Anthias?

[ericmcj31]

Anyone had great success with them?? If so, which ones? I've got a 135 I'd like to put a small school in. I assume 1 male and 2 females? Which have ya'll found to be the hardiest?

 

[FutureInterest]

Lyretail.

 

[ericmcj31]

would you say they're the hardiest??

 

[ericmcj31]

ok-I'll look into the lyretail; Live aquaria says they feed on filamential algae--stupid question here, but what exactly is that??

 

[FutureInterest]

Hair algae. They're happiest with some algae in their diet but they won't pick it off the rocks.

 

[ericmcj31]

I don't think I have any of that--honestly, the only types algae I have is a lot of corraline (on rocks and all over side and back glass) and a little bit of cyano--I assume they won't eat cyano? lol

 

[victor626nj]

im gonna hijack for a sec what is another one that is easy to care for that doesnt get as big

 

[ericmcj31]

dangit Victor!! j/k; is hair algae green?

 

[ericmcj31]

good-I don't! (luckily); I saw on MD that anthias don't like much light-is that true?? I know Rit had some kick *** lights on his tank at the office-I would think that would disprove them-any other suggestions?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I will personally suggest Bartletts or squammapinnis (lyretails), but none other as first time anthias. They have a bad habit of beating the crap out of each other when trying to establish heirarchies. I think whichever doctor (foster or Smith) wrote that anthias need filamentous algae in their diet is high on crack. You will not get them to live long if you expect them to eat hair algae. They will require planktonic foods in the water column to survive. Sure, mine occasionaly each the random flake of nori or spirulina flake that goes by, but to say they NEED filmentous algae is absurd.

 

[ericmcj31]

cool-so what do you feed them??

 

[jmaneyapanda]

ericmcj31;149466 wrote: cool-so what do you feed them??

I feed my anthias A LOT of mysis, forzen diets (formula1,2, Marine cuisine, etc), pellets, flake, cyclopeeze.

 

[reefknight]

I have had a single Sunburst in my 30 cube for about a year. He has always done extremely well, but was also eating very well in a store for about a month before I took him. I am in the process of adding a trio of Barrtletts to my 90gal. They are one of the easier anthias, but do need to be fed several times a day. Make sure that you can export the amount of nutrients that you are putting in your system.

 

[ericmcj31]

my reef tank I feed (maybe) once a day right now--I'm trying to rid of cyano--would they be ok?

 

[schwaggs]

I feed my Lyretails every other day and they are going strong for a couple years now. They love Mysis, and the various Ocean Nutrition frozen foods. I also feed Cyclopeze once a week and they LOVE that. I did loose a smaller one out of the trio I started with for some reason. Don't worry about light, they are fine with it.

I think Bartletts are a little harder but good starter Anthias. My Bartlett always hid during the day, I almost never saw it and when I tried to add a partner for it, it harassed the newcomer to death.