Mixing multiple single female anthias?

[LeftyReefer]

I would like several different anthia's, but I don't really want a whole harem of each kind...
For one, the cost of various anthias is prohibitive, two, they are hard to get around here, so I would probably have to order fish and pay shipping. And three, I didn't want to add that many fish, just a half dozen or so.

but I still want a few different species of anthias.... Can I get several single female anthias, of various species and mix them?

A harem of mixed females, no males.....

a female lyretail, a female dispar, a female red saddle, a female bimac, etc... all single females.

Has anybody ever tried this? I imagine one (all?) may turn male in this scenario? If so, being the only male of that species, I think it would be fine, no?

Is this a bad idea?

 

[wcharon]

Interesting to know at well. I have my concern due to their multiple daily feeding requirements if all adapt to the same food as they are picky but will let the experts jump in..

 

[1ocean]

I have 5 in the 300 and one did change to male as I knew would happen...They do like to eat and they add alot of movement to the tank and add to the chaos of the 9 clowns which all, I think keep 6 tangs distracted ...the tangs do get along..

 

[LeftyReefer]

I have 5 in the 300...

Were your 5 all the same species? or females from different species?

 

[LeftyReefer]

Not much feedback on this.... so I think I'm going to go ahead and try it.

I have two females in QT right now, a carberri and a randall.
will keep an eye out at my LFS for additional females from other anthia species.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

As I understand it, this should be fine, but there's a very real chance that some or all of them may transition to male eventually.

 

[LeftyReefer]

The female carberryi anthias is doing great in QT, the female randall is not, unfortunately.

she was pretty skinny when I got her, and she has not eaten much in the week since. She ate the first day but after that, she just darts up to food but doesn't eat it, or she eats it then spits it right back out... I've tried a ton of different food and it just won't eat hardly anything. The carberryi eats like a pig and is nice and fat, but the randall is looking very thin. Starting to get worried about it.

I lowered the copper level in the QT tank from 2.5 down to 2.1 hoping it might help. None of the fish are showing any signs of ICH or anything else at this point. The carrberryi was scratching the first day or two, but stopped within a day of dosing copper power and hasn't scratched since. Going to try to keep it just above 2.0 now instead of 2.5.

Both anthias have shunned all pellets. The carberryi will eat just about anything frozen, while the randall won't.

it won't even eat calanus or cyclops or roe. Ignores all those completely. Carrberryi loves it all.
The only thing I've gotten it to eat more than one bite of is finely grated shrimp, mixed with some selcon and garlic and a little Focus. I've been grating shrimp and mixing in the selcon and garlic and Focus and then feeding a little every hour or so. it eats a couple bites and then stops.

I don't think this randall is going to make it through a full QT at this rate.

And its not due to aggression either... both female anthias are getting along fine. zero aggression. They actually use the same pvc pipe caves together. I have 5 pvc elbows in my QT tank and they always huddle into one together.

Next time I need to make sure they are eating good in the store before I commit to taking one home.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

A few more foods you could try if you think it might help: Baby Brine Shrimp/Gut-loaded Artemia, Mysis Shrimp, Krill, Clam on half-shell, White Worms, and Black Worms. I’ve heard the worms, clams, and BBS in particular are great for getting picky eaters to eat. The fish might be too far gone regardless l, but it’s something you could try.

 

[LeftyReefer]

A few more foods you could try if you think it might help: Baby Brine Shrimp/Gut-loaded Artemia, Mysis Shrimp, Krill, Clam on half-shell, White Worms, and Black Worms. I’ve heard the worms, clams, and BBS in particular are great for getting picky eaters to eat. The fish might be too far gone regardless l, but it’s something you could try.

I actually have some BBS coming today from Algaebarn! I figured live foods might helps so I quickly ordered some BBS and some pods the other day. Going to have to try to find some live worms, but not sure where I'm going to find those... none of the LFS around here have any and not sure where I get some to start my own culture....

Hopefully the BBS and pods help.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Be careful about adding additional anthias after the initial ones. I had a recent bad experience with buying 1 lyretail anthias and then going back and buying 2 more when they came back in stock at the lfs, Just a matter of 4 days and the original one killed one and almost killed the other, and they were all females.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Be careful about adding additional anthias after the initial ones. I had a recent bad experience with buying 1 lyretail anthias and then going back and buying 2 more when they came back in stock at the lfs, Just a matter of 4 days and the original one killed one and almost killed the other, and they were all females.

I actually wasn't going to get any Lyretails... They get bigger than I want and are more aggressive than I want. I was hoping to stick with a mix of a few smaller, more peaceful anthias for this experiment. Will not be gettng any Lyretails or Bartletts for sure.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Be careful about adding additional anthias after the initial ones. I had a recent bad experience with buying 1 lyretail anthias and then going back and buying 2 more when they came back in stock at the lfs, Just a matter of 4 days and the original one killed one and almost killed the other, and they were all females.

If they were all lyretails, then there's a good chance the other two were females but started transitioning to male (the transition only takes a few days - for the bluehead wrasse, for example, they can be fully male within four days and have fully functional reproductive capabilities as such within eight). That fighting is why it is typically suggested to either get several (I've heard ~9-11 being a relatively safe number) individuals, or to stick with just one for a number of different species.

 

[LeftyReefer]

In addition to the Carrberryi and Randall that I already have in QT, I would also like to add at least one of each of the following:
Dispar
Ignitus
Red Saddle

any other candidates I should look out for?

 

[LeftyReefer]

Happy to report that the Randall has finally taking to eating some TDO pellets.

Monday i was feeding both anthias finely grated frozen shrimp mixed with selcon, garlic, and mixed in some GC. I also dosed metroplex to the QT tank. Continued yesterday with the medicated food.

today I sprinkled a few TDO pellets in the tank and the Randall ate about 10 of them, which is much more than it has eaten at any point yet. It is still super thin, sickly thin, but at least it has taken to eating some pellets now. was even scooping them off the surface of the water before they would sink.

I'll keep feeding it as much as it will eat and hope for the best. Seems slightly more lively today too.

Not sure if it was lowering the copper level, dosing metroplex, or feeding GC, but it seems to be eating better now.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Not sure what the Randall's issue was, but after dosing Metroplex to the QT tank twice 48 hours apart, the Randall started eating like a champ. Has been eating great ever since. Has gained some weight and is no longer paper thin. And it is much more active and swimming much better. Both anthias are doing great in QT now. Another couple weeks to go, but at this point, both fish appear to be 100% healthy and I'm confident both will be ready to add to my DT in a few weeks.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Pretty late to this, but I keep a few varieties of anthias in my tank. (Squamapinnis x3, Carberryi x2, and Bimacs x2)

First off, all of the female anthias you get will most likely transition to males in the absence of other members of their species.

In my system, by in large, the carberry are ignored. The male lyretail and bimac will tussle some but generally it's short lived. In the 180 they can spread out as needed.

Looking forward to seeing how your experiment works out. I'm inclined to believe it should be fine, but def does carry some risk.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Looks like i might have claimed a QT victory a little too soon with this batch of fish.

Last night while giving the fish their last feeding I noticed the little springeri damsel that is also in the QT tank with the (2) anthias and the flasher wrasse, had developed bulge in his left eye. He appears to have a big clear bubble on the outside of his left eye. it does not appear that the eye itself is bulging out of the socket. Just a big clear bubble around it. Since it is just one of his eyes, and he is still acting and eating fine, I'm going to hope/assume it was due to an injury/scrape and not disease. I have noticed the flasher wrasse chase the damsel a little bit, but nothing too concerning. Hoping he just scraped or bumped it while being chased by the wrasse.

After I noticed it, I finished feeding them and then decided to do a water change. cleaning out any uneaten food and any fish waste and dosed the change water with copper power before adding it. Waited an hour or so and then did a copper test on the QT tank to make sure nothing went wrong during the water change. Tested 2.69 ppm. all good. All fish, including the springeri damsel were all acting fine and all ate good.

I'll keep an eye on it for a few days. If it doesn't appear to get any better, or gets worse, I might need to go to plan B. (antibiotics ?)

If I need to treat with an antibiotic, will kanaplex do the job? Or do I need maracyn for popeye?

I have:
Kanaplex
Metroplex
maracyn-2
furan-2

They've been in copper power for 16 days, and been through 2 rounds of prazi and 3 rounds of metro so far.
Everyone was looking great before the damsel got this eye bubble.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I ended up treating the QT tank with Kanaplex for the damsel's eye problem. I did 2 doses of Kanaplex spaced 48 hours apart and then a water change. That seemed to do the trick. His eye is almost back to normal now. Still treating with Copper Power at 2.5ppm. Towards the end of this week will mark 30 days in copper. Friday I'll start pulling out the copper and starting observation. Will do one more Prazi treatment before then. QT is going well, all things considered.

After a couple weeks of eating good, the Randall is now every bit as active as the carberryi. It's stomach isn't quite as fat as the carberryi's, but it's getting close. When the tank lights are on, both anthias are out 100% of the time now and searching for food. They are big eaters, but still picky eaters. The Randall more so than the Carberryi. I've tried a large variety of pellets and different frozen foods, but the Randall will only eat frozen brine shrimp. Everything else, she spits out instantly. The Carberryi female is a little less picky. she has eaten a number of things, calanus, ROE, LRS, Rods, etc... but seems to prefer brine shrimp over anything too. So it looks like frozen brine shrimp will have to be a staple from now on to keep them happy.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Friday marked day 30 in copper power for the (4) fish in my QT. Along with multiple Prazi treatments.
Today I started removing the copper via a large 90% water change. Will hold them in QT without meds for a couple more weeks for observation. Getting close now.

 

[LeftyReefer]

So I got these two anthias back at the end of March, QT'd them for almost 3 months. Finally added them to the main tank in early July, so they've been in the tank for a little over a month now and seem to be doing great. they spend 85% of the time together. Both are great eaters and have been putting on size/weight nicely.