Bartlett's Anthias Suddenly died?

[disaster999]

I had 2 Bartlett's Anthias for about a year now and they were like the king of the tank. They always swim out in the open and always hungry for food. They are nice and fat and seemingly to be thriving in my tank. They are a bit of a bully and couldnt chase after other fish if they got too close, but they never really go after one another and I thought all is well.

Well recently, maybe a month or 2 ago, I started to see only 1 Bartlett's Anthias swimming about in my tank and the other one is constantly hiding in between the rocks or the back wall. It will still come out and eat whenever I feed the tank but not as aggressively as before. It seemed like its afraid of something and could be very skittish and scared. I didnt think much of it since it was still eating so I thought it was just weird anthias things until just over the weekend I found it dead in the corner of my tank. Not really sure what to think of it. It was eating and seems to be fine one day, then just died the next. I have a suspicion that the maybe the other Bartlett might be bullying it but I have not seen them get into a fight once. I really like those 2 since they they add a lot of color and movement in my tank but if having 2 of them in a tank would lead to aggression later then I wouldnt want to buy another one just to have it die again.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#fishmedic

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I had 2 Bartlett's Anthias for about a year now and they were like the king of the tank. They always swim out in the open and always hungry for food. They are nice and fat and seemingly to be thriving in my tank. They are a bit of a bully and couldnt chase after other fish if they got too close, but they never really go after one another and I thought all is well.

Well recently, maybe a month or 2 ago, I started to see only 1 Bartlett's Anthias swimming about in my tank and the other one is constantly hiding in between the rocks or the back wall. It will still come out and eat whenever I feed the tank but not as aggressively as before. It seemed like its afraid of something and could be very skittish and scared. I didnt think much of it since it was still eating so I thought it was just weird anthias things until just over the weekend I found it dead in the corner of my tank. Not really sure what to think of it. It was eating and seems to be fine one day, then just died the next. I have a suspicion that the maybe the other Bartlett might be bullying it but I have not seen them get into a fight once. I really like those 2 since they they add a lot of color and movement in my tank but if having 2 of them in a tank would lead to aggression later then I wouldnt want to buy another one just to have it die again.

Difficult to say without more conclusive symptoms/pictures, but my guess is that the dynamics in the two fish changed and one became more dominant and was keeping the other one "pinned down" in the rocks, where it gradually wasted away. I've kept larger shoals of Bartlett's and even then, I'd lose the weakest one on occasion. Chickens have a "pecking order" and so do anthias.