Anthias info.

[fishoholic]

I was wondering what type of anthias people have, how many, and any pros/cons. I'm wanting to get a school of anthias for my tank and I thought it would be interesting to hear other peoples expirences.

[wickedfrags]

Historically speaking many have givin up on keeping this species longterm. All are chronic jumpers, and some are tough to get feeding. All like a peaceful tank. Some species are impossible to maintain in captivity (such as tuka/purple queen) while others seem to do well such as squampini, and bartlett, and to a lesser extent disbar.

That being said, provided you have a closed-top peaceful tank and are prepared to try and get them eating, no reason you can not give them a try. Ideally try and get a least 2 females for each male if not more, tought becuase the males are more colourful, but this cuts down on agression and eventually anthias on the carpet.

[Skimmerking]

with the Anthias they require many feeding times from you too....

[Murminator]

1st of all what size of tank?, most need lots of swimming room

[fishoholic]

Our tank is 230g. It is an open top tank, so if anthias are jumpers I'm not sure I sould get some, I'd hate to spend a bunch of money on them just to have them jump out :sad: . Also with them being hard to feed I'm worried our "piggy" tangs would eat up all the food before they could get some. However I do feed a lot of mysis when I feed my tank, which is usually once a day, and so far everyone (including our very slow eater, our mandrain goby) gets some. I also feed pellets and nori.

[EmilyB]

I kept Barletts for about a year. Never had a jumper, this was a 230g with eurobracing. Bought four, one went dominant male and kept two females with him while keeping the forth (non-dominant male I presume) in the rock. Beautiful fish. I lost them in a cucumber accident. They were the only fish to perish in that incident. I fed them twice a day or whenever I thought about it and they seemed to do well. Ate everything.

[ed99]

I've had Bartlett for a few months now and it looks like they are doing fine. I bought 6 and 2 died overnight, but the others have kept on ticking. I have an auto-feeder with pellets so that helps with the frequent feedings. For the first while I didn't have a cover and they never jumped, but the other day while feeding one bounced pretty hard off the egg crate, so I think that is a risk. Mine are pretty aggressive eaters so the two tangs in the tank don't appear to trouble them.

[fishoholic]

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm too worried that they might jump out so I think I will not be getting any.

[Tyson]

i just got 2 (male and female) for my 30gal, just for now until i get my 120 finished. easily my favorite fish, here's some info if you want more on them.
http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/1024frameset.htm

[fishoholic]

Thanks for the info but I bought a clown tang for our tank instead of the anthias

[fishoholic]

:redface: Ok so we were at the lfs today and these 3 dispar anthias told us to take them home. :redface: They are in QT right now and they all seem fine together, they are eating mysis and they look healthy :biggrin:

[Borderjumper]

I just got 3 square spots yesterday . The seem to be adjusting well and tonight I saw 2 of the 3 pick at some mysis so hopefully they will be ok.

[mr_alberta]

Hopefully you won't have any problems adding any other fish now that you have a clown tang. They are suppose to be the biggest jerks ever.

[corpusse]

:redface: Ok so we were at the lfs today and these 3 dispar anthias told us to take them home. :redface: They are in QT right now and they all seem fine together, they are eating mysis and they look healthy :biggrin:

A while back I bought 6. 3 died nearly right away and the other 3 lived happily for about 6-10 months. They just started jumping. My tank is covered but 2 of them made it out though the 1/2" gap where the door to my hood is. The other simply disappeared.

Feeding them 3x a day is best. Mine never excepted flake or pellet so I stuck with frozen.

[fishoholic]

Hopefully you won't have any problems adding any other fish now that you have a clown tang. They are suppose to be the biggest jerks ever.

I don't think it will be a problem, my clown tang (so far) is fairly passive. It's my yellow tang that's a bit of a jerk, however he's mostly only mean towards my clown tang. I personally think that my yellow enjoys chasing my clown tang and nipping at him every now and then. :twised:

I also think that because the anthias are smallish and shaped differently then my other fish, they probably will leave the anthias alone. I think we will be adding them to the main tank soon since they came from a good store and they all look very healthy. I'll let everyone know how it went after I add them.

[fishoholic]

We added are 3 anthias to the main tank about 2 hrs ago. They have been fine with all of the other fish, and no fish has bugged them at all. However 2 of my anthias are out in the open swimming around together as happy as can be, while the 3rd one is hiding under a rock :neutral: I tried to tell her to go find her friends however she's not listening :lol: *Update* Yippee! the 3rd one is now out and swimming with her friends.