Anthias group

[myreefclub0070]

Anyone has any experience with large groups of anthias?
Considering changing up my live stock a little and would like to drop in a school of ten or so.
Really like the pair of bartletts I got and they add some color to the tank.
Yes / no, pros / cons?
What's your experience and opinion?

 

[maceface]

i have 15 barletts in a 300 gallon... have had them for 18 months... I think my success comes from two things. 1) I bought them from Sustainable Aquatics , which tend to be the cleanest and healthiest fish. 2) addition of the APex automatic feeder.. feeds 3 times per day pellet, wich is important for anthias

 

[myreefclub0070]

Maceface;1045462 wrote: i have 15 barletts in a 300 gallon... have had them for 18 months... I think my success comes from two things. 1) I bought them from Sustainable Aquatics , which tend to be the cleanest and healthiest fish. 2) addition of the APex automatic feeder.. feeds 3 times per day pellet, wich is important for anthias

What are your feeding hours and do you think it would be wish to mix anthias species?

 

[maceface]

it feeds at 10 am, 2 PM and 6 PM.... Mixing anthias species, honestly I have no experience with it , so would only be a guess. I have 15 Barletts, 3 yellow tangs, blue hippo, powder blue, 2 clowns, foxface, kole tang, coperband, and 2 crosshatch triggers in the tank.

 

[brandonmason]

You can mix them. I've got lyrtails and pinks in my tank. Lyrtails are a pita, if it were me and you wanted them as well... do them last. Bartlett are not as aggressive as lyrtails.

 

[enderg60]

Anthias groups are awesome! Heres what Ive delt with though.

Barttlets - Get at least 2 female per male and try to get at least 4. Usually peaceful but will chase other anthias sometimes. Can be very chasey of females and other males so try to even it out with more fish.
Lyretails - same
Square backs - get at least 3, can be slightly more aggressive to other fish.
Disbars - if they dont eat readily in the store stay far far away, but usually peaceful.
purple queen / Tuka's - dont even bother, and stay away from any store that says otherwise.
Fat head / starburst - pretty good all around.

 

[myreefclub0070]

I'm very open to option and don't mind going with one species, just would like to mix it up a little but at the same time not looking for issues in the tank after I drop them in cause there is no way I would be able to get them out, a little research before hand.

 

[axio]

Keep them fat and fed! Autofeeder is definitely a thing to consider.

 

[marquiseo]

Anthias prefer meaty foods. Frozen food is always best. I fed a mixture cyclopeeze, fish eggs, mysis shrimp, and something else I can't remember at the moment. I fed dry food, NLS pellets and crushed omega flakes, from auto feeder while at work. You will have to make sure that your filtration will accommodate the amount of feeding you will be doing, otherwise, your system will crash.

Lyretails - Caution with these. The most aggressive of the anthias. Optimum success with 1 male and 3 females of same size. The same size because if any of the females are tiny, it will perish for sure.

Randall's - Great choice. Peaceful. Suggest 1 male and 2 females

Carberryi (threadfin) Anthias - Great choice. This was the only schooler in my tank. Start with 5 if can.

Resplendent - Peaceful. 1 male and 2 females would be great.


Sunburst - Doesn't school. More of a loner. Peaceful. Very Shy.

Sunsets - Great choice. Active. Peaceful. Get 1 male and 4 females

Bicolor - Heavy eater. Active. Gets big. 1 male will do just fine.

Ignitus - Peaceful. Active eater

Ventralis (Cook's Island) - Very Hard to find lately. Extremely difficult. Active eater. Very Shy. Mine stopped being shy after seeing all the other anthias eating and not running from me.

Pink (stocky) Anthias - Peaceful. Active eaters. 1 male and 2 females will do great.

Squareback Anthias - Gets huge. peaceful. messy eaters.


These are all the anthias I have kept when I had my 65gallon rimless tank back in 2013.

Other anthias I wish I had were Red Saddled Anthias and Hawaiian Ventralis Anthias.

Here are some photos for you:

 

[myreefclub0070]

I have and auto feeder on my apex system so I'm sure keeping them happy wouldn't be a problem, as for the filtration, I think the equipment can handle it.

 

[marquiseo]

MYREEFCLUB0070;1045540 wrote: I have and auto feeder on my apex system so I'm sure keeping them happy wouldn't be a problem, as for the filtration, I think the equipment can handle it.

Feeding them is easy once you get them started. The hard part is to get them eating. Most don't eat and will die within a week in your tank. You will have to start with frozen food to entice them.

You will have to balance between frozen and dry. Feed too much of frozen and you won't get them to eat dry. Feed too much of dry and they won't get the benefits of eating natural food.

Your filtration will change dramatically. Get ready to re-dial your skimmer and add more gfo & carbon. I had 18+ different species in a 65 gallon tank.

 

[marquiseo]

I meant 18+ fish mixed species.

 

[myreefclub0070]

With a mix and match set of 26 fish in my 265gal on a total of 350 water volume tank and I'm taking out the big boys(fox face, trigger, etc.) don't think it's going to hurt to bad.

 

[marquiseo]

MYREEFCLUB0070;1045544 wrote: With a mix and match set of 26 fish in my 265gal on a total of 350 water volume tank and I'm taking out the big boys(fox face, trigger, etc.) don't think it's going to hurt to bad.

Oh ok. Good. Good luck. I hope enjoy them as much as I did when I had my anthias setup.