Keeping Anthias

[SeaDweller]

Bartletts are about the only species that I have heard of that turn all male in a reef aquarium. They get aggressive towards each other and usually results in death.
Most other species one will turn male.
Sometime you can get a submale with some species like I did with ignitus. There usually is very little aggression with submales.
Sometime you get multiple males with other species too because I believe they are changing already and we just do not see it.

There is always the exception too.

Yeah, that was a risk I was willing to take. Like I said I have multiple males right now, maybe one or two super males, but they look so much better than the females. I haven’t seen much squabbling.

 

[Kmsutows]

100 gallon tank limits you a bit with larger species like squares, bimacs or pictilis - but they’re all on the expensive end anyhow. Lyretails are a good ‘starter’ anthias, as are dispar/ignitus. Bartletts are common, and very pretty fish, but need a lot of space.

I agree with this.
So, I highly advise getting all females and letting them figure out who becomes male. Males dont tend to do as well when purchased as male and you can have many issues like if one of the females is the same size or larger than the male then it will challenge it and try to become male. If you are getting them in person, which I recommend, try to pick out a smaller group with one being much larger so itll be easier for them to know the packing order and that one will become male.

 

[Radman73]

Okay thanks, I'll just try LFS then probably

FWIW, I ordered 5 females and 1 male from LA, lyretail's. They had urenoma and I lost 3 females but managed to save the rest. I then ordered 3 more females off DD and they were in perfect shape. After QT I added the 3 females to the group to get back up to 5 females and 1 male. They've been fine since and were introduced to the 210 DT a month or so ago.

I feed 3+ times per day. Sometimes as often as 7 as I work from home. But 3-4 is normal. They never took to flake in QT but took to it in 2 feedings in the DT, so having other fish helps. Normal staple is still frozen but some days they get a mix of different flakes. I have never seen them even nibble on a pellet.