Best Anthias

[home office reef]

What are the best anthias to keep. I have avast plank feeder and Neptune apex auto feeder so I am not concerned about having to feed multiple times a day. Please see my thoughts below.

Lyretail - Pros very hardy and common and relatively attractive. Cons - aggressive theft will kill each other and are large.

Dispar - Pros hardy, common, peaceful, good size, and peaceful. Cons their color is dull

Bartlet - Pros hardy, common, and attractive. Cons aggressive and large,

Resplendent - Pros mildly hardy, attractive, and peaceful. Cons - hard to find

Randal - Pros mildly hardy, attractive, and peaceful. Cons - hard to find

Evansi - Pros , attractive, and peaceful. Cons - difficult to keep

Purple Queen - Pros attractive and peaceful. Cons - impossible to keep.

I am leaning towards resplendent or Randal but I don’t like the idea of buying it online. Maybe dispar but I don’t like their coloration.

 

[ichthyoid]

How big is your tank, particularly the length?

They do best when they have room to swim, 6 ft+ is best, but a 4 ft may work for smaller species & low stock levels. Most except for the Fathead Sunburst particularly, which can tolerate a smaller footprint tank well. Also plan on having a harem, at least 3 females to 1 male is best for they are a social species. Even with a plank they will all appreciate a variety of foods. They need to eat often (-5-8x’s per day) as they have the small throats of a planktonic feeder and will especially appreciate live brine shrimp or especially mysis if/when available. A refugium for pods will help. Getting them to eat can be a challenge. So having some live foods available when you get them will greatly improve your odds and help with getting them to learn to eat frozen foods or even flakes.

I have had a harem of Squareback Anthias that did quite well and became the little pigs of the tank. The male became very tame, would follow me back & forth and even lay in my hand. They are quite smart as fish go. He could recognize me from anyone else that came into the room, and actively begged for my attention. Best fish ever!

Good luck, just be prepared as they can be a little high maintenance, …in a high maintenance hobby.

 

[home office reef]

My tank is 60x24x24 which is 150 gallons. It has a refugium and is 5+ years old with a strong pod population. I was planning on hatching brine shrimp before I get them.

I was thinking square back might be too large and aggressive but they are hardy and attractive.

 

[ecoreefguy]

Ventralis. They are much easier to care for than people think. I have 7 eating dozen pods. I have a mini desktop fridge that a drilled an opening for some tubing line set on a Versa as an auto feeder.

Blotchy- I think of the 2. This one’s hardier and easier to keep. Pretty cheap as well. My trio has moved like 6 tanks and never lost their appetite. Eats pellets, frozen, heck each other if they fit so gotta be careful.

I like more quirky unique fish. But with any of them they need a lot of food. Feeding them at least 3 times. Don’t listen to people saying it’s ok to feed anthias once a day, they’ll slowly die within 6 monthes. That was my downfall with them in early collection

 

[ichthyoid]

My tank is 60x24x24 which is 150 gallons. It has a refugium and is 5+ years old with a strong pod population. I was planning on hatching brine shrimp before I get them.

I was thinking square back might be too large and aggressive but they are hardy and attractive.

You should be good to go. Just be careful about things like territorial angels, especially dwarf centropyge types (Flames are the worst, ime) or the like chasing the newcomers, when you introduce them. In my experience the anthais only seem to be aggressive with each other, with the male chasing the females around. Which is the main reason you need room in the tank. Anthias are high strung as it is. Dealing with acclimation, plus new food types and in addition to aggressive tank mates all at the same time will not go well. In an ideal world adding them first would be preferred. Planning, strategy & extra care will all help a lot.

 

[Jikkermanccini]

A species I rarely see mentioned is the Huchtii anthias, the females are orange like lyretails but the males are mint green with lavender heads! I've had them several times over the years and they've adapted to dry foods quite readily. My biggest suggestion is to get your anthias from a source that does full QT! They often come in with massive parasite loads that are difficult to take care of on a hobbyist level IME.
Now you're making me want to try anthas again... Maybe someday haha.

 

[home office reef]

I will check out Huchtii. I am concerned ventrails may be difficult. I do want to get it at a LFS for the disease and parasite reason rather than buying online.

As for tank mates I do have aggressive purple tang but I usually add a mirror when I add a new fish and he beats up the mirror but I think he wouldn’t be to interested in the anthias.

 

[ecoreefguy]

I will check out Huchtii. I am concerned ventrails may be difficult. I do want to get it at a LFS for the disease and parasite reason rather than buying online.

As for tank mates I do have aggressive purple tang but I usually add a mirror when I add a new fish and he beats up the mirror but I think he wouldn’t be to interested in the anthias.

Everything worth it will take effort. All my livestock go through QT. Literally just a cheap 40 breeder on Home Depot storage racks. Once bitten twice shy. I don’t trust anyone but myself. When I sell anything, I guarentee NOTHING once it leaves my sight.