Keeping Anthias

[legalreefer]

I’ve never kept anthias solely because of what I have read about feeding schedules. My LFS has a pretty reasonable deal on 4 Dispars.

How often do you feed yours? My fish get fed once a day, usually around 9pm. Will a once a day feeding be enough to keep them happy?

 

[phi79]

I have one lyretail anthia for two months, I feed once a day with pellets and he seem to be healthy.

 

[AquariumSchmo]

If it is matter of availability, you can always setup an auto feeder.

 

[FutureInterest]

Dispars tend to only eat frozen food in my experience. Some will take to dry foods but it takes time/effort and it may never happen... Unlike lyretails I think you need to feed dispars at least twice a day to keep them going. These fish are designed to just eat tidbits all day so the once a day smorgasborgh doesn't work with them quite as well as other fish that can pack it in with a single feeding.

 

[Adam]

My Purple Queen will only eat mysis, very seldom will it actually eat any other frozen as it usually spits it right back out. By far the pickiest fish I have. It has watched many fish go crazy over pellet and has never even tried to grab one. These are supposed to be some of the harder of the anthias to keep and had I known that I wouldn't have gotten it. I think that QT'ing it with other fish helped big time with it's feeding response with frozen. I usually feed twice a day but there are many times where it's only once. I'd say in a given week I feed 10 to 12 times. Going below that would probably not be good for these fish. Highly active with a small digestive tract means they need more feedings.

 

[legalreefer]

The ones I saw at the store ate flake foods. They actually went nuts over it. I know the owner and these fish came from his brother’s personal aquarium. All fish are fat and healthy looking.

Perhaps I can invest in an automatic feeder

 

[FutureInterest]

Woah. I'd snatch them up right away if they're eating flake.

 

[FutureInterest]

What store is this?

 

[AquariumSchmo]

Perhaps I can invest in an automatic feeder

I use super cheap ones when I'm away on vacation and have never had one fail on me. For everyday feeding though, I would get an Eheim.

Also, if you do want/need to feed live food, I've seen someone hook up a doser to food in a mini fridge. I think they used Reef Nutrition food.

 

[Adam]

Since these are fish that are used to being in captivity you should be good to go once you get the feeding schedule down. If you have a controller you can shut the return pump off when the feeder dispenses so the flake doesn't end up mostly in the sump. It's either that or experimenting with feeding ring.

I'm planning on making a feeding ring to attach to my Neptune AFS. Just haven't got to it yet. So the feeder is just collecting dust right now. I've also cut way back on the pellet and been more heavily feeding frozen.

 

[AquariumSchmo]

If you have a controller you can shut the return pump off when the feeder dispenses so the flake doesn't end up mostly in the sump. It's either that or experimenting with feeding ring.

Besides a feeding ring, another option is to place the auto feeder to output in the return section of a sump. That's where I usually put mine when out of town.