Anthias troubles...

[Husker]

Thanks, everyone. The three remaining seem very healthy and appear to be eating well. I am feeding about every couple of hours for the last few days (and for some reason I am at 0.00 phosphate ant 2 ppm nitrate... God bless all 55 gallons of macro algae). If these do well, I will follow the suggestions for a second batch later on. These were certainly more fragile than I expected. Appreciate it!

 

[TX_Punisher]

As others have said, start with healthy fish. I just picked up six today five females one male for a 160. They were eating several
Foods and swimming actively so I knew they were gtg. Here they are 2 hrs 30 minutes into qt and already eating along with the emperator.

 

[IronChefItaly]

I was considering anthias for a while but came to the decision that my 65 gallon was too small. For months, I followed and observed a number of anthias that arrived at my local fish stores. From what I witnessed, anthias like squarebacks, lyretails, sunburst and a few other of the more common variety would almost always arrive in good health - meanwhile species such as dispar, queen and princess would arrive weak and malnourished. In my opinion, these anthias struggled primarily because they were extremely picky eaters. From a quarantine perspective, your immediate priority is to eliminate/mitigate as many stressors as possible, get them eating 3+ times a day, then consider medicating. And if you disagree with all of that, it's still very easy to justify a $20 container of live food to give yourself the best chance of success.

 

[Paul B]

The brine shrimp eggs I buy and hatch every day for my anthias and other fish cost maybe $50.00 a year so I don't consider them a very expensive fish to keep. But they do take a little work.

 

[TX_Punisher]

I was considering anthias for a while but came to the decision that my 65 gallon was too small. For months, I followed and observed a number of anthias that arrived at my local fish stores. From what I witnessed, anthias like squarebacks, lyretails, sunburst and a few other of the more common variety would almost always arrive in good health - meanwhile species such as dispar, queen and princess would arrive weak and malnourished. In my opinion, these anthias struggled primarily because they were extremely picky eaters. From a quarantine perspective, your immediate priority is to eliminate/mitigate as many stressors as possible, get them eating 3+ times a day, then consider medicating. And if you disagree with all of that, it's still very easy to justify a $20 container of live food to give yourself the best chance of success.

What type of live food do you feed?

 

[Paul B]

I use new born brine shrimp

 

[KingJason]

I highly recommend checking out Masstick for the Anthias. Not only do they go nuts for it, but it's ability to stick to the glass and slowly break away all day is incredibly helpful for fish like Anthias who eat continuously.

 

[TX_Punisher]

I ordered some masstick to try out

 

[cracker]

So when You say some are more aggressive then others ,do You mean aggression among themselves or to other fish as well? iv'e had bad luck with more tan just one. Iv'e tried 3 several but the smallest never made it very long. then 2 then just the one largest. I would like to try 5 and see.
Thanks husker for me jumping into your thread !

 

[eatbreakfast]

So when You say some are more aggressive then others ,do You mean aggression among themselves or to other fish as well? iv'e had bad luck with more tan just one. Iv'e tried 3 several but the smallest never made it very long. then 2 then just the one largest. I would like to try 5 and see.
Thanks husker for me jumping into your thread !

In most discussions on anthias aggression, it pertains to their aggression amongst conspecifics. Species such as bartletts, squamipinnis, and rubrizonatus are more aggressive to conspecifics. Whereas species such as dispar, randalls, and tukas are much more peaceful to conspecifics.

All of these species set up social hierarchies, so bigger groups diffuse social aggression. Frequent feedings and high flow also help diffuse aggression in anthias as well.

 

[cracker]

Thanks ! Hard to see one being a community bully.

 

[Paul B]

This "guy" is turning into a guy. "he" was a female but now is a male. You can't tell too much by this picture because he was "making a funny face". But his upper lip is longer than his bottom lip and that is a sign of Maleness. In fish I guess, not in ma, who by the way was always a male. I know that also happens to Salmon so maybe he met some Salmon when he lived in the sea.

 

[DLuce510]

I didn't have the patience to read through every post so I apologize in advance if I'm repeating previous suggestions.
I would say the first thing is if a fish is skinny and looks unhealthy it's probably a bad choice to take home no matter how much you want to, trust me I understand the desire to! It sounds like the fish were already stressed out and then you put them in a new environment. Also in fish stores they tend to keep a lower salinity to prevent disease so a lot of times you have to acclimate them to the salinity of your tank. Also very small zooplankton is what my Anthias thrive on. Purple queen anthias seem to be the hardest for me to keep but with this fish food they've adapted very well and thrive! Good Luck!