MARCIA'S ANTHIAS (Pseudanthias marcia)

scuba connor · #1 12/23/2007, 04:59 PM

wow i am going to get a pare of these guys for my tank they are stunning .

but no one has them i saw them at my LFS for 79.99 a peice!! a little pricey. are they hardy ?? anyone have them ?? i love them.

connor

CarlC · #2 12/23/2007, 08:04 PM

Are you sure they are marcia? Great find if they are. Your looking at aound 5" as adults. Thats kinda big for a pair in a 65.

Carl

SDguy · #3 12/23/2007, 08:16 PM

How do you ID these from the Pseudanthias hypselosoma that have been quite common in the LFS/online vendors lately?

scuba connor · #4 12/23/2007, 11:07 PM

i went to my lfs wich i can not name the store because i don't want someone to know were to get them but, they have a show tank with a few in there and they are spectacular and they have a par for sale for a pritty expencive price? {79.99} a peice. they were called marcia's anthias and the onesin the show tank wich are also called marcia's anthias look exactly like the ones on line. so they must be them.

i have 2 small perculas in my SPS tank as of now since i got rid of many of my fish because i wasn't that happy with them. so i figure a small pair will be suficiant (sorry if spelt wrong) enoff for a few years. i am excited but wondering if that price is to high ? what you think? are they hardy ?

Hormigaquatica · #5 12/24/2007, 12:06 AM

Have you done a search online for P. hypselosoma? If not, you may want to check out www.fishbase.org and look those guys up. Marcia and hypselosoma look very very similar to one another, and would be easily confused. The reason we are questioning it is that P. marcia are quite rare in the hobby- they only come from the waters around Oman (if I remember right...); currently there is virtually no collection going on in that area. Hypselosoma on the other hand is much more common.

If it is Actually marcia, then $80 a pop is an excellent price. Hypselosoma.. well, I think its a little steep. Regardless of which species they really are- if you like them enough that theyre worth $80 a piece to you, go for it. If youre only wanting them for the rarity factor, Id be much more leery.

EDIT: Here's a couple photos I found on fishbase of deceased specimens.

scuba connor · #6 12/24/2007, 12:25 AM

i checked the website. this is deffenetly fishy and strange but the marcias look exactly like the ones in the store thats what they are labeled as in the store as well. the store isn't a little peice of junk eather its been around longer than me and from my nolege they realy know there stuff. the part about how rare they are dose come to a shock to me though because they have atleats 6 in there main tank wich have been there a few years and the two they are selling exactly like the ones in there display. they have this emaculate colored blue eyes with this gorguse pinkish red body and trailers that you would kill for . i don't care if there rare or not i just love them!! i don't even care about the name i just care about getten um lol

so no one knows if there hardy or not . is the hypselosoma hardy and is the marcia hardy ?

connor

scuba connor · #7 12/24/2007, 12:25 PM

if it was the other one what would be some diffrences between the two anthias

philter4 · #8 12/24/2007, 01:14 PM

I don't know anthias vary well, almost no knowledge at all, but I do know about the differences between species in general. A species is generally described as a group that breeds together and produces viable offstpring. Some times they seperate two species because of range, if they can't breed together they are not the same sp, and maybe this is the reason these are considered 2 seperate sp. Other times, it is because of things like scale counts, fin rays and internal structures, all of which are next to impossible to count on live animals. I guess you could catch the fish and gently count it's fin rays, but scales and internal structures must be done on dead animals to be accurate. I don't know about this species in particular, but just looking at photos and reading this thred, maybe you can only be sure on live animals if you can guarentee where it was caught.

Hormigaquatica · #9 12/24/2007, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by scuba connor
if it was the other one what would be some diffrences between the two anthias

If you look up each species on fishbase, it will show you the difference in fin ray counts and other morphological features that can be used to distinguish between them.

CarlC · #10 12/25/2007, 12:30 AM

Marcia and hypselosoma males would be hard to confuse. Males of marcia have a caudal that has a extension on only the upper part. This is not seen in very many species and is something that really stands out. Marcia males also have a extended lower lip witch differs from hypselosoma. True hypselosoma males have a spot in the middle of the dorsal.

Females of both species are similar but again easily seperated by color, caudal shape and the extended lower lip on marcia.

Like Hormigaquatica pointed out Oman is not doing any collecting for the states. If they were collecting this would not be the species of choice for collection since townsheadi is more common and much more impressive.

There is a rarely collected and rarely seen species from the Maldives that closely resembles Marcia. Micheals (USA) and Tanaka (Japan) have photgraphed this fish collected as "Marcia" from the Maldives.

Carl

Carl