Lyretail Anthias Questions

[Illusion]

Question for ya all... Anyone with Experience with the Lyretails or anthias in general please speak up... I got 3 Female and 1 Male Lyretail Anthias today and So far all they do Is hide in the rock... Is this kinda normal for them to Hide like this for the first day or so? one good thing is they all paired up.. They are all hiding together... The male is soo Sweet looking... Wish I could have more than one male but LOL... They are staying back in the LR and I want to be able to see them... They are cool fish but I dont want them hiding all the dang time... I was thinking about getting the Tricolor Anthias but I couldnt find much on them...


TIA<
James

[Krux]

mine hid for the first couple days, but previously they were in a tank for a year, so they might adjust to seeing me faster than wild caught specimines. i wouldnt worry too much, toss in some brine, they will eventually come out.

[Illusion]

They come out for a sec but only to duck back into another crevice... I figure they would come out... just the whole thing while acclimating one kept swimming on its side... Seems fine in the tank must have been worried about the shallow container.. Kinda Funna how the male protects the Females though.. They all hide behind the male LOL..

James

[ron popeil]

with my school, i too was expecting them to come out and swim together. you always see them in huge clouds of fish in the water column in photographs. but this was not the case. initially, they hid all the time. theyre a timid fish when first introduced, and do well with fish they can see eating carelessly out in the middle of your tank. if they see others eating comfortably, they too will be less shy.
but what happened is they just schooled in the mornings when the lights first came on, and then periodically throughout the day. most of the time they would just sit in a crevace and watch me and wait for food.

and yes, they are amazing fish. the males especially. either the solid red color form or the maldives male color form are both incredible. and when theyre together with their hoe train of bright orange females.....well its very gratifying.

however, im not one who feeds my tank heavily and unfortunately these fish need almost constant food. theyre also picky. my first batch, before my major tank self destruction, ate flakes and pellets in addition to frozen mysis and brine. but the second school i purchased refused to eat anything but mysis or brine. they didnt like anything else and eventually starved, even though i tried a huge array of foods and tried upping my feedings to twice a day.

wonderful fish, but they have small stomachs, and eat zooplankton in the wild almost continuously. if i were to try another anthias, i would do dispar, i had great luck with keeping them fat on a not so frequent feeding schedule.

im going to try a school of orange lined cardinals for a schooling fish this time though, instead of those **** tricky anthias.

[Illusion]

Thanks Jordan... I kinda figured you would post your experience with them... I have quite a few fish that are out in the open and not really shy nor really agressive So hopefully they come out and play.. I really love the whole Schooling Idea as I have 8 chromis and it is such a sight to see them swimming around all together in a formation... I was looking at the Dispars as well but the Lyretails were more readily availible to me... I dont drive so I have really only have the LFS in town to me so they usually order just about anything I want for Fish... For Corals I will always drive out to Advanced to check out/Get... The Wholesaler only had likr 6 listed for the Dispars and like 213 or something like that of the Lyretails in Both m/f So I went with them... They came in looking really nice and healthy and good size (Quality Marine) I am pretty sure I wont have any issues with them eating... Pretty much read all that before hand... Worse Case Scenario I get a bunch of Live Brine and mix with frozen mysis and brine and trick LOL... should be ok... I was just wanting to make sure they were pretty much acting normal as part of acclimation... My 5 new Chromis went right in and paired up with the other 3 as soon as they hit the tank... Swimming around eating like mad.. Wifes B-day Present was the Anthias as she really liked them.. Cant wait til she sees them in the tank tomorrow morning... The color is soo much better than pictures... The Male I believe was Fiji and Its super sweet... Redish purple with Red dots on his fins... I think Its probably one of the coolest fish colorations as I have seen in person yet..

Thanks again,
James

[ron popeil]

good luck with them james, and if you can get me some pictures. just feed heavily and i dont think youll have a problem, eventually i bet theyll not need as much feeding once they get the rythym of your tank down.

keep me posted!

[Illusion]

I usually do feed IMO heavily... I threw some Cyclopeeze in there this AM and I noticed a few come out far enough to chow down on some until I closed the door on the hood and scared them back into their hole... The ones I say were definetly eating the CE... I will feed more later this afternoon and see if I can get them out more... As for pictures I will be posting some just as soon as possible... With where they are I would not be able to get a good picture at all..

James

[Illusion]

Hey Jordan here is a teaser pic of the 2 females that I caught out playing today...



James

[Illusion]

here is a pic that I got of the male.. He was still hiding at the time but its a somewhat ok pic..



James

[ron popeil]

there they are. wonderful. ive never seen a male with such a dark purpleish color, he really looks good.

[Illusion]

Jordan,

Here is a few better shots They have just started to come out a play little by little each day... God do I still love the male though... They are all eating CE and Flake like Champs..









James

[ron popeil]

thats really spectacular james....in your gigantic tank, they look like theyll do just fine.

for schooling fish in my tank, i just picked up a quad of orange stripe cardinals....ive been waiting for these for months now, and it was worth the wait.
and theyre a lot easier to feed than the anthias were.

[Illusion]

Thanks.. I am hoping that they do good... they are one amazing fish and I think I am way too attached to them already... And they were supposed to be my wifes LMAO.. Not anymore LOL..

Gonna have to post some pics of the Cardinals sometime..


James