Show off your anthias

Kimberely · Oct 16, 2018

Just thought I'd share a few photos of my anthias. Let's see yours

mattzang · Oct 16, 2018

my computer didn't apparently copy most of fish photos from my phone so I'll have to post those later

but I want to say, lyretail anthias are awesome IMO. People say they're just saltwater goldfish, but I think that's selling them really short. the pretty blue eyes, vibrant orange body, yellow fins, beautiful! I only have one, so not sure of their behavior in a group, but she's awesome. Very out front, not shy, she even goes into the corner where the clowns hang out and hangs with them. Maybe she thinks shes a clownfish? lol

someday I'll get a bigger tank and anthias of all kinds are definitely going in there

Kimberely · Oct 16, 2018

mattzang said:
my computer didn't apparently copy most of fish photos from my phone so I'll have to post those later

but I want to say, lyretail anthias are awesome IMO. People say they're just saltwater goldfish, but I think that's selling them really short. the pretty blue eyes, vibrant orange body, yellow fins, beautiful! I only have one, so not sure of their behavior in a group, but she's awesome. Very out front, not shy, she even goes into the corner where the clowns hang out and hangs with them. Maybe she thinks shes a clownfish? lol

someday I'll get a bigger tank and anthias of all kinds are definitely going in there

They're very social fish. My male does chase the 3 females every so often but nothing serious. Just part of their normal hierarchy behavior. If you only have one, it will transition to male and be even more colorful once that transition is complete. Some species are difficult to feed but lyretails are easier. I feed once daily and mine are thriving. Mine will even accept high quality flake which is unusual apparently.

mattzang · Oct 17, 2018

Kimberely said:
They're very social fish. My male does chase the 3 females every so often but nothing serious. Just part of their normal hierarchy behavior. If you only have one, it will transition to male and be even more colorful once that transition is complete. Some species are difficult to feed but lyretails are easier. I feed once daily and mine are thriving. Mine will even accept high quality flake which is unusual apparently.

I was paranoid when I first got her that she needed several feedings a day so I started to just break up my feedings a bunch. She still only seems to want to eat frozen, but I saw on here some techniques to get them to eat others I just need to try it.

Do you soak the flakes first? My flakes float on top of the water and the anthias doesn't seem overly interested in them. She does go for pellets that I drop in front of a powerhead so it shoots across the tank, but then she spits them out. I keep meaning to try to soak the flakes first and drop in front of a powerhead, but just haven't.

Kimberely · Oct 17, 2018

mattzang said:
I was paranoid when I first got her that she needed several feedings a day so I started to just break up my feedings a bunch. She still only seems to want to eat frozen, but I saw on here some techniques to get them to eat others I just need to try it.

Do you soak the flakes first? My flakes float on top of the water and the anthias doesn't seem overly interested in them. She does go for pellets that I drop in front of a powerhead so it shoots across the tank, but then she spits them out. I keep meaning to try to soak the flakes first and drop in front of a powerhead, but just haven't.

I don't soak the flakes. The females will only take them once they've sunk but my male will take them off the surface. I use Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes. They just started taking flakes though and I've had them about 5 months.

ca1ore · Oct 17, 2018

Bartletts and bimacs mostly .....

Easier pseudoanthias like Lyretails or bartletts can often be trained to eat flakes or pellets; most of the other species will not. As you can see from the video, feeding response improves significantly if the prey is moving.

Haydn · Oct 17, 2018

Both my P.ignitus and P. evansii take micro pellets, it took a while to train them by adding pellets to frozen and slowly increasing the pellets and reducing the frozen.