Shoal of anthias

[shred5]

I have never had a hard time getting ignitus or dispar to eat and they usually ate the first day.
What is can be hard to do is get them on dry food. I would put them just a little harder than Barteltts and lyretails which makes them one of the more easy anthias to get on dry. You give them PE calanus or small mysis there should be no issue.
Brineshrimp work well too to get them eating at first.

Current can be the key and keeping the food moving.

Almost all anthias can be little hard to get on dry food and some it is pretty much impossible.

 

[Qasimja]

I have never had a hard time getting ignitus or dispar to eat and they usually ate the first day.
What is can be hard to do is get them on dry food. I would put them just a little harder than Barteltts and lyretails which makes them one of the more easy anthias to get on dry. You give them PE calanus or small mysis there should be no issue.
Brineshrimp work well too to get them eating at first.

Current can be the key and keeping the food moving.

Almost all anthias can be little hard to get on dry food and some it is pretty much impossible.

ive been tryin to get my lyretail to eat pellets and flake food for 2 weeks now ive been mixing it in with the mysis shrimp so far she just spits it out mostly she did take a bite of 1 or 2 pellets

 

[shred5]

ive been tryin to get my lyretail to eat pellets and flake food for 2 weeks now ive been mixing it in with the mysis shrimp so far she just spits it out mostly she did take a bite of 1 or 2 pellets

It can be a challenge. I have had some never eat it.

Flake is always been easier for me to get them on first.

Anthias feed on plankton and have adapted to very small sized foods. If they can feel it going down it may be harder for them to eat.

For pellets I have used the smallest new life spectrum food. I put it in with the frozen food while it thaws allowing it to soften up and absorb the juices. I feed them together and sometimes they grab the pellets. I slowly increase the percentage of pellets to frozen food. I also try it more when they are hungry and adapted to my aquarium...

I have been wondering about ME coral soft and moist pellet food. They also sit in the water column much longer than any pellet I have used. I really like them and have not tried it for anthias and might be worth investigating some.

 

[malacoda]

My experience with dispar is ....hard to get eating and get them in a display ASAP. Humblefish sent me 3 a while back that we’re floundering in qt. They hit the display with a natural setting and two fish I had qt’ed and they took right off. Calanus and baby brine shrimp really helped get these fish eating till frozen brine and mysis were accepted. Have 5 in my 70 reef and they hang tight to each other. Can be a bit skittish though. Have seen no aggressiveness among them .

You mind me asking what your DT dimensions are?

I'm thinking of adding 3 dispar to my 65g ... but on seeing that you have 5 in a 70g ... and given that my DT is 48" long (more room for them to run), I'm contemplating bumping up to 5.

 

[Qasimja]

Flake is always been easier for me to get them on first.

Anthias feed on plankton and have adapted to very small sized foods. If they can feel it going down it may be harder for them to eat.

For pellets I have used the smallest new life spectrum food. I put it in with the frozen food while it thaws allowing it to soften up and absorb the juices. i feed them together and sometimes they grab the pellets. I slowly increase the percentage of pellets to frozen food. I also try it more when they are hungry and adapted to my aquarium...

I have been wondering about ME coral soft and moist pellet food. I really like them and have not tried it for anthias and might be worth investigating some.

yea ive been trying the new life spectrum pellets and api marine flake been mixing it in with the mysis i will continue to do it til he catches on

 

[JMM744]

You mind me asking what your DT dimensions are?

I'm thinking of adding 3 dispar to my 65g ... but on seeing that you have 5 in a 70g ... and given that my DT is 48" long (more room for them to run), I'm contemplating bumping up to 5.

It’s a 4ft tank. Mine are smaller fish but seem very comfortable in the tank. My hope is to introduce them to my 180 fish only some day.

 

[atoll]

I got one Carberryi to see if I could keep it alive. That fish eats more than all the others in the tank! It’s a super funny fish. At least mine is. Best friends with the skunk shrimp. Just hangs out upside down with it for long periods of time. So pretty! I want to get more but I like this one so much and it’s happy so...maybe not.

I would definitely recommend adding them all at the same time. And try to get them on the younger side so they have a while before getting to sexual maturity.

Which is what I did. However one Carberryi died within 2 days. 2 days later I replaced it under warranty with lo squabbles. My trio of Fiji damsels do chance them and keep them over to one side of the tank however. I hope in time they will leave them be but perhaps not.

 

[Bruce17]

None of the pseudoanthias are easy to keep, certainly if your aspiration is for a stable, persistent shoal. Some are easier than others. Those would include lyretails and Bartlett, though neither would qualify as smaller species. Lyretails are slightly easier to keep as a group as bartletts tend to develop multiple males and spend all their time beating the crap out of each other. I agree that ignatus or dispar are the easiest of the smaller anthias, and probably the best choice. Randalls/resplendent are also on the easier end, though they don’t do well with larger, aggressive tankmates. I’ve been able to keep princess in a species tank, but not in a community tank where they aren’t aggressive enough and just starve. Purple queens (Tuka, pasculus, etc.) are essentially impossible and should be avoided.

Do you think that Randall’s wouldn’t do well with tangs and angels?

 

[Nikita1981]

How about sunset anthias/ pseudanthias parvirostris? I have mine now for quite some time and they adapted real quick, ate frozen straight away and within a couple of days ate flakes too.

They are also not shy and out and about all day. I am very pleasantly surprised and would definitely consider them if you are looking for a smaller species.

 

[bhuyett]

Do you think that Randall’s wouldn’t do well with tangs and angels?

How many tangs and angels do you have?

I did notice that when I had an angel, it was a little more difficult to get my Anthias eating, when being acclimated to the tank you need to keep stress down as much as possible. He was chasing them, and my wrasses so out he went.
I do have a Blonde Naso tang, the only one in my 120 Display 4x2x2 tank.... and I have yet to have any issues with my Anthias. Based on the list the thread has been talking about, I have the more difficult ones to get eating, and they swim circles around my tang when eating.

My list of Anthias are: Long fin Ventralis, Evansi, and Pseudanthias pascalus or Amethyst Anthias, which are much higher on the Expert/difficult to get to eat list. They all eat Brine, Mysis, and even flake food.

 

[Bruce17]

How many tangs and angels do you have?

I did notice that when I had an angel, it was a little more difficult to get my Anthias eating, when being acclimated to the tank you need to keep stress down as much as possible. He was chasing them, and my wrasses so out he went.
I do have a Blonde Naso tang, the only one in my 120 Display 4x2x2 tank.... and I have yet to have any issues with my Anthias. Based on the list the thread has been talking about, I have the more difficult ones to get eating, and they swim circles around my tang when eating.

My list of Anthias are: Long fin Ventralis, Evansi, and Pseudanthias pascalus or Amethyst Anthias, which are much higher on the Expert/difficult to get to eat list. They all eat Brine, Mysis, and even flake food.

Thank you very much for your feed back. I truly appreciate it. I don’t have any fish in my tank yet. As I get my tank ready, I want to do my research and figure out what fish I want and then from there, what order I want to put them in and how long to wait before the next wave of fish. It’s going to be hard on my urges however I want to take my time adding them. Even if it takes a year or so to get my tank filled. I want to try and make this as stress free as possible for the fish and for me. This tank is suppose to be my sanctuary as I recover from my surgeries from my army career and from my PTSD from my army career. This is why i’m Hoping to get all my ducks in a row before I add any fish. The angels and tangs will be last after all my other fish are well settled in. I’m realistic that my tank can’t be perfect however I would like to give myself the best chance to succeed and I’m hoping that people like you and others on the site can help me achieve my goals

 

[Bruce17]

How about sunset anthias/ pseudanthias parvirostris? I have mine now for quite some time and they adapted real quick, ate frozen straight away and within a couple of days ate flakes too.

They are also not shy and out and about all day. I am very pleasantly surprised and would definitely consider them if you are looking for a smaller species.

Oh wow!!! Thank you very much. I’ll definitely research those ones then. Thank you very much for sharing

 

[Matt Carden]

Which is what I did. However one Carberryi died within 2 days. 2 days later I replaced it under warranty with lo squabbles. My trio of Fiji damsels do chance them and keep them over to one side of the tank however. I hope in time they will leave them be but perhaps not.

I'll never again keep any damsels or Chromis for this reason.

 

[Jesterrace]

lyretail the easiest

Gorgeous. I will be adding some in the next week and can't wait.

 

[LIreefguy]

Yes I would. Great fish
Actually they all died during a power outage.
sad day. My generator wouldn’t start.

 

[Haydn]

I'll never again keep any damsels or Chromis for this reason.

I feel I need to reply to this statement- there are something like 100 species of Chromis and thousands of species of damsels that have been identified. Yes, some are nasty in the same way some Angels or tangs or gobies or blennies are. I have, for example, Fusilier damsels (the blue ones in the videos) in with my anthias, they are a peaceful schooling fish. I have kept amongst many others Chromis vandervelt and retrofaciatus again peaceful and will live in harmonious groups with other fish.
May I offer the counter argument, like in many fish families there are 'good' choices and 'bad' choices it is down to research to find those fish which will work in your system.

 

[Matt Carden]

I feel I need to reply to this statement- there are something like 100 species of Chromis and thousands of species of damsels that have been identified. Yes, some are nasty in the same way some Angels or tangs or gobies or blennies are. I have, for example, Fusilier damsels (the blue ones in the videos) in with my anthias, they are a peaceful schooling fish. I have kept amongst many others Chromis vandervelt and retrofaciatus again peaceful and will live in harmonious groups with other fish.
May I offer the counter argument, like in many fish families there are 'good' choices and 'bad' choices it is down to research to find those fish which will work in your system.

I have only tried a purple pseudochromis. He was a territorial *******. I have read many threads on R2R that all say the same thing. You are the first to say there are some that will live in harmony with their tank mates.

 

[Haydn]

I have only tried a purple pseudochromis. He was a territorial *******. I have read many threads on R2R that all say the same thing. You are the first to say there are some that will live in harmony with their tank mates.

A Pseudochromis is not a damsel it is a dottyback a totally different family.
I am sure I'm not the first, but like adding any fish you need to do your research before buying and adding them. I have kept any number of species of damsels and Chromis with little issues.

 

[Radman73]

FWIW, my first attempt with 5(maybe 6?) dispars was horrible. All died very quickly in QT from Urenoma. Later I tried 6 Lyretails, lost 3 to urenoma and saved the other 3. I then added 3 more to get to 6 and all lived and are still thriving in my 220. 1 male, bought as a male, and 2 sub males with 3 females. Was very worried about the sub males but they've stayed pretty static in their transition for 4-5 months now.

Love them. I feed frozen 2-3 times daily.