Trying to get a gauge on how long people can generally keep anthias. If over a year, please post species. Thank you!
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I have x4 Bi-colored anthias, I believe they are the hardiest of them all. Best fish ever, get along well with my x3 lyretail (1 male, 1 changing and 1 female. Would like to try the fathead sunburst again but the are expensive and easily stressed.
I had a trio of Bartlett’s about three years ago. Within three months I was down to one very aggressive male. Now it chases wrasses and chromis all day long. Can’t wait for it to try carpet surfing.
Anthias are my favorite! Ok I have one male Bi-color, he can be a huge pain sometimes as he bully's everyone but after some time and a couple of isolations to the QT he has gotten a lot better. I have a Bartlet, indigenous, lyretail, sunburst, sunset and carenbery that are all femails in my tank. They get along but the carenbery got attacked by the bi-color when I first got him and now has a permenentaly damaged fin. Right now I'm planning a larger tank for when I finish the basement and my QT has Two purple queen anthias that I'm experimenting with. So far they eat frozen cyclops and plankton as well as live brine shrimp.
They are all about a year old. Had the purple for 3 weeks now
Sunburst Anthias are EXTREAMLY tempermental and die SUPER easy. They need a lot more oxygen and take more time to acclimate to bright light than other anthias as they are usually collected in deeper Water than most Anthias. They are wimps compared to most fish and are hard to order in as they don't ship well. They do accept frozen food more readily than some of the more difficult Anthias. My advice to you is if you order one, when it comes in watch it closely. If it looks super stressed make sure you get an airstone in its container and get some oxygen to it. If Anthias get ick or velvet it can be hard to get them healthy again. If you see any sighn of disease deal with it fast or it might just die from not being able to breath due to damage to its gills. Purple queen anthias are an investment. They are A lot of work as they are really hard to get to eat. They are super picky and eat small food and will not accept large peices of food. You start by feeding them brine shrimp and go from there. I can't give you too much info as I'm still learning. These fish can take months to train to eat normal reef food. For me I have them eating cyclops and reef plankton. One important detail is anthias like flow and fast moving food. I have a bare bottom tank with no filter for my QT because I put food in it and it doesn't settle. It just floats around and round until the fish decide to eat it. This help them snack for hours after I feed them. Hope this helps. Let me know if you want any adviceWhat's your experience with the sunburst? I'm considering getting a couple of them and maybe some Queens for my tank!