Anthias Compatible

**Missy** · 08-26-2009, 07:08 PM

Are different variety of Anthias compatible with one another?

V · 08-27-2009, 05:31 PM

hey missy

such a beautiful animal, abit tough at the best of times though.

Short answer is yes its possible, however with extreme care.

I personally would stick to single species as individual temperments vary greatly.
As you might be aware, they form their own subordinate ranks, not to mention changing sex with a domination card to match.

**Missy** · 08-28-2009, 08:32 AM

Thanks V, I have lyretail anthias now and wanted to add purple queen for colour. I'll stick to just the lyretail, they are beautiful. Can you suggest another colourful, smaller fish that is not too shy.

V · 08-29-2009, 11:47 PM

personally id go with 1 or 3 chromis, ether blue or green -doesn't matter.

These fish are overlooked simple beauty if you ask me.

Ether that or a dwarf coral beauty depending on your other animals.

**rayme07** · 08-30-2009, 12:34 AM

Missy, How big was your tank again?

**Iron E** · 08-30-2009, 12:52 AM

Hi Missy. Is this your present tank community?

2 clowns,
2 bangi cardinals,
1 royalgramma,
1 yellow watchman,
1 longfin bannerfish,
? lyretail anthias

And this is a 150 Gal, correct?

Tom

**Missy** · 08-30-2009, 08:07 AM

Thanks guys, yes this tank is a 150, I lost 1 cardinal, 1 anthia and my royal gramma in my ich crisis. So I have 1 Bannerfish (was in qt when the ich hit the DT), 1 cardinal, 1 male lyretail anthia, 2 clowns and 1 yellow watchman all doing well. I wanted to start quarantine for 2 or 3 female anthias and another schooling fish. Later I would like to add either a regal angel and regal tang OR a powder brown and yellow tang. What do you think?

**Iron E** · 08-30-2009, 01:57 PM

I have to go along with the Chromis suggestion. I've got 3 in my 90 and they are always together. I've also got 2 PJ Cardinals. I think they like companions, so my thought would be to add 3 Chromis and 1 or 2 Cardinals. They really add some nice motion to the tank and are not a huge bio-burden. Along the same lines, I would hesitate to add more than one of the Angel/Tangs at a time until you can see how your tank adjusts to the new bio-load.

Tom

**Missy** · 08-30-2009, 02:26 PM

Thanks Tom, do the chromis fight with each other at all?

**Iron E** · 08-30-2009, 03:06 PM

There did seem to be some dominance issues at first, but hey seem to have worked it out.

**CarmieJo** · 08-30-2009, 06:45 PM

My experience with chromis in my 54 was that they picked on the weakest one until there was only one left. In a bigger longer tank you might have a different scenario.

**Missy** · 08-30-2009, 07:11 PM

Thanks Carmie, that's what I had heard too about chromis, thats why I asked. What would you suggest as a smaller fish that would add colour?

**CarmieJo** · 08-30-2009, 09:37 PM

I really like wrasses. Have you looked into any of them?

**Missy** · 08-30-2009, 10:40 PM

I really like them too but I thought they were really aggressive and wasn't sure you could have more than one type?

**CarmieJo** · 08-31-2009, 08:14 PM

Not all wrasses are aggressive. My sixline was a bit of a snot when I added a new fish after 2 years but other than that he was fine. I think the 1 species rule is best observed except in really large tanks. You can have a pair or harem of some species.

**Missy** · 08-31-2009, 08:55 PM

From pictures, I like the fairy, carpenter, banana and hawaiian flame. Are you farmiliar with any of these, would any of these get along? Also will they get along with the Anthias?

**CarmieJo** · 08-31-2009, 11:22 PM

I really like the Carpenter's. I lost my sixline a few months ago and think I will get a pair of Carpenter's when my hubby gets back to work. I don't know about anthias comparability. I have not looked into the fairy wrasses very much but here is an article The Fairy Wrasses: Cirrhilabrus spp. - Reefkeeping.com

**Phurst** · 09-01-2009, 12:01 AM

I had a Carpenters in my 120. A truly beautiful fish.

**Missy** · 09-01-2009, 08:40 AM

Thanks for the link Carmie, great info. I am going to read up on all of the wrasse families, I will probably go with one of them.

Phurst, did you have 1 male and some females?

**Phurst** · 09-01-2009, 09:37 AM

Just the one male. I wish I had had a female as well so he would "flash" more often, but still a great fish.

V · 09-02-2009, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by CarmieJo

My experience with chromis in my 54 was that they picked on the weakest one until there was only one left. In a bigger longer tank you might have a different scenario.

see i still find that strange carmie, mine were like groupies of the ocean, they always stuck together once the pecking order was sorted.

As i said last time,its gotta be that the ozzie varieties are more chilled

**saxman** · 09-23-2009, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Missy

From pictures, I like the fairy, carpenter, banana and hawaiian flame. Are you farmiliar with any of these, would any of these get along? Also will they get along with the Anthias?

with your current stocking, do NOT get a banana wrasse (or any of the Thalassoma sp.). they get large and mean.

FWIW, i never had any troubles keeping groups of BG chromis together. a nice shoal of seven or so would look sweet in a 150.

**Missy** · 09-25-2009, 02:11 PM

Thanks guys, I think I am going to try a couple of different fairy wrasse, from what I have read they stay small and are quite beautiful.

**Missy** · 10-16-2009, 06:42 PM

Last week I asked my lfs to get 3 female lyretail anthias, my male looked so lonely. Anyway they came in and I went to see them today, 1 of them looks like it might be changing to a male, it has the high fin up top behind its head (sorry) and the other 2 look ok but their colour seems abit pale and they don't have the blue around the eye that my other female had. Can anyone tell me if this is just stress or are they becoming male or is there another lyretail anthia thats not as pretty?

**saxman** · 10-17-2009, 12:22 AM

It sounds like your dominant female is becoming a secondary male. I had a "she-male" for about 8 years. she was the dominant femail and changed when i lost the male of the harem. there's a good likelihood that the other females seem stressed because they may be getting "put in their place" by the dominant fish.

here's a pic of the fish after her change, note the filamentous first dorsal ray: