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10/05/2015, 01:26 PM | #101 |
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Guys....just a quick update. I lost one of my Waitei this morning. I had noticed an abrasion on his skin 2 days ago that was caused from contact with a piece of LR. The abrasion cause the scales of the fish to peel off. I believe the wound became infected that resulted in his demise.
Now....I am left with two Waitei and a bit of a concern. I know these fish need to be housed in odd numbers. Do I order 1 Waitei, or 3 Waitei ( to make a total of 5). Or do I order 3 of the Tukas to make a total of 5 fish, but have two of the Waitei and 3 Tukas. Does anyone have the Tukas mixed with other Anthias with any issues. Sofar my other two Waitei are doing very good....just a bummer that there was an unfortunate accident that was out of my control.
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Eshopps RS100 sump, Eheim 1262 return,Kessil 360WE w/controller, Avast ATO w Litermeter 3, RO Regal 170sss Skimmer, Sicce XStream-e pumps /dc controlled, Spectrapure Dual Reactor Current Tank Info: 65g mixed reef |
11/03/2015, 06:01 PM | #102 |
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I should update since its been a bit
I was told by another reef keeper that after the tukas are eating readily in qt he would recommend moving them to display. His theory is that the other anthias will entice the tukas to eat pellets. I lost one of the 3 when I moved them (the smallest of the 3 which was the least aggressive eater) but the remaining 2 actively swim with the dispars and eat every kind of refrigerated or frozen food. They see the other fish feed on pellets when the feeder activates and seem interested but only time will tell if they will eat it readily. When i am home i feed a few times to make sure they get their fill. They look good and healthy. |
11/18/2015, 04:19 PM | #103 |
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My most recent effort to keep Tuka's has not been successful; though perhaps for different reasons than I had expected. Of the original five, only one survives. Of those five, only one died from unwillingness to eat. The other three that died ended up with some kind of strange body ulcerations, including the two that ate the best. I have seen this ulceration quite a bit lately in anthias; almost looks like uronema. Proved to be resistant to all the meds I tried.
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
11/19/2015, 04:16 AM | #104 | |
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Quote:
The Sunburst was in a separate QT.
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80g Rimless Acropora System reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2197142&page=31 Ed |
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11/19/2015, 01:22 PM | #105 | |
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Quote:
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
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11/19/2015, 03:44 PM | #106 |
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What do you mean by discoloration........? Was there red on the ulcerated area?
Sorry about the questions, just trying to id the diseases.
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80g Rimless Acropora System reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2197142&page=31 Ed |
11/19/2015, 04:14 PM | #107 | |
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Quote:
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
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11/22/2015, 12:32 AM | #108 |
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Hey guys. Just checking in with an update. Of the three purple queens I had, it turned out that two of the ones I had were tukas, and one was a pascalus. Unfortunately I've come to learn that these fish do not do well at all with being the only one of their kind in odd numbers. My pascalus died due to stress as, when it was just one tuka and one pascalus, they were doing fine, but, when I got a second tuka, the pascalus stopped eating much at all. For months it only would eat one or two pieces of brine at most, but no more than that. Eventually it became emaciated and then disappeared (missing for two weeks now, so, pretty much a goner).
My two tukas are doing very well though, both eating very aggresively and have become rather plump. I have started mixing pellet food into my frozen mix, letting the the pellets sit in a mix of the frozen food mixed with tank water in the fridge for a half a day to a day, and feeding it to my tank, and, the tuka are now beginning to eat and swallow the pellets along with the frozen. The larger of the two tuka is beginning to turn to a male I believe (upper part of it's beak is beginning to turn a very vibrant yellow, it's two front lower fins are beginning to become more pointed, and, on it's dorsal fin, there is a transparent line at the back half of the dorsal fin, as if it's dividing the two sections of color on it's fin). A couple of things I noticed that really seemed to help with these fish: They love flow. They had been eating well for some time, but, I added another two powerheads to my tank, and adjusted them to alternate (where, if I feed the middle of the tank, the food will get swept all the way to the left of the tank, then, food will get swept all the way to the right of the tank, a repeated alternating cycle). After adding these, the fish seemed to start eating much more aggressively, where, the second the food hits the water now, the two tukas are there immediately, taking all of the best pieces before the other fish even get there. For whatever reason, these fish seem to alternate on the types of foods that they want to eat. They'll be eating brine for weeks at a time and seem to only want the gut loaded brine, then, all of a sudden they'll stop eating the brine and will only eat minced prawn. They'll do this for a week and will stop eating prawn and go back to eating brine and minced clam. I usually feed a mix of food at all times, so this isn't a problem, but, something to keep in mind. Also, frequent feedings don't seem to be necessary, but, it does help. What I currently do is feed in the morning, then, when I get home from work, I'll thaw out some mixed frozen food and leave it at the tank, then, for the rest of the afternoon, whenever I or my wife pass the tank, we just add a little food from the thawed frozen mix. This gets the fish fed a little at a time every hour to hour and a half for the rest of the night. Every time the fish eat aggressively. I've tried a number of different foods for the fish at this point, and, for the most part, of the two that I have, once they begin eating frozen, the ones I have seem to like/dislike: Will eat this aggresively: SFB Reef Plankton, minced prawn (minced to ~1-2mm), hikari krill (shaved with a knife to 0.5-2mm pieces), finely minced clam (~1-2mm), finely minced amphipods (hikari gammarus) (minced to ~1-2mm), reef nutrition arctic pods, fresh live adult brine shrimp (in clean tank water), live tigger pods. Will eat this, but not as aggressively: gut loaded brine, hikari mysis, PE mysis, PE calanus, SFB Cyclops, frozen (non-live) tigger pods, brightwell aquatics zooplanktos (rinsed with tank water). Will not eat this (will spit this out): bloodworms, daphnia, cyclopeze, reef nutrition beta brine, rod's food fish eggs, live amphipods (even smaller ones). On a side, note, the original live baby brine shrimp feeder I had is still running and feeding baby brine, but, neither of the tukas eat the baby brine anymore. All the other fish do, but, the two tukas seem to have no interest in the baby brine. Last edited by ReefJunkie01; 11/22/2015 at 12:53 AM. |
11/22/2015, 12:42 AM | #109 | |
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Quote:
Hey Simon, sorry for the loss man. It's strange, I had a similar thing happen to another anthias I had gotten (had it for about 24 hours in a qt, seemed fine at first, then next day had a vertical red line and died a few hours after I noticed the red line). Any thoughts on trying again in the future? Seems like you had been doing well for a while. |
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11/22/2015, 03:55 AM | #110 | |
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Quote:
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11/22/2015, 10:13 AM | #111 | |
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Quote:
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
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11/22/2015, 12:51 PM | #112 |
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Try p/e Calanus it works very well for hard to feed anthias. Stuff is amazing. Fish go crazy for it..
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12/24/2015, 11:13 PM | #113 |
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Will tukas feed on tigger feast without weaning them from the live ones
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01/09/2016, 11:09 AM | #114 | |
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Quote:
It started out with peristaltic dosing pumps, I wasn't happy with the results, so then I moved onto pumps which used pressure to push water through enclosed containers. It's a pretty simple principle really. A bottle has a set volumn internally, and, when you apply air pressure to an enclosed containers, all air-contacting areas become pressurized. Then, if you put a vent into the container, the container will immediately try to vent itself while it equilibrates with the outside pressure. Water is heavier than air, so if you put the venting channel below the waterline in the container, the air cannot get to the venting channel, but the system still wants to vent, therefore the water gets expelled through the venting channel. I went through quite a few trials to get this right. Flooded my floor twice, and went through about 4 revisions before I got to the pressurized system that I had posted. I actually have a fifth revision that I have set up in my QT, which back siphons back into the feeder bottle so that throughout the day the feeder bottle is exchanging water with the tank water (to further prevent the BBS shock/death). The fifth revision requires the bottle to be at the same level of the waterline of the tank though. By doing it this way, it allows the feeder bottle and tank’s water level to remain the same, thereby allowing back and forth water exchange but preventing the possibility of a flood. Pics of the fifth revision is attached below. |
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01/09/2016, 11:12 AM | #115 | |
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Quote:
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01/09/2016, 11:17 AM | #116 | |
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At first none of the fish would eat the tigger feast, what I had to do is take a bottle of regular tigger pods, and a containers with the 1/4 mix of tigger feast, then feed the tigger pods to the tank with a dropper, then feed the tigger feast, then fed the tigger pods again, then the tigger feast. Basically tricking the fish into eating the tigger feast. Now all of the fish eat it, but I really only use it as a treat now. Tried freezing one of the two bottles I have to see if I can make it last the year, but will have to see how it thaws out. |
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01/09/2016, 11:28 AM | #117 |
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Ok, so, it's been a little bit, and, wanted to give an update.
The third purple queen had been sustained on purely the baby brine for the last month or two, but, as if last week, the third purple queen added to the tank is eating frozen voraciously now. So now all 3 purple queen anthias eat frozen food. On top of this, the first two purple queens are eating pellet food I have been mixing in (they definitely prefer the frozen food, but, if they accidentally eat a pellet while in their feeding frenzy, they will not spit it out). The one purple queen which has been transitioning to a male is still in the transition process, it's taken the shape of a male, but, the coloration change is happening very slowly. I'm also now seeing the pseudo-male begin to do these acrobatic displays around the two females. "He" will spend time throughout the day shepherding the two females so that they remain together (if the two females stray away from each other, the male will chase the "stray" female back to the first one, so the two females are never more than a foot away from each other). "He" will also do this vertical loop around the females throughout the day (like a vertical circular dash around them), not sure what that is, can only thing it's a courting display, but doubt the pseudo-male would be able to mate with the females until it fully transitions. Not looking to mate them, and kind of keeping my fingers crossed that I don't see eggs one day, that's going to be a tremendous effort to then try and rear some of the babies, but, will see what happens. Pics of the 3 tukas below. |
02/05/2016, 11:53 PM | #118 |
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One of them turning into a male is obviously a good sign that what you are doing is working. Congrats! As he develops more the rear part of his dorsal fin will get bigger and his snout will become even more "nosey" than he looks currently.
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02/05/2016, 11:54 PM | #119 |
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Something like this:
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02/06/2016, 12:44 AM | #120 |
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Experience With Purple Queen Anthias - Must feed often
Very good read
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12/09/2019, 01:25 PM | #121 |
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Excellent thread.. Lots of good information here.. I hope it's not too frowned upon to resurrect a 3-4 year old thread but I figured it would be good to keep the information together/flowing.
I picked up 5 of these purple queen anthias from a local fish store.. I was aware of the risk and feeding demands and was up for the challenge.. Figured they had a better chance with me that most other aquariasts.. LOL I brought them home and placed them in QT. I performed Tank Transfer Method as my QT process and moved them through the 12 day process. Given the frequent feeding requirements I was careful to watch ammonia levels, used Prime to neutralize it, and the fish got moved to a fresh sterilized tank every 72 hours. All 5 made it through the QT process and were placed in the main display tank on the 12th day. They seemed to take to eating SF Bay Brand Cyclops fairly quickly. This is what I primarily fed during QT along with some mysis for a few other fish I QT'd at the same time. Today, we are at 26 days since I brought them home. They seem to have adjusted well to my display tank. My rock is structured in a way that provides MANY holes they can get in a hide. 4 of the 5 come out to swim and feed regularly. 1 seems to stay back and for all I know could be dead. I saw all 5 out together a few days ago but without seeing all 5 who knows.. Hopefully the 5th is getting food while in hiding. I also can not tell if it is the same one that hangs back in hiding. At about the 12 day mark I started hatching baby brine shrimp and feeding those as well. They took to eating them right away. So, 26 days in they are showing strong feeding response and seem to have plumped up bellies compared to when I got them. Lately I have been making food soup for the tank and pour in a shot every couple hours throughout the day.. I get a water bottle and fill with RODI and place the following foods in it: * LRS Reef Frenzy (chopped fine) * SF Bay Brand Cyclops * SF Bay Brand Fish Eggs In addition I occasionally throw in some of the BBS that I hatch. I plan on trying the SF Bay Brand Reef Plankton and possibly others. My other fish and corals are loving the extra food and frequent feedings. I have not increased my food load significantly however I am spreading it throughout the day. I'll probably look into making a DIY auto feeder that can dispense plankton soup throughout the day. I can use one of my outlets on my APEX to control the feedings. Those of you that have had good luck feeding pellets I'd appreciate a brand/product name I can try. Any of you early posters having multi-year success? Cheers, Jerid |
12/09/2019, 01:34 PM | #122 |
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There are 3 issues to me with this fish.
One getting them to eat. Two if you get them to eat the other challenge is getting them to eat a wide enough variety of food to get the nutrition they need. Getting them to eat live is not to hard but feeding stuff like live BBS just is not enough nutrition. 3rd issue is enough feedings. They seem to need allot of feeding a day. This is the biggest problem I see for most people. Some of anthias require more feedings than other fish and the queen seems to be on that list. Problem is auto feeders feed mainly pellets or flake. Getting these guys on dry food is near impossible. I think the biggest break through for this fish is when the froze food autofeeder becomes available. This fish maybe not as hard to keep finally.
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12/10/2019, 12:22 PM | #123 | |
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12/11/2019, 12:52 PM | #124 |
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So, Not sure what happened with my 5th fish.. I have not seen it in about 4 days so I'm assuming it died and was consumed by the reef.. either that or it is just in lock down mode. 4 others seem to be happy campers.
I built an auto feeder.. Need to make some enhancements before I put it into production but it is working well to dispense defrosted plankton and fish eggs in RODI water. It is controlled by my APEX and is scheduled to run for 4 seconds every 30 minutes. Here is a video showing it dispense at the 7 second mark. Keep an eye on the upper right side of the tank. After it dispenses you will see the fish respond to the food in the tank. I'm pretty happy with how this is working. https://youtu.be/CXgn8k3Hjx0 |
12/13/2019, 06:15 PM | #125 |
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30 days today. All 5 purple queens still alive. The elusive 5th fish is finally out swimming with the others. The auto feeder is working very well feeding the fish every 30 min.
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