Anthias info.
 

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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