feeding anthias

[jnprman]

Hi,

I purchased some anthias (squampinnis) last week and I'm having trouble getting it to feed. I have tried live brine, formula one, spirulina flakes, krill.

Anybody out there have any experience with these fish? They look very nice and I'd hate to lose them. :-(

Thanks!
Cliff

[JasonE]

Hmmm. Live brine should trigger a response...are there other fish that are bothering them?
Try to get them onto frozen mysis once they hit the brine.

[smiller]

Daniel at Coral Reef Productions told me about some food that anthias love awhile back. Can't remember what it was. Maybe you can do a web search for them and shoot him an email. He has kept anthias for a couple of years.


Steve

[jnprman]

JasonE,

I have a Clarkii clown, green chromises, yellow tang.

The other fish are eating all the food, before the anthias can get to them. Maybe that's the problem. :-(

Thanks!

[JasonE]

How many anthias did you get? Ratio of males to females?
It's still early though!
Try feeding at both ends of the tank at the same time.
Do they look like they want to eat...do they try to get to the food?

[jnprman]

JasonE,

I got 1 male and 3 female.

Yes, they look at the food. I've even seen the male get a piece of live brine and then spit it out.

Cliff

[Leonard]

One suggestion is to soak foods in fresh clam juice. Go to the market and puree some farmed clams (SW preferred) and blend them up. Marinate the foods in the clam juice and feed. It usually does the trick.

[1Floyd]

Ours used to love sweetwater zooplankton (marine type) ... that is before the halimeda went sexual and killed them all :( I miss them, they were my favorites by far. Best of luck with yours !

[kevinpo]

Mine love shrimp. I just tear small pieces off with my fingers and try not to get bitten too hard :D They are great fish. I pan to get 4 more females.

Kevin

[Wolverine]

If you get this group eating (and for those who don't have anthias yet), you might want to pick up some more females. You should have at least 6-8 females in a group (I had heard 6 before, but Scott Michael recommends 8+). With less, what usually happens is they set up a hierarchy, and kill each other down the line, so in the end you have one male and one female.

Dave

[AuroraDave]

I had the same problem when I first added my anthias squampinnis pair. I tried everything too. The only thing the male ate for the first 3 months was live or frozen mysis. I soaked in Selcon before feeding with a syringe.

Try placing a large dose of food on one side of your tank to lure the faster fish away, and then squirt some food directly in front of the Anthias with the syringe.

[hcs3]

how large of a tank? with this particular species they do best if they are solitary. only large aquariums (>180g) should house more than 1, and in that instaince there should be roughly 1 male to 8 or 9 females. otherwise it is as wolverine explains.

any other plankton feeders in the tank that could be causing problems?

HTH

henry