New addition!

[Folta]

Today I stopped by tropical lagoon, first time I've been there. The corals were way overpriced, however some of the fish prices weren't too bad.

 

I picked up this beauty today:

 

 

 

To answer some questions:

1. No, I have not seen him eat.

2. The store has had him for two days, and the staff present didn't say if he's eaten in that time.

3. I didn't quarantine him at all, just acclimated him and let him mingle.

 

 

Well, so far, he's been doing pretty well (for the few hours I've had him). He's out and about, exploring, not getting along with the flame angel particularly well but everyone else seems to accept him into the group just fine. He doesn't appear stressed at all, no damage to the fins, and has just downright beautiful color. In case you guys were wondering, he cost me $29.00.

 

He is currently residing in my 55 gallon tank, but will be moving along with the rest of the crew to my 180 when it's finished being set up.

 

I hope to see him eat tomorrow when I feed mysis to the tank. I dropped a few pellets into the tank tonight, but it was while he was still hiding amongst the rockwork so I don't know if he got any of it. It at least fed the rest of the fish, hopefully making them a little calmer towards the newbie.

 

:D

[Herbert]

That's a really beautiful male lyretail anthais. I think he's is really pretty. I want one for my tank. Tell us how he's doing.

[flowerseller]

All of my large pieces have come from there.

My long term success from that place has never really been matched consistantly anywhere else.

 

I might acclimate my additions differently too.

[flowerseller]

However, you can't beat Reeftopia for royal grammas.

[Folta]

Glad to hear you've had good success with their fish.

 

This picture imho doesn't even do him justice.. it doesn't really capture the vibrance of his colors! I'm going to try to get a few more pics today when the lights come on.

[Folta]

Well, I"m afraid to report that right now he's not doing all that well.

 

He looks a little bit stressed; I think its pretty much all being caused by my flame angel. Today, during daylight hours, he was pretty much not out at all. From time to time I'd see him appear for 2-3 seconds, then dart back behind the rocks (or be chased by the flame angel). I find this weird, as the anthias doesn't go near where the flame angel is, doesn't attack back (just flees when being chased), and nobody else has any problems with anybody.

 

To make matters worse, it now appears that the anthias has a 'bite' or something on his side, near his gills. Since he's staying behind the rockwork I can barely get a look at it let alone a picture (I"ve tried), but there's defintely something wrong with him there. It looks as thought that area might be infected (the glance I got, it looked like a lump, but all scales were present)

 

Right now he's next to a peppermint shrimp, I can kind of see him (his injury is turned away from me unfortunately) and the peppermint shrimp seems to be picking at the inury. I'm hoping that that is helping get rid of parasites or whatever is bothering him.

 

I have way too much rockwork to have any chance of getting any of the fish out, and even if I went to great lengths to remove rocks and corals just to get to him, I'm sure the ordeal would be very stressful. I'm thinking unfortunately the best thing to do at this point is to just let time take its course, and hope for the best.

 

I'll keep you guys updated. He truly is a beautiful fish, and pictures (both mine and others I've seen online) truly do not give this red lyretail anthias any justice whatsoever. Regardless of the outcome of this circumstance, I will be trying with more anthias's in the 180 - at least 3, maybe 4.

[HowardofNOVA]

Tim,

I've always found the Lyretails to be one of the most beautiful fish we can get. But with all beautiful things comes a price. For Anthias is that they are recommended to feed more often through the day VS. once or twice that most people do. Thus, a higher maintenance problem with them.

Second, when you have any new fish, you want to keep in a QT for a few days to make sure they are eating before you place in my main tank and what your finding is the harrassment from either similiar species or color of fish trying to gain dominance over the new guy!

IMHO, I would do your best to get him OUT of the tank ASAP. Put him into a QT tank until he is eating better, time for his wound to heal, most likely by the similiar colored Flame and then put him back into the tank just after the MH lights go out for the night to allow him time to feel comfortable before the next days possible bullying by the Flame again. Hopefully this time he will do much better!

 

I'm going through similiar situation with introducing a Purple Tang into my tank with my Yellow Tang. He has resisted the intial barage by the Yellow and seems they have agreed to disagree and are starting to settle down. If that continues ok, great, if not, you will see another Yellow Tang for sale soon!

Howard

[Gadgets]

Just wanted to say good luck with your anthias. I picked up 4 blue-eyed anthias from the aquarium center in Baltimore on Saturday and they are doing excellent. You might want to go there next time. All of their anthias seemed to be in excellent condition. HTH

[Lee Stearns]

Tim ,

I have a male Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis)

and three females- I started mine on cyclopese- Many people have difficulty in getting these beauties to start eating- I noticed when I first got mine, I added two females first - that they spent a good deal of time visiting my two cleaner shrimp- They would stand still and let the cleaner go into thier gill areas and generaly work them over- they do a lot less of this now after about six months. I then added a female and a male after about three more weeks. It took well over a month before they would regularly even hit frozen mysis- now they will eat various shrimp pellets and about anything that hits the tank- so it is a process- They all certainly started with frozen cyclopese, that was fed the tank several times a day-

They are far prettier than I can capture on film. They also changed the nature of my tank by taking the stress factor out of some timid fish- When they are out everyone comes out- when they are in the rock work the tangs esp seem to hide.

Of note they all start life as females and the dominant one becomes a male- just the opposite of Clown fish.

[Folta]

This anthias was definitely an impulse buy.. a big no-no to do, but I couldn't resist his colors and how well he looked at the store. I think the only real issue is the flame angel... which I don't quite understand as the angel is an orange/red, and the anthias is a pink/red, and their bodies are quite different in shape. But I guess the angel sees some similiarity otherwise he wouldn't be chasing it so fiercely.

 

It would be extremely difficult to get either of them out; my tank literally is a rock-wall. The best I could shoot for would be to trap the angel (he eats quite a lot, so using food in a trap might just work where as the anthias has yet to come out of hiding to eat as far as I've seen (although mysis and some pellets have floated into the rockwork; I hope that he eat least got something).

 

Lights were still off when I left for work this morning, took a quick glance but did not see him anywhere. I'm hoping he's doing better when I get home.

[davelin315]

If you'd like, you can snag some pods from me. I've got tons of them and some mysids. They live in some chaeto I'm pruning back soon, but if you'd like a small clump, it could help entice your anthias to eat. By the way, the flame will pick on anything new that is remotely similar to it. They also share the same habitat, so it's a threat to it.

[Gadgets]

Tim. If you are iever in the DC area I have a bar of frozen cyclops that you could have a chunk of. Let me know if you need any.

[Folta]

Thanks for the offers guys. I have pods in my refugium, so I'll try feeding him those first, that is if he's still alive when I get home :o

 

 

 

I'm glad I found this.. dispute out now though, as I defintely want anthias' in my 180. It seems I'll probably have to give up my flame angel, we'll see how things go.

[Gadgets]

Thanks for the offers guys.  I have pods in my refugium, so I'll try feeding him those first, that is if he's still alive when I get home  :o

I'm glad I found this.. dispute out now though, as I defintely want anthias' in my 180.  It seems I'll probably have to give up my flame angel, we'll see how things go.

47260[/snapback]

 

I would definitely recommend that you go to the aquarium center in Randlestown, MD. The Blue-eyed Lyretail Anthias are EXCELLENT!!! Eating mysis and as healthy as can be. I have a school with three females and one male. They are awesome. Good luck with yours and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[Folta]

I've never been up to that one, but I have heard about it. Do you happen to have an address for it?

[Folta]

Ok, so I found him.. and he had his injury turned towards the glass.. so I was able to take a shot:

 

 

As far as coloring is concerned, keep in mind that the first shot was without flash (he was out under the nice bright lighting) and this one I used flash as he's near the bottom.

 

I fed the tank mysis again today (my typical regimine has been once ever 3-4 days, but I my current plan is to continue feeding various things every day until I see him eat or he passes on), I took a syringe and blew some down into his cave.... unfortunately he didn't go for it at all (not even the one that seemed to practically touch his mouth). He doesn't look 'thin' yet, but if he doesn't eat.. well you know how that goes I'm sure.

 

What do you guys think of the injury? Think this could have been caused by the angel? Or could it be that the angel chased him into something?

[Folta]

Sadly, he only lasted a few more hours. He started breathing hard, I couldn't get to him.. and he passed on.

 

:(

[Gadgets]

sorry to hear about that.

[Lee Stearns]

Not sure what caused that type of markings/injury- Sorry that he could not make it- I am still convinced that these guys are more planktonic pickers that like to eat small tid bits all day, which is why they jumped on cyclopese- I also had two together - my experience with finachy feeders is that if one of the two will pick at something and then starts eating the other will pick it up soon even if if is not at first recognized as food.

[Folta]

It's a shame what happened with this guy. I blame myself though, for not doing the proper things:

 

Research on any fish purchase I plan to make. I didn't know much about the anthias when I saw him, he was just too beautiful that I decided not to pass him up. How would this have helped?:

-- I would have known they need 125 gallons +

-- They aren't solo fish. They like to be in groups of 1 male to 2-3 females. In the wild they can school in huge numbers.

-- Flame angels think they look too similar, and will chase them relentlessly

 

I also need to set up a QT Tank. Once my 180 is complete and running, I will need to think of how I want to make a QT tank available for a fish to feel comfortable at my place, make sure it eats, etc, is disease free, etc.

 

It would have saved me a few headaches, and more importantly might have saved the fish. I am definitely kicking myself on this one. However, I do plan on learning from my mistakes, and I'm sure the anthias would have been happy to know that his passing on wasn't completely meaningless.

[fishface]

I understand completely.

I made a similar mistake a few months back and brought home a pair a wild-caught Seahorses. One died within the week, reason unknown. The second one I kept by itself in my 'fuge for nearly 5 months. Aside from the critters in the 'fuge, I periodically enriched brine shrimp and bought live shrimp at great expense. He died recently but looked okay, so I don't have a cause of death. And I have a second tank that I was about to move it to.

 

I should not have bought those fish thinking that it would be fine. A captive bred pair would have been more sensible and responsible in the long or even short term. And I sort of kick myself. So each time I'm looking at a fish or coral, that experience is right in the forefront of my mind when looking at it. Furthermore, I research it first on the web about whatever I want to buy first so I don't rely on one persons word or experience.

Hey, one time on-line I bought a purple "algea-eating nudibranch" based on the salesman's word. No such thing. Eats Atlantic sponge. It lasted about 5 days.

 

FF

[Herbert]

:bigcry:

 

Sorry to hear about your loss

 

I hate thse impulse decisions that you can't pass up.

 

Over half of the time they don't work