Need anthias help!

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The vendor has him for over a month eating so @Jay Hemdal thoughts?

Are you sure you are feeding the same, or similar food that the vendor was?

The puffer could be intimidating it, I've never kept those two species together before, so I don't have a clue how they would get along.

I dimly recall having good success feeding baby guppies to one of these, but I had access to hundreds of guppies.....

Jay

 

[AydenLincoln]

Are you sure you are feeding the same, or similar food that the vendor was?

The puffer could be intimidating it, I've never kept those two species together before, so I don't have a clue how they would get along.

I dimly recall having good success feeding baby guppies to one of these, but I had access to hundreds of guppies.....

Jay

Yes mysis! I think he may be. I hope he gets used to Hewbie and realizes Hewbie could care less about him and won’t eat him.

 

[areefer01]

Wait is that one with the long white fins transitioning now that I look at it the two females definitely have different fins?

No, probably not. I have 4 pink squares that I purchased from Biota so they arrived all female no transition. Over the past year I've seen one start to transition and it has a very clear color difference. On the fish that is starting to transition to male you will see pronounced purple lines running along the body. The lower fins will also start to become more lavender or purple. The body will have a few blotches on its body for lack of a better word. It will look more or less the same as the others but the purple / lavender color will be brighter and more pronounced. How long it takes to go from this to the more traditional male we see I don't know - my first time seeing this happen.

Also you will start to see it head butt the other anthias, not nip at their fins. At least I have not witnessed this and none of my fish have torn fins, ever. It will dart down towards the substrate then turn and go vertical up to the others. Then it will dart really fast left to right. Basically it will be herding them with a bit of chasing to keep the hierarchy in check or harem. This also happens during feeding. In your earlier thread asking about this I noted that I feed hourly from 0830 to 1830 with two frozen mixes in between. Upon arrival it was clear that one was getting more attention than the others as it relates to their chasing which lead to less food it was getting. I saw its retreat area, I watched what food it preferred, and made sure to target feed the area it was at so it got food. Now it doesn't matter while it is still smaller than the others it manages to get food on its own without me paying attention.

For food I rotate through tdo x-small, small, medium, pe mysis, and hikari. Frozen I feed LRS reef, fish, nano, PE calanus, plankton, mysis, brine, and a few other cubes. The dry is mixed. The frozen I rotate through. All small portions. They arrived maybe 1 to 1 1/2 in size but now closer to 4 or 5" in total. Very active. Very aggressive at eating. Striking food with an intent to get everything they can. Very large mouths.

 

[Tcook]

No, probably not. I have 4 pink squares that I purchased from Biota so they arrived all female no transition. Over the past year I've seen one start to transition and it has a very clear color difference. On the fish that is starting to transition to male you will see pronounced purple lines running along the body. The lower fins will also start to become more lavender or purple. The body will have a few blotches on its body for lack of a better word. It will look more or less the same as the others but the purple / lavender color will be brighter and more pronounced. How long it takes to go from this to the more traditional male we see I don't know - my first time seeing this happen.

Also you will start to see it head butt the other anthias, not nip at their fins. At least I have not witnessed this and none of my fish have torn fins, ever. It will dart down towards the substrate then turn and go vertical up to the others. Then it will dart really fast left to right. Basically it will be herding them with a bit of chasing to keep the hierarchy in check or harem. This also happens during feeding. In your earlier thread asking about this I noted that I feed hourly from 0830 to 1830 with two frozen mixes in between. Upon arrival it was clear that one was getting more attention than the others as it relates to their chasing which lead to less food it was getting. I saw its retreat area, I watched what food it preferred, and made sure to target feed the area it was at so it got food. Now it doesn't matter while it is still smaller than the others it manages to get food on its own without me paying attention.

For food I rotate through tdo x-small, small, medium, pe mysis, and hikari. Frozen I feed LRS reef, fish, nano, PE calanus, plankton, mysis, brine, and a few other cubes. The dry is mixed. The frozen I rotate through. All small portions. They arrived maybe 1 to 1 1/2 in size but now closer to 4 or 5" in total. Very active. Very aggressive at eating. Striking food with an intent to get everything they can. Very large mouths.

Very curious to see how these biota anthias do in the long term.

 

[areefer01]

Very curious to see how these biota anthias do in the long term.

What drives the curiosity or concern?

It would be not much different than any other captive bred, raised, or aquaculture animals in our hobby. The onus is on the hobbyist to provide the necessary environment to thrive. I would say if the hobbyist does their part there shouldn't be much to be curious about.

Then again I can only speak for the animals I've purchased directly through Biota. Matted filefish, radial filefish, gold lined rabbit, links goby, upside down goby, lyretail damsel, pink square anthias, and most recently a milletseed butterflyfish. Interesting enough the only fish that I've not been able to keep is the forktail blenny. I've tried three with no luck so stopping for a bit.

Please note that I'm not providing a list to say look at me or I'm an expert only sharing my experiences. I buy direct. I do not put the animals through chemical QT regiments like using copper. I use isolation and observation then rotate to the display after I see what they are eating. A few had to go directly into the display due to their feeding / foraging habits or concerns with eating. To be safe I've run a few eDNA tests with normal results. All in all this is what I found works best for me.

Here are a couple of the Anthias below from earlier in the year. You will also see the gold lined rabbit pass through along with the radial filefish floating by. The gold lined - underestimated that lad as it is very large now pushing 8" but does give me a reason to change the display for a few quality of life improvements that I've been putting off.

Hope you have a great day.

 

[Tcook]

What drives the curiosity or concern?

It would be not much different than any other captive bred, raised, or aquaculture animals in our hobby. The onus is on the hobbyist to provide the necessary environment to thrive. I would say if the hobbyist does their part there shouldn't be much to be curious about.

Then again I can only speak for the animals I've purchased directly through Biota. Matted filefish, radial filefish, gold lined rabbit, links goby, upside down goby, lyretail damsel, pink square anthias, and most recently a milletseed butterflyfish. Interesting enough the only fish that I've not been able to keep is the forktail blenny. I've tried three with no luck so stopping for a bit.

Please note that I'm not providing a list to say look at me or I'm an expert only sharing my experiences. I buy direct. I do not put the animals through chemical QT regiments like using copper. I use isolation and observation then rotate to the display after I see what they are eating. A few had to go directly into the display due to their feeding / foraging habits or concerns with eating. To be safe I've run a few eDNA tests with normal results. All in all this is what I found works best for me.

Here are a couple of the Anthias below from earlier in the year. You will also see the gold lined rabbit pass through along with the radial filefish floating by. The gold lined - underestimated that lad as it is very large now pushing 8" but does give me a reason to change the display for a few quality of life improvements that I've been putting off.

Hope you have a great day.

It wasn’t a derogatory post. Wild purple squares haven’t done well for me. I’ve been keeping salwater fish since the mid 1980’s so not a novice. Wanted a hobbyist’s personal experience. Thanks for the info anyway.

 

[areefer01]

It wasn’t a derogatory post. Wild purple squares haven’t done well for me. I’ve been keeping salwater fish since the mid 1980’s so not a novice. Wanted a hobbyist’s personal experience. Thanks for the info anyway.

Didn't take it as derogatory at all nor assume or call you a novice. Just provided my experience with the captive bred pink squares and thoughts.