What species of Anthias is this?

[DerekG4]

A few weeks ago at my job (I work at a pet store) they were selling this huge pink and yellow Anthias that I thought looked strange but really pretty. But no one at my job was able to ID it. I've been googling for several hours trying to find it and I couldn't find the exact species. He looks pretty similar to a Bartlett's Anthias (P. Bartlettorum) in that they have a very similar body and tail shape, but dorsal fin is different. His dorsal fin also has some red streaks, and the stripes near his eyes are different from a Bartletts as well. He does have a pointy, beaklike mouth. He's fairly large, I'd say he's about 4.5 inches, maybe a tiny bit longer.

Also wanted to ask what do you guys feed your Anthias? I'm struggling getting him to eat. Before I bought him I fed him a tiny portion of live brine to see if he'd eat. He wasn't very enthusiastic about eating but he ate a bit nontheless. Now that I took him home, he doesn't want to eat anything at all. I've fed him pellets (spectrum pellets and coral frenzy pellets), flakes (I knew he wasn't going to eat that, but it's a try), frozen brine, frozen mysis, live plankton, phytofeast, Dr. G's fish eggs, and tiny pieces of squid. Most of these things I've also added garlic to. He payed no attention to any of it at all and was not interested in eating. It's been about 4 and a half weeks already and just today a few hours ago I fed him some live brine that I brought from work the night before. He didn't eat at first but after a few minutes he tried one then ate a few more 1 by 1. He didn't eat as much as I hoped but at least he ate something. Out of like 1000 brine that I brought I think he only ate about 10-20 shrimps. Is there anything else I can possibly feed him? I want him to eat and I'd very much like to keep him, but I can't continually feed him live brine. I'm hoping now that he's eaten the brine that he'll have a taste for the frozen brine. He wasn't a shy fish either, he came out and explored the tank on the second day that I added him. However he would always hide when the lights turned bright. He's out much more often now.

My tanks an 150 gallon, reef community. I have a yellow tang, blue tang, kole tang, sailfin tang, ocellaris clown, starry blenny, yellown coris wrasse, pearly jawfish, Banggai Cardinal, and a Lubbock fairy wrasse. No ones harrasing the Anthias. Can't say parameters, but I know they're good (corals are thriving).

[HBtank]

My Anthias seemed to immediately like frozen cyclops, and daphnia I believe. Calanus as well. Seems like any very small frozen crustacean enticed them, then it was just mixing it with new things. They seem to see small plankton in the water very well and enjoy plucking em out.

[Bret61081]

Looks like a male purple queen anthias from what i can see of the pic....If so they are very difficult to get to eat...but its not a very good pic to get a proper ID

[DerekG4]

Originally Posted by Bret61081

Looks like a male purple queen anthias from what i can see of the pic....If so they are very difficult to get to eat...but its not a very good pic to get a proper ID

Just googled that one, it's definitely that species. Good thing is he already ate a few bits of brine, which is better than nothing. I just hope it eats later on

Originally Posted by HBtank

My Anthias seemed to immediately like frozen cyclops, and daphnia I believe. Calanus as well. Seems like any very small frozen crustacean enticed them, then it was just mixing it with new things. They seem to see small plankton in the water very well and enjoy plucking em out.

I think I'll try the cyclops next. Is it difficult to get them to eat pellets? There were dispar Anthias at my job that ate pellets just fine but the queen Anthias I have doesn't even look at them.

[HBtank]

My anthias ignore pellets, but accept almost any small frozen crustacean/shrimp, and the smaller the better to start (i.e. adult brine was spat out at first, only excited for the cyclops and daphnia). I would think pellets would take a very long time, if ever, for some if they are picky to start.

Frankly I felt lucky I had that food around (was being used for small FW fish), otherwise I would have tried like 10 foods and watched it be ignored. But that allowed for the transition to most frozen foods.

[ca1ore]

Purple queens need small foods. I've had limited success with nutramar ova if you can find it.

[DerekG4]

Tried feeding it cyclops, didn't even look at it. However I fed him frozen brine and this time he actually ate a few pieces. He's super picky. He'll eat both the large brine and the tiny brine, but for some reason he looks at it for a second and then decides whether he wants it or not.

[anbosu]

Originally Posted by DerekG4

Tried feeding it cyclops, didn't even look at it. However I fed him frozen brine and this time he actually ate a few pieces. He's super picky. He'll eat both the large brine and the tiny brine, but for some reason he looks at it for a second and then decides whether he wants it or not.

This seems to be consistent behavior for these fish - if you get it to eat and survive long term it'll be a surprise.

[DerekG4]

Originally Posted by anbosu

This seems to be consistent behavior for these fish - if you get it to eat and survive long term it'll be a surprise.

If I would've known this was a hard Anthias to keep I don't think I would've bought it. I figured just about all the Anthias were about the same when it came to food. I just thought it was a steal since they sold it to me as an "assorted Anthias" for $30. I just hope it lives on.

[DerekG4]

Well I think so far so good. I managed to get him to eat garlic soaked fish eggs. He even ate a pellet, but still doesn't like them much I guess. At least now he's starting to eat.