Anthias advice/suggestions

[Xanthurum]

looking to add a group of anthias to my tank. Tank is a Red Sea 650s about 170 gallons 62x22x24. I’m looking to keep at least 4 but no more than 6. So let’s hear suggestions and any advice you may have. Thanks in advance.

 

[swebb]

I have heard Bartlett’s turn to males fairly quickly and thus are not as ideal to keep in groups as other anthias species.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Dispars and randalls seem to stay together pretty well and are relatively hardy.

 

[wangspeed]

Strong vote for resplendent/Randall’s from me. I have 7 that stay together, and the color is incredible. Easily better than most Bartlett’s.

 

[Haydn]

Ignitus or Dispars stay as a group, males are pretty tolerant of each other. Easy (ish) to get feeding on frozen fare. If you fancy a challenge Evansi's bit more tricky but colours to die for!

 

[Xanthurum]

Luckily my local store just got in 6 Randall's. I think that is a sign and it would be dumb for me to not buy them, right.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

First question is what other fish are in the tank?

 

[this is me]

I have experience with Lyretail, Dispar and Barlett. Maybe it was my early days of reefing but the Dispar and Barlett did not seem to eat enough and slowly fade away one by one. I've always have good experience with Lyretail. They eat almost everything I feed them including flakes and pellets.
I know have 7 Lyretail in the tank with one male and another one ready to take its place. Have them for roughly 1.5 years.

 

[davocean]

I've always had good experiences w/ lyretails too, easy to feed, seem to help bring out shy anthia as well if keeping other types of anthia.
Usually first to eat pellets, often encourage others to do so as well.
I've had them mixed w/ carberryi's and dispars, both of which can be kinda shy in comparison

 

[wangspeed]

My 7 resplendents are ravenous. They eat everything I put in the tank. The 8th one literally ate itself to death. It got constipated and died in QT...

Dirty water but here are 6 of them. 7th got stuck in a rock and got popeye and lost 1 eye. She doesn’t shoal with the others as much anymore. The other 6 shoal a fair amount of the day.

The pink coloration is true to life. It’s extremely vibrant.

 

[davocean]

Nice, I have not kept resplendents yet, good to hear/see any info on them.
Now am I seeing correctly 3 w/ a dorsal spike?

 

[Xanthurum]

First question is what other fish are in the tank?

Fish list
Achilles tang
Whitetail bristletooth tang
Purple tang
Gem tang
Powder Blue hybrid tang (currently in refugium cuz he don’t play well with others)
Pintail wrasse
Ruby head wrasse
3 firefish
High fin goby
Tribal blenny
Longnose hawkfish

I QT all fish. So 5 tangs and various smaller fish. I’m hoping to get the PB hybrid back in the tank soon but I have tried about every trick in the book and he will not get along with the Achilles and vice versa. The tank is quite peaceful since he got put in timeout. My intention was to be done when I added the last 3 tangs but the tank seems empty still. The anthias and a captive bred mandarin will be the end of fish stocking.

 

[davocean]

Ooh, that's a lotta tang for a 170G, hard to imagine it looking empty as is.

 

[wangspeed]

Nice, I have not kept resplendents yet, good to hear/see any info on them.
Now am I seeing correctly 3 w/ a dorsal spike?

I asked for 8 females. I think multiple are transitioning to male. They all have yellow tails though, so I'm not sure. Even the females have dorals spikes in the LA picture. Hard to tell apart.

 

[Xanthurum]

Ooh, that's a lotta tang for a 170G, hard to imagine it looking empty as is.

I thought so too but it really isn’t, the tank is very openly aquascaped and they are all pretty small. The Gem is about 3 inches, the Whitetail is about 4.5 inches as is the Achilles and Purple. I’ve had the purple for several years and it was in a friends 200 for a long time before I got it so I’m sure it isn’t going to get any bigger. The PB hybrid is a solid 6 inches but I’m not sure he will be staying unless he calms down. It’s a shame because he is quite stunning.

 

[davocean]

Ah, well they will grow quick, just hopefully peacefully.
The minmalist scape will help w/ swim room, but you may want at least a couple veggie clip stations as minimal rock will only contain so much greens, which could lead to fussiness.
Anthia should still be fine, but w/ multiple feedings daily and tangs your bioload is going to be a bit on the heavy side.

 

[Xanthurum]

Yeah I have a few clams and the fuge is full of decorative macro and Xenia for nutrient export. I keep up on the water changes plus I have an oversized skimmer. Lots of planning and several years experience help.

Tangs are a passion of mine and I wish I could have more but you have to know when to say enough is enough. When it comes to tangs I am confident and I read anything and everything I can about them to further educate myself about them. I’ve had success with keeping Achilles and PB together in the past but even though the hybrid was a puppy dog in QT he has become a major problem in the display. I’m not sure I will be able to get them to coexist but I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet.

 

[Maritimer]

Could you put them on opposite sides of an eggcrate (or other) divider for a month or so?

~Bruce

 

[Daniel Waters]

looking to add a group of anthias to my tank. Tank is a Red Sea 650s about 170 gallons 62x22x24. I’m looking to keep at least 4 but no more than 6. So let’s hear suggestions and any advice you may have. Thanks in advance.

I've kept lyretails and ignitus. Both are beautiful in different ways. I love the beautiful color of the male lyretail in contrast to the females, although male lyretails can be a bit of a jerk (more females to keep with him to disperse aggression the better in my opinion). Ignitus anthias have more varied and bright coloring and are much more docile than the lyretails. Lyretail and ignitus can be mixed together without any trouble in my experience (if you want to go that route).

Lyretails are going to be a bit hardier, but both the ignitus and lyretails should eat greedily once you get them eating. Ignitus seemed to be shyer to me than lyretails. If adding to an established tank, I'm not sure how the ignitus would do. It is possible they might stay in a cave area and not come out. If adding enough of them after proper QT, though, I suspect they would come out and not stay sheltered away after introduction (ideally I'd add the anthias and all shy fish first into a tank versus last as they can be shy at first). Both lyretails and ignitus will be active in the water column. Both would do best on multiple feedings a day like all anthias, but I believe this less crucial for the lyretails and only slightly to moderately so for the ignitus.

If you choose to get some anthias, I would recommend buying a lot more than you want, as my experiences with purchasing them online is that you will lose several during the QT time period. I'd start with all female juveniles with lyretails and let them work out who will become the dominant male. I believe sexing the male versus females with ignitus is a bit harder. You may just have to get a group and hope for the best.

Your tank seems pretty heavily stocked to me given the number of tangs you have, but you can be the best judge of that than me. I just mention it because the lyretails and ignitus, while not large fish, will add quite a bit more to your bio load when you start talking about adding in a group of them.

 

[Xanthurum]

Could you put them on opposite sides of an eggcrate (or other) divider for a month or so?

~Bruce

Yeah I’ve tried that, although not for a month yet. I used egg crate as a divider for about a week. Took it out and they went right back to fighting although not as bad as it was initially I did have to put he divider back in because I didn’t want to them to kill each other. After a few more days I took it out again and they seemed ok for 1 day then it got crazy again so now the hybrid is in the fuge. Gonna try again in a few more days and hope hey can work it out.