anthias

[Frankie1]

i am thinking about getting 2 schools of anthias going in my tank 180 gal AGA. the species i'm looking at are the bartletts and the dispars. 1 male of each and probably 4-5 females of each. will 180 gal be enough room for them? i've read many articles about anthias and they seem like they would be okay, just wanted some opinions.

thanks everyone,
frankie1

 

[Len]

Hi Frankie, I have moved this to the General Reef Discussion Forum for more discussion.

:welcome:

 

[EmilyB]

I have a 230g. I bought three juvie bartletts. Very tough to sex until they mature. I ended up with one dominant male, one badly abused non-dominant male and one female. The dominant male was horribly aggressive to his spouse as well. I don't know what a larger group would be like, but I would just guess that mixing would be a pitbull arena.

 

[Anonymous]

I have 1 male and 5 female Lyretail Anthias in my 300G tank. DFS sells them as males or females. The male is large (4-5") and pink and the females are small (3") and orange. They are both very beautiful, especially considering how cheap they were (like $17).

I don't have any experience with the ones you mentioned.

Louey

 

[Frankie1]

yes from what i read they are better kept in larger groups or singular. from what i read bartletts and dispars are some of the more peacefull species and more thatn 1 group could be kept in 150 or larger. just wanted some first hand knowledge if available.


frankie1

 

[Anonymous]

I have a single male lyretail anthias in a much smaller tank (27 hex) and he is nasty as hell. FWIW in a large tank I think agression will be diminished towards other species, and your bartlets should be fine. But in the case of stocking density...I am at 1 anthias for 27 gallons of water (even much less when you take the volume of live rock out), he's excellent health wise... If you have 12 anthias in a 150-180, I think that may be too many for optimum health. You are looking at 1 fish for around 13 gallons of water which may be too high of a stocking density. Maybe six or eight. Are you going to have any other fish inhabitants?

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortuately, my lyretails are also aggressive. Not as bad as damsel, but I still makes me worry about the weaker one that got chased constantly.

 

[Frankie1]

yes i already have 2 wrasse, afairy wrasse and a six line wrasse.

frankie

 

[Anonymous]

Sometimes those six line wrasses can get mean when they are the first ones in the tank...they delineated their territories, and if some passive anthias are then put in, you could run into problems with the six line.

 

[Anonymous]

Sometimes those six line wrasses can get mean when they are the first ones in the tank...they delineated their territories, and if some passive anthias are then put in, you could run into problems with the six line.