Pseudanthias tuka

JCM

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I picked up a pair of tuka's today. My LFS said they were the easiest anthias to keep (kidding of course, I'm well aware of the difficulty). I wanted to start a thread to document my experience.

I know the chance of success is super low, but I've got a few things going in my favor.

1. My tank was started with real ocean rock and is swarming with microfauna day and night.

2. The only other fish in the tank is a lawnmower blenny, so they won't be bullied.

3. I work from home, so can feed hourly to start.

4. They are the biggest, fattest Tuka's I've seen. The male is 4"+ and almost an inch thick. The female is 3"

5. They were eating PE Calanus at the store, and showed a mild feeding response to PE mysis.

6. My tank runs around 74 degrees.

Maybe I'm trying to justify an asinine decision and I realize I'm likely to fail, but I've always wanted to try. I've successfully kept a number of other anthias species but never one this difficult. Im considering adding a small group of P. dispar soon to give them company and in an attempt to strengthen their feeding response.

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JCM

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Awesome. Queens are infamous. Good luck to you. Sounds like you are the guy/gal for the challenge.

Thanks! I'm going to give it my best shot, I know the odds aren't in my favor though. Such a beautiful fish, a few hours after I brought them home the male was doing a dance for the female. It almost looked like a flasher wrasse display.
 
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I'm getting a very strong feeding response from both of them with PE Calanus, I've been feeding a small amount every 45 minutes or so. I plan to start mixing in a small amount of LRS Reef Frenzy and NLS pellets soon. I only have the 1 mm pellets on hand, hopefully I can find some .5 mm soon.

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That's definitely the goal. Ideally I'd have them eating pellets from an auto feeder 3-4 times a day and go back to feeding frozen 2-3 times a day.
Ditto the above. My tuka love brightwell reef blizzard A. It is basically neutrally buoyant, so they have time to eat from the column. They only took a week or so to ween onto the pellets after starting with fish eggs and calanus and mixing in the bright well pellets.
 
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Ditto the above. My tuka love brightwell reef blizzard A. It is basically neutrally buoyant, so they have time to eat from the column. They only took a week or so to ween onto the pellets after starting with fish eggs and calanus and mixing in the bright well pellets.

Thanks! Is that brightwell product in pellet form that can be used in an auto feeder? The description says its a powder.

I did pick up some frozen fish eggs and live blackworms today to vary their diet somewhat.
 

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Thanks! Is that brightwell product in pellet form that can be used in an auto feeder? The description says its a powder.

I did pick up some frozen fish eggs and live blackworms today to vary their diet somewhat.

It’s a pellet. And it should work in an auto feeder. One benefit of covid is I’m mostly working from home, so can feed 2 to 3 times a day so haven’t needed an auto feeder yet.

I’ll try and get a photo of the pellets for you. Make sure you get reef blizzard A, as the other letters are different sizes, L, O, and S, are smaller and/or denser and/or sink too fast.
 

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Thanks! Is that brightwell product in pellet form that can be used in an auto feeder? The description says its a powder.

I did pick up some frozen fish eggs and live blackworms today to vary their diet somewhat.

These are some of my favorite fish! I started with a dozen 6 months ago. I have 10 that survived after a month and continue to do well. I believe mine are pseudanthias pascalus due to the lack of the dorsal gold stripe in the females, but similar in terms of care requirements.
Once I was able to elicit a feeding response, using live food and a variety of small frozen foods, I was able to progressively get them to accept larger food. Currently they eat a variety of foods including frozen mysis, calanus, brine shrimp, and even pellets. Here is a video of them eating frozen mysis.



The frequency of feeding is one of the challenges as you mentioned. I'm using the avast plank feeder and feed freeze dried foods (mysis and calanus). Currently feeding them 6 times a day via the plank and frozen 1-3 times a day.

They are beautiful fish. Good luck!


E94850B8-87A0-4C5C-B1C2-0FAC8D957230_1_105_c.jpeg
FE464531-E628-4A27-8C00-3CCCA32F5494_1_105_c.jpeg
 
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It’s a pellet. And it should work in an auto feeder. One benefit of covid is I’m mostly working from home, so can feed 2 to 3 times a day so haven’t needed an auto feeder yet.

I’ll try and get a photo of the pellets for you. Make sure you get reef blizzard A, as the other letters are different sizes, L, O, and S, are smaller and/or denser and/or sink too fast.

That would be awesome, thanks!

Yeah I'm home all day right now too so I've been thawing a Cube in a bowl of tank water and giving them a squirt every 45 minutes or so.

So far they are eating and acting like all the other anthias I've kept but knowing their reputation I'm not getting myself overly optimistic.
 
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These are some of my favorite fish! I started with a dozen 6 months ago. I have 10 that survived after a month and continue to do well. I believe mine are pseudanthias pascalus due to the lack of the dorsal gold stripe in the females, but similar in terms of care requirements.
Once I was able to elicit a feeding response, using live food and a variety of small frozen foods, I was able to progressively get them to accept larger food. Currently they eat a variety of foods including frozen mysis, calanus, brine shrimp, and even pellets. Here is a video of them eating frozen mysis.



The frequency of feeding is one of the challenges as you mentioned. I'm using the avast plank feeder and feed freeze dried foods (mysis and calanus). Currently feeding them 6 times a day via the plank and frozen 1-3 times a day.

They are beautiful fish. Good luck!


E94850B8-87A0-4C5C-B1C2-0FAC8D957230_1_105_c.jpeg
FE464531-E628-4A27-8C00-3CCCA32F5494_1_105_c.jpeg



Wow awesome video!! The pascalus get significantly larger right? The frequency of feeding isn't a problem right now, but I'm sure I won't be around to feed a dozen times a day forever so getting them on pellets would be great.

Is that a jordani wrasse? My second favorite wrasse! I had one for years that I got from a diver in Hawaii. I see they are 10x the price now unfortunately.
 

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Wow awesome video!! The pascalus get significantly larger right? The frequency of feeding isn't a problem right now, but I'm sure I won't be around to feed a dozen times a day forever so getting them on pellets would be great.

Is that a jordani wrasse? My favorite wrasse! I had one for years that I got from a diver in Hawaii. I see they are 10x the price now unfortunately.
I believe they are the same size range. Often confused as the same species and sold as purple queen anthias and difficult to distinguish. My male is about 4-5" I would estimate and the females 2-3".

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/03/18/awesome-fish-spotlight-tuka-pascalus/

That is a male jordani in the video. I was able to get him right before Hawaii shut down and the prices shot up fortunately.
 

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I picked up a pair of tuka's today. My LFS said they were the easiest anthias to keep (kidding of course, I'm well aware of the difficulty). I wanted to start a thread to document my experience.

I know the chance of success is super low, but I've got a few things going in my favor.

1. My tank was started with real ocean rock and is swarming with microfauna day and night.

2. The only other fish in the tank is a lawnmower blenny, so they won't be bullied.

3. I work from home, so can feed hourly to start.

4. They are the biggest, fattest Tuka's I've seen. The male is 4"+ and almost an inch thick. The female is 3"

5. They were eating PE Calanus at the store, and showed a mild feeding response to PE mysis.

6. My tank runs around 74 degrees.

Maybe I'm trying to justify an asinine decision and I realize I'm likely to fail, but I've always wanted to try. I've successfully kept a number of other anthias species but never one this difficult. Im considering adding a small group of P. dispar soon to give them company and in an attempt to strengthen their feeding response.

20210602_150916.jpg
20210602_150913.jpg
20210602_150908.jpg
Good luck but I prefer nobody buy them which would give wholesalers no reason to keep them available
 
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JCM

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I believe they are the same size range. Often confused as the same species and sold as purple queen anthias and difficult to distinguish. My male is about 4-5" I would estimate and the females 2-3".

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/03/18/awesome-fish-spotlight-tuka-pascalus/

That is a male jordani in the video. I was able to get him right before Hawaii shut down and the prices shot up fortunately.

Ah OK, I knew they were very similar but thought I had read the pascalus males reached like 8".

Beautiful jordani !! I dont think anything rivaled the show my male would put on in the evening.
 
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JCM

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Good luck but I prefer nobody buy them which would give wholesalers no reason to keep them available

I completely understand and respect your position but if we had always done that, the hobby wouldn't be where it is today. We keep plenty of things today that were impossible 20 years ago.
 
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I failed on my attempt a month or so ago. I got 5 and even hatched live brine shrimp. They ate the baby shrimp but never transitioned to any other food and withered away. It was sad and I’m probably not going to try them again. I feel like I’m pretty good at getting difficult fish eating but they are on another lvl. :/ Good luck I hope it’s turns out differently for you.
 
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I failed on my attempt a month or so ago. I got 5 and even hatched live brine shrimp. They ate the baby shrimp but never transitioned to any other food and withered away. It was sad and I’m probably not going to try them again. I feel like I’m pretty good at getting difficult fish eating but they are on another lvl. :/ Good luck I hope it’s turns out differently for you.

Sorry to hear that. Mine are eagerly eating frozen calanus so I'm hopeful they'll transition. Definitely not guaranteed though.
 
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