuck in a change limbo. I see the dorsal fin and slight coloration to red change, but has been "stuck" like this for 4-6 weeks now without a full transition. If this completes, I'll assume to have 1 M + 2F.

I want to add evansi's but glad to see you have mulitple males of a type in a single tank. Especially 120G.

Saltees · Jan 18, 2022

Saltyanimals said:
How long has that list been in your tank? I have 3 lyretails now with one dominate which I starting to change, however it seems to be stuck in a change limbo. I see the dorsal fin and slight coloration to red change, but has been "stuck" like this for 4-6 weeks now without a full transition. If this completes, I'll assume to have 1 M + 2F.

I want to add evansi's but glad to see you have mulitple males of a type in a single tank. Especially 120G.

These guys have been in my 120G for 6+ months. As mentioned, one lyretail is in the mist of transition, it's turned almost dark purple for for a week and now the yellow on the body is starting to show on second week, but whole fish is still dark, unlike the resident male.

The 3 Evansi were pretty much left alone since I added them 2 weeks after the lyretails, at the same time with about 12 purple queens. Unfortunately, the purple queens all perished, they just withered away in a month.

Heavy feeding is the key. Even couple of my smaller female Anthias are left alone to swim out in the open without aggression from any of the males.

Saltyanimals · Jan 18, 2022

Wow that sucks to lose all 12 queens.

I think your experience with the evansi convinced me to follow a similar stocking to my lyrerails. The 3 I have now all eat TDO so will be leaving new anthias in a QT observation while they train to eat pellets as well. Otherwise they won’t last in my DT with all the other pellet eaters. Figured I might be able to observation QT 4 evansis in a 10G tank and feed mix of frozen plus pellets while they train.

Saltees · Jan 19, 2022

Saltyanimals said:
Wow that sucks to lose all 12 queens.

I think your experience with the evansi convinced me to follow a similar stocking to my lyrerails. The 3 I have now all eat TDO so will be leaving new anthias in a QT observation while they train to eat pellets as well. Otherwise they won’t last in my DT with all the other pellet eaters. Figured I might be able to observation QT 4 evansis in a 10G tank and feed mix of frozen plus pellets while they train.

I believe the 12 queens are too small (1") or frail to start with. I'm more incline with 1.5-2" anthias... so far it has been under 5% mortality rate including 2 week TTM QT.

As long as one takes to TDO, which I'm feeding as core diet soak with TM LIPOVIT and TM IMMUNVIT, with supplement of 1 cube of frozen HIKARI Mysis or Brime Shrimp daily.

I've ordered another 6 purple queen of 1.5-2", current under Copper and Prazi at LFS for 2 weeks. if they are ok then, I will take them, TTM over my end and in they go to my display.

I'm currently TTM QT my Mccullochi Clown.

Saltyanimals · Jan 19, 2022

Saltees said:
I believe the 12 queens are too small (1") or frail to start with. I'm more incline with 1.5-2" anthias... so far it has been under 5% mortality rate including 2 week TTM QT.

As long as one takes to TDO, which I'm feeding as core diet soak with TM LIPOVIT and TM IMMUNVIT, with supplements of 1 cube of frozen HIKARI Mysis or Brime Shrimp daily.

I've ordered another 6 purple queen of 1.5-2", current under Copper and Prazi at LFS for 2 weeks. if they are ok then, I will take them, TTM over my end and in they go to my display.

I'm currently TTM QT my Mccullochi Clown.

Same general observation with QT'ing very small fish. I also lost small lyretails in QT b/c it bullied by larger ones. Tried to pull them, but too late after they went into constant hiding. I think the mediums generally do better.

robert serafino · Jan 19, 2022

Maybe it is just the kind of Anthias my Lyretails and Bimacks ate pellets and even seeweed sheets from day one.

Saltyanimals · Jan 19, 2022

You may be super lucky. Which pellets? I’ve had two separate rounds of lyretails that both struggled with pelleted. TDOs tend to be smaller thus bit easier for them to take. Other dimension is we re talking stark QT tank so that may be part of the comfort level to take pellets. Go lucky!

robert serafino · Jan 20, 2022

new life spectrum 150g marine pellets. and they love bulk reef golden pearls. My bimacks skim the pellets right of the top of the water. I will try to take a video tonight.

Saltyanimals · Jan 22, 2022

My lyretails won’t touch the NLS prob bc of the larger size. Been doing more TDO for them

Saltees · Jan 22, 2022

Saltyanimals said:
My lyretails won’t touch the NLS prob bc of the larger size. Been doing more TDO for them

I do mixed in HIKARI FROZEN MYSIS or BRINE SHRIMP with TDO to spice it up during the initial period.

Saltyanimals · Jan 22, 2022

Seems to be a pattern here for anthias pellets with the TDO.

robert serafino · Jan 23, 2022

Picture from this morning. I just put in two sunburst anthias in will see how that goes. When I add different kind of anthias I feed the fish put the new ones in and turn the lights off. For the day. The next day they always seem to be swimming together. The sunburst will probably stay in the rocks thow.