My attempt at Purple Queen Anthias

[aquaph8]

So far they are eating frozen baby brine really well in QT. Their not really shy at all but refuse to eat any decent sized food. Planktivores through and through and very set in their ways. Anybody with any experience with them please share. Otherwise I will let you all know how my experience with them goes along the way. Wish me luck.

[IMG][/IMG]

[jjk_reef00]

Awesome Brett, those are by far my favorite anthias. Where did you get them? I hope they do well for you.

[aquaph8]

Thanks, they came from SEA.

[SDguy]

Be sure to read Matt's account of these. GL!

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/...a-anthias.html

[aquaph8]

Thanks Peter, I read that article once already but since you posted it I read it again. Its a great article and it seems I take more from it every time I read it. I am up for the challenge and hopefully I can make them happy. Im very optomistic about them doing well in QT but pretty scared about them moving to the display tank any time soon. Ive gotta come up with some kind of feeder system.

[SDguy]

Originally Posted by aquaph8

I've gotta come up with some kind of feeder system.

That's pretty much it. If they weren't hardy otherwise, wholesalers wouldn't have them constantly as one of their cheapest anthias.

[MIKE NY]

Brett glad to see they are doing well...I already placed mine in the display and still can't them to accept anything larger than cyclopeeze and Nutra Mar so I'm still feeding about 3-4 times a day... they seem to prefer dim lighting only really coming out to actively feed before and after the main lights are on..how about yours?....would also like to hear from anyone who is keeping them...

[aquaph8]

My QT is a 20 long. It just has a cheap Current duel T5 fixture. I haven't noticed them bothered by the light but its not really that bright.

[38bill]

I dont have any Purple Queens but all my planktivores love flake food that I crush up into very fine pieces. Just drop a small rock into a can and add a couple of scoops of flakes and give it a good shake. Even my larger wrasse go crazy for the tiny little pieces.

[29reef]

I would suggest trying to feed a mix of razor shaved PE mysis, frozen rotifers, and baby brine. As they get used to eating the mix your can introduce larger chunks of food in with it and normally after a few days they start to eat everything floating in the water colum. This is what I do for my anthias and have had good luck with a few species. I haven't ever tried with purples, but it's worth a try as they are all common foods.

[Lmart]

Try frozen prawn eggs, they go nuts over it.

[ryanrid]

a tip i use to acclimatize tuka to light in the qt before adding to the dt. I start in qt with 2 x t5, then move to 4 and 6 bulbs respectively with 2 week periods of each bulb combo.
i also run auto feeds during the day of live baby brine thru dosing pumps and have NLS for baby fish in an eheim feeder.

HTH
Ryan

good luck.

[MIKE NY]

right after I posted they only feed actively under dim lighting here they are today out under full lights ..

[aquaph8]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Mike, they look really great. Glad to hear they're getting used to your lights. My 3 continue to eat really well on baby brine and Daphnia. I try to feed as many times a day as I can. I'm trying my best to keep them plump.

[Grassroots]

I have never tried it before but what about cyclopeeze?

[aquaph8]

Originally Posted by ryanrid

a tip i use to acclimatize tuka to light in the qt before adding to the dt. I start in qt with 2 x t5, then move to 4 and 6 bulbs respectively with 2 week periods of each bulb combo.
i also run auto feeds during the day of live baby brine thru dosing pumps and have NLS for baby fish in an eheim feeder.

HTH
Ryan

good luck.

Ryan, do you have any pics of your feeding setup. I would be really interested to see it.

[aquaph8]

Originally Posted by Grassroots

I have never tried it before but what about cyclopeeze?

So far they wont touch it but I bet they will eventually.

[klepto]

Originally Posted by Lmart

Try frozen prawn eggs, they go nuts over it.

1+ I know someone else that had good results with Nutramar Ova (prawn eggs). The particle size is just right for this species.

[aquaph8]

I gotta order some, where's a good place

[MIKE NY]

Originally Posted by aquaph8

So far they wont touch it but I bet they will eventually.

thats funny because mine all they eat is cyclopeeze and Nutra Mar and haven't touched anything larger like baby brine etc...and I mix alot of different foods together hoping they will, but so far they ignore anything larger.....

[aquaph8]

Originally Posted by MIKE NY

thats funny because mine all they eat is cyclopeeze and Nutra Mar and haven't touched anything larger like baby brine etc...and I mix alot of different foods together hoping they will, but so far they ignore anything larger.....

I mixed in some oyster eggs today and they ate those. I keep trying spirulina brine but its too big and they just watch it float by. The male and one of the females seems to be eating more aggressively than at first but the other female isnt eating really well. I also picked up some brine eggs today so I will hatch those and see if they like them. Im telling my kids their sea monkeys though. I also got an extra aqualifter pump so maybe I can try and rig something up this weekend if I get a chance.

[MIKE NY]

sea monkeys...LOL...my guys are teenagers now and can care less about the tank.....I forgot to mention mine also eat rotifers....

[cromedogg33]

Good luck with your purple queens. I had them actively eating nutramar ova/cyclospeeze and towards the end some were eating rods.

While I don't think they are impossible to keep they definately take a ton of constant feedings. The post from Matt on manhattan reefs is the best place to start.

While I tried 7 in my 180g 1 perished in shipping, 2 within days of receiving and kept 4 for close to 6 months. They never got fat, but never looked bad until 1 week when they all had deflated bellies and basically died one after the other overnight. I was feeding upwards of 4 times a day. I'm a firm believer now that if you aren't feeding 10+ small amounts daily they will never thrive in a tank. They may survive but barely. I hit the tipping point there of thriving vs living.

Now that you have them definately keep up with the baby brine. Nutrmar Ova was a big fan. I had to literally FLOOD my tank with cyclopseeze and they would eat it but I was paying the price a little bit with water quality and I'm using a fairly high end skimmer along with pellets.

I can say they are awesome fish and when they do come out to swim are amazing. With halides they tended to spend time hiding a lot as well, but would gather together throughout the day. I'm not sure if this was due to the lights or the fact they were tired because of the lack of food and they were conserving energy.

Good luck with yours and keep us posted.

[ryanrid]

Originally Posted by aquaph8

Ryan, do you have any pics of your feeding setup. I would be really interested to see it.

no pics but they would nto be interesting anyways just a pic of a container and some tubing, i have a 3 chanel dosing pump with alk, cal for balling lite and baby brine on the third. The brine is loaded into container fresh daily and fed twice daily also with green water or plankton mix. The brine is then then fed to the tank via the dosing pump (4 times daily), i have these go into the vortech as tuka like feeding in current.

eheim auto feeder is just normal feeder also going into the vortech for same reasoning.

i notice the more i feed the better the colouration is, i kept tuka previously for 2 years with only 2 feeds daily and they did not maintain the vibrant colouration as this batch.

HTH
Ryan

[aquaph8]

Ryan, your tukas are eating pellets too then? How long did it take them to start eating pellets?