Male Squareback Anthias

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#1
So on February 1st, I bought a male squareback anthias to complement the female I already had. (I'd been looking for one for quite awhile.) He was in the store for about a month until I brought him home. While at the store, he remained quite a bashful fish and spent most of his time behind rocks which (I think) is fairly normal.

He's been in the tank for 18 days and still exhibits the same behavior -- hides in the rocks all day and all night and only comes out to eat. During the entire time he's been in my tank, he's been in some sort of respiratory distress. Not showing signs of Ich, flukes, or anything else; nor are his tank mates. The fish pretty much 'breathes' heavily constantly. Over the last week, it's slowed down from roughly 17 "breaths" in 5 seconds down to 14 so I'm hoping that's an improvement.

The tank is fed twice daily at 0800 and 1900 a diet of mostly mysis shrimp with some garlic guard and NLS pellets. No NLS pellets in the morning feeding.

My tank is a 150G XH (48x24x30) and all parameters are stable. (
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#3
At this point it's AI Hydras but I am moving back to MH. I thought about that but the female squareback is out constantly and very active. She's like a dog and *knows* when she's about to get fed.
 

SynDen

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#4
Ambrosio Aquatics;342495 said:
what is your lighting situation. most anthias are found in deeper water and they don't like intense lighting
+1 I would prolly try doing a few days of lights out and then a few days of half lights to help him adjust to the tank
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#5
Ok, will do. This tank (even as deep as it is and as weak as the hydras are) is WAY brighter than the LFS tank he was in. At this point I'm willing to try anything...seems healthy and still eats although now that I really think about it, he eats better in the morning when the lights are only starting up. When I added my female to the old tank, she hid in the rocks for about a week and slowly became more social.

Maybe the squarebacks were the wrong choice for what I want to do with this tank. (Mixed reef.)
 

Ambrosio Aquatics

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#6
they hate light. the fact that its eating is a plus. i would suggest running blues only for a week or 2 at half the power cycle you normally do. once they get used to the brighter light they do fine.
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#7
Thanks guys -- I just reconfigured to run at 50% of normal for the next 7 days on ALL colors. Think I should totally ditch the whites/green/red for a week?
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#8
Still don't have enough posts on here to edit.

A matter of opinion for the long run: Should I consider removing the squarebacks from this tank?
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#10
Easy. Done.

This is the thing I'll miss about LEDs.
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#12
Anybody think it's worth tossing another small feeding (some people say feed Anthiai up to 4X daily) in? They're getting fed twice daily right now. Since all the testable nutrients are so low, if the temporary lighting thing doesn't help I'm up for more ideas.

Then again, if I can't have the lighting where I need/want it to keep these fish, they might need new homes. The whole reason I got them in the first place is 1) they're reef safe, 2) they're supposed to be able to handle the light, and 3) they look great. However 3 doesn't really apply if he won't come out of the damned rocks. ;-)
 

kio707

Tang
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#13
Either that or get 2 more females, sell the male. One of the females will turn male. Seems the younger ones do better in captivity.
 

SynDen

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#14
Anthias generally require as many feeding as you can give them. Better to do 3-5 small feedings per day then to do 2 larger feedings. So I would say you dont nessecarily need to feed more food, but more often. Eventually when they settle in you can go back to 2 a day if needed.
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#15
Here are a couple pics of the female and a bad (really difficult) shot of the male's tail hiding in the rocks. He's big -- about 4" where she's small -- closer to 2.75"
[attachment=68616:name]
 

Jeremiah

Tang
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#16
I have had an angular wrasse for a few months now and he hates the whites. Has been eating like a pig and does wonderful in the blues, but when the whites are on he hides...even tries jumping out of the tank.
 

ayaws

Angel Fish
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#17
Ugh. If this continues and I'm a bad anthias keeper, I'll be looking for a new home for him (and maybe her.) Gorgeous fish but I don't want to keep something I'm (unintentionally) torturing.
 

SynDen

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#18
Patience is key here. Keep your lights low and toward the blue end of things, keep up feeding them as many small meals as you can per day, maintain water quality and eventually he should come around
 

jda123

Dolphin
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#19
Don't change the lights for the fish. If it is eating, then they will get used to them over time. This is nearly all anthias BTW, not just squarebacks.

They need to be fed a LOT and OFTEN... 3-5 times a day at first. If you can get them onto pellets, then an autofeeder will work.
 

fish26

Turbo Snail
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#20
I have a 90 with a large male 4" and two females about 2 1/2". The male was homed 1st about 2 months ago is always out front and center and the females were added about 10 days ago. The male as been social from the get go and eats well always and the females are more and more social daily, but are still in the rocks about 35% of the time. I run T-5's and feed 2x a day. I also have a 210 in my office where I have just a male square back. There I have kessils running. In that tank I have never looked at it where he's not in the open. He actually eats from my hand daily.

I would think it's the personality of the individual fish and his tank mates. I have had other Anthias (lyertails) before and the results weren't great. Overall I'd say they're one of the more difficult breeds to keep.

Good luck and stay calm. :smile-new:
 
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