Anthias just hiding....

Hubtech · May 26, 2018

OK, so I've got an established 210g system with a pretty decent stock list.

Diamond Goby
Tomini Tang
Sailfin Tang
One-Spot Foxface
Pair of Mocha Clowns
Pair of Bangaii
Chalk Bass
Royal Gramma
Midas Blenny
Purple Firefish
Coral Beauty
Flame Angel
Yellow Corris Wrasse
Six Line Wrasse
Red Head Solonoras Wrasse
Pink Margin Fairy Wrasse

Phew... That being said, I added 3 2" Female Lyretail Anthias and 1 3.5" Male last Wednesday. for the first 5 minutes or so everyone kinda swam around, checking out the new additions then it started... Tomini and Midas decided to bug the male. nothing super bad, but enough to push him into hiding. It's Saturday, and the male is still hanging out in his little safe haven he's found. I've been feeding the crap out of my tank (LRS Reef Frenzy) trying to coax him out to no avail. I've also been dropping selcon soaked pellets and flakes directly on him with my 24" dropper. He's still kicking, but just not trying to get out and about. I'm not sure about the 3rd female... haven't seen her since day 2. Two of the females are swimming around perfectly fine, nobody is bugging them. The male has come out once or twice, only to have the tomini and Midas "say hello"...

Any Advice?!

pdxmonkeyboy · May 26, 2018

How long were they in QT? A lot of anthias are caught with cyanide...

ca1ore · May 26, 2018

I'm not aware of anthias being caught with cyanide, though any thing is possible I suppose. Anthias, particularly the males, are easily spooked. A period of QT and the use of a socialization box will increase the chances of success.

pdxmonkeyboy · May 26, 2018

ca1ore said:
I'm not aware of anthias being caught with cyanide, though any thing is possible I suppose. Anthias, particularly the males, are easily spooked. A period of QT and the use of a socialization box will increase the chances of success.

If your anthias are coming from indonesia, vanuatu, or the philippines you can bet your bottom dollar that they are being caught with cyanide. Many reefers seem to believe "it doesnt happen anymore".
It does. I was with a fish collection team in the philippines last year, everyone of them had bottles of sodium cyanide.
Anthias in particular can not be caught with open water nets because they will hide in coral heads. Squirt..squirt... they come floating out. In my experience,.if they last 10 days from the store they will live quite awhile. Others that simply perish in QT...liver damage.

davocean · May 26, 2018

Anthias need to be QT'd, they come w/ issues most always, whether it be shy, not eating, or worst is uronema, which anthia are prone to have, you do not want that in your system.
QT is also a good spot to get them eating w/out fear of established fish in tank.

There always seems to be some that don't make it, if I order 5, and 3 survive, I'm kinda ok w/ that, if all 5 survived I'd be a bit surprised

ca1ore · May 27, 2018

Agree that anthias can often come in with uronema. I've not had direct experience with it so far this year, but did have issues last year.

Josip · May 27, 2018

I was also worried about one of mine. This is my experience that i had few weeks ago when i have added harem of 5 LYRETAIL ANTHIAS, 4 females and one male. All of them arrived healthy. Once i put them into DT one female went directly under a rock and literally stayed there for 2 weeks or more not moving an inch. I was worried it is a goner. Even started losing color quite a bit. So i wrote it off pretty much. I am not sure it ate anything for days but then it slowly started movinu. Few inches under rock here and there then still again. On this monday she went after food first time that i have actually see her fet out. Grab a flake or two then back under rock. After that progressively it started roaming and eating close to rock. And from a day to day it is better. So i dont know what to say. Weird and intersting.

Susan Edwards · May 27, 2018

I lost 3 lyretail anthias in my last batch of fish from LA. Only 2 royal grammas survived. This batch, I've lost 1 lyretail so far and wouldn't be surprised to lose another. The third is eating but not out and about much. The Carberry's are fine so far. If these guys don't make it, I'll give up on the lyretails.

Hubtech · May 27, 2018

Fish are from Sri Lanka, not sure about their harvesting methods. Gasp, I do not QT.... I know shame on me. I'll have to be bit by my stupidity and then I'll setup a dope QT system. He did actually come out a little from hiding last night right before lights out. we will see what happens today.

Josip · May 27, 2018

here is mine, as you can see it is still hiding heh... but looks ok i think- for now.

ca1ore · May 27, 2018

Brian Bieger said:
If your anthias are coming from indonesia, vanuatu, or the philippines you can bet your bottom dollar that they are being caught with cyanide. Many reefers seem to believe "it doesnt happen anymore".
It does. I was with a fish collection team in the philippines last year, everyone of them had bottles of sodium cyanide.
Anthias in particular can not be caught with open water nets because they will hide in coral heads. Squirt..squirt... they come floating out. In my experience,.if they last 10 days from the store they will live quite awhile. Others that simply perish in QT...liver damage.

Ok, I take you at your word that you saw what you saw. I just think that 'cyanide' became the reason-de-jour for all new fish problems for awhile; and while it may well be the source of some initial problems, there are many other reasons.

ca1ore · May 27, 2018

FWIW, I stopped buying male anthias a long time ago. Far better, in my view to just buy females and let them 'decide'.

pdxmonkeyboy · May 27, 2018

ca1ore said:
Ok, I take you at your word that you saw what you saw. I just think that 'cyanide' became the reason-de-jour for all new fish problems for awhile; and while it may well be the source of some initial problems, there are many other reasons.

Yeah, it is easy to blame cyanide but having a lot of fish instantly croak with no other visible signs of distress...

I was in the peace corps in the central philippines on an island that had a fair amount of aquarium trade harvests. I speak tagalog and visayan so on my vacation to the PI last year i talked my way in to going with a group of fish collectors. You would be surprised what a bottle of cheap gin and some rusty tagalog can accomplish.

It is a sad state of affairs, really sad actually. Anyways, I bought a pack of 11 lyretails in december. 5 dropped off in QT. My buddy lost all 4 of his. I wanted to send them to a lab but ultitely decided it was a waste of money.

davocean · May 27, 2018

It's so common for them ship to us "dirty" for lack of better terms, anthia especially are loaded w/ disease or parasites, so many don't even survive my initial FW dip I usually do on arrival.
So it's never surprising when I see anthia drop in numbers.

I believe cyanide is still used in some places, but w/ anthia even when collected responsibly are very problematic, and no matter what, they must be QT'd for the better of the tank.

It does not have to be the "dope" qt system, I will set a 10g right down on my living room floor w/ a cheapo HO filter just to observe and be safe.

I've put way too much into my system to gamble, and if you read up on uronema and the setbacks that come w/ it you might understand what I'm trying to help you and others avoid, it's a major headache.

ca1ore · May 27, 2018

Brian Bieger said:
I was in the peace corps in the central philippines on an island that had a fair amount of aquarium trade harvests. I speak tagalog and visayan so on my vacation to the PI last year i talked my way in to going with a group of fish collectors. You would be surprised what a bottle of cheap gin and some rusty tagalog can accomplish.

Oh man, that must have been really cool. I went on a couple of collections in Palau 20 plus years ago; if memory serves I think all those fish ended up selling in Asia/Japan though.

vetteguy53081 · May 29, 2018

My wrasses were jerks up front with mine. Seems you have a lot of bodies moving within tank and adjustment is needed to their new surroundings.
Can also be intimidation from tankmates, too strong water current and even lighting too bright compared to environment they just came from.

Hubtech · May 29, 2018

Yeah, I have a lot of active fish intentionally. He's doing better. he's now adopted a back corner of the tank, comes out when I'm feeding and early and late in the day when the lights are dim. my Tomini seems to be the biggest jerk in my tank. everybody else is kewl.

Hubtech · Jun 10, 2018

Well mostly bad news here. Of the 3 females and 1 male, only 1 female remains. One vanished day one, the other female was super active for a few weeks and within a day her tail was gone and she vanished within 2-3 days, the male started acting funny two days ago and found it dead today..... i can only assume these guys came in with some sickness or were harvested poorly, as I’ve never had any losses like this in my tank. Everyone else is fine thankfully.