Tongan Anthias

[DeltecRules]

Anyone aquire any yet? I seen some pics of them at Liveaquaria's Divers den and phishbuisness. They look beautiful. Are they hardy?

[gasman059]

I got it locally. Eats pretty much whatever in the water column.
Pretty shy with my other 10 various anthias.
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n320/gasman059/IMG_5494.jpg[/IMG]

[mattyice]

pretty shy?!?!

mine are eating machines and come right up to the tank when i walk around it, i got mine through salty critter and i couldnt be happier, they are active, hardy, and eat everything

mine eat silverside chunks, krill chunks, shrimp, spectrum pellets, brine, mysis, red worms, crab meat, halibut, you name it and they will eat it in my tank, my male is about as far along as gasmans in terms of almost becoming super male, here is the pic of my trio that i got from Salty

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/mpitzo/IMG_1423.jpg

and a better picture of the male

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/mpitzo/IMG_1415.jpg

[gasman059]

LOL Most likely because of my other anthi population?
I dunno never had this species before this attempt.
BTW this anthi lives in a 200 with multiple other species of anthis.
lyretails/fatheads/bartletts

[mattyice]

yeah the lyretails are pretty bossy im guessing with bartletts and fatheads being pretty shy, i dont know how long you have had them but i bet sooner or later the male is going to take dominance of all the anthias in the tank, they are pretty large bodied and have a very outgoing attitude (at least mine do), my trio (besides the little baby) actually have dominance over the juvi. sohal i have in my tank and are not afraid to cut him off and steal food from right in front of them, same goes for them doing that to my juvi. vlamingii, i couldnt be happier with my purchase and i hope to add a few more smaller females in the future as these anthias seem to be as hardy as anthias come and will eat just about anything, from where they come from (tonga) the natives have a nickname for them that translates into pig in english, just to give you an idea of how they will eat

[CarlC]

I have one male and three females. They live in a 180 with dispars, lori's, and soon parvirostris. Non Pseudanthias tankmates include a multibar dwarf angel and a wetmorella wrasse species. They bother no one.

In my opinion these guys follow the same behavior pattern as most of the other deeper water species. The male accerts himself with his females but does not keep them grouped tightly. They have their freedom but when he wants them together he gets it done fast.

They from what I have seen defineatly prefer temps on the cooler side. Mine seem to prefer the mid 70's. They are much more active when it is cooler compared to times the temps get closer to 80.

They eat and eat and eat! I feed my tank atleast 5 times daily and they are always the first at the corner I feed from. They'll eat anything from copepods to large PE mysis. The males are heavily bodied and from what I have experienced they need bigger meaty food to hold their weight.

The type locale is Figi. The shallowest the speices holotypes and paratypes were collected at was 30m. I can't get any information about collection depth from Tonga though. My thinking is either this species is uncommon or only found at deeper depths since collection has been limited. The holotypes and paratypes were collected from differant types of formations from fore reefs to steep drop offs.

Probably more than you wanted to know!

Carl

[mattyice]

very informative, Carl do you recommend PE mysis over other kinds of mysis, i know personally the only mysis i can get locally are tiny and i saw PE mysis and they are HUGE compared to what i feed, is it worth me ordering a big bag of it to feed to my fish, they are all pretty big eaters

[CarlC]

I mix three size's together since all my anthias vary in size. The flav's prefer to go after the big food first.

I think you'd be ok ordering it. You have some big eaters! Your trigger would probably love the large size. The only draw back for me is they are a freshwater mysis so I make sure they soak for awhile in Selcon and Vita Chem.

Yesterday I fed the tank nine times and at the last feeding they still eagerly went after the large food first.

Carl

[mattyice]

yes they are very very big eaters...EVERYONE you forgot to mention the juvi valmingii and sohal lol they put down 4 algae sheets in a few days

im going to order the large size i think, i have yet to see food that mine wont eat, and i soak all of my food in selcon already so its not too big of a deal for me

[gasman059]

Yikes x 7 feedings!
I just can't make myself feed my sps tank that much.

[CarlC]

My tank is defineatly not suited for SPS! I do two 25g water changes weekly so that helps. Plus the feeding are just enough that the food is consumed in under a minute.

Carl

[mattyice]

i do 2-3 heavy feedings a day so its about equal, i do about 30G water changes every other week

[DeltecRules]

Thanks for the information guys. I received a PM from someone from phishybuisness saying they are on the more aggressive side for anthias. Would you trust these guys with a pair of Laboutei's, Lineatus fairy wrasse, rhomboid fairy wrasse?

[CarlC]

I think your wrasse's would get pushed around at feeding time but other than that you should be ok. I have mine with lori's anthias and they are a very laid back species.

Carl

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=#post target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DeltecRules
Thanks for the information guys. I received a PM from someone from phishybuisness saying they are on the more aggressive side for anthias. Would you trust these guys with a pair of Laboutei's, Lineatus fairy wrasse, rhomboid fairy wrasse?
Hey I have lineatus/rhomboid/tonge flame/leopard/xmas/exquisite
No isues so far.
Althoug as I mentioned before mine is very shy-wondering if there's a disease process going on here.

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10473811#post10473811 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CarlC
They from what I have seen defineatly prefer temps on the cooler side. Mine seem to prefer the mid 70's. They are much more active when it is cooler compared to times the temps get closer to 80.

Brrrr....that's a bit chilly :)

BTW, have you seen the red stripe anthias at phishy?

[CarlC]

Yep I saw them. Only males though. How about that Sacura trio at DFS.

Every dive site says water temps average 24c to 28c according to season. I think that once your at around 30m and below its gonna start to drop in temp. So 75ish was around the middle ground.

Carl

[SDguy]

Oh, sorry, I meant that would be chilly for my tank, not yours :D

As I understand it, there is no sexual difference with the redstripes, so how do they know they are all male?

Yeah, the sacura are cool, but I also remember that phishy sat on a pair FOREVER and ended up selling them for even less than the $500 they were asking, AFAIK. Maybe LA has a larger customer base though.

What do you think about the evansi they are selling? I'm under the impression their survival rate is like that of tuka.

[CarlC]

In some populations of faciatus the sex's have differant width stripes and differance's in the red coloring of the stripe but unless you have a bunch to look at to compare it's a crap shoot.

I think the evansi would do great in a high energy SPS system. Beside the few species we know are near impossible to keep I think with proper conditioning most will do ok. Keeping them seperated in QT and getting them acustomed to what we are going to be feeding and building their immune systems back up I think is key.

Carl

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10481312#post10481312 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CarlC
I think the evansi would do great in a high energy SPS system. .

Carl

Do you know anyone that has kept them? I've never tried, though I've only seen them for sale locally a couple times, and they looked dismal. I know one person posted a pic in the anthias photo library thread, but judging by the appearance of their stomachs, they were either new acquisitions, or on their way out :(

[CarlC]

Same as you. I have never seen one in person that I would buy.

I trust that Kevin has them eating. If he has them eating mysids I think half the battle is won. I would probably still QT them and make sure they are dewormed.

Carl

[screamincamaro]

I recently got a male and three females of the Flav's in a tank with my tonga flame wrasses. I love these Anthias. They are great eaters, good tankmates, and have lots of personality. Both the Flav's and the flame wrasse came from exoticfish.com. They were great to deal with. I have room to add another 3-4 fish in my tank and can't decide if I should get another male and a couple more females or go with a different type of fish. Any suggestions?

[CarlC]

Two males will quickly lead to one male! I also think that with a group of girls that large you could expect one or two to change to male leading to the same issue as getting another known male.

Go with a differant type of fish.

Carl