Keeping Dispar Anthias. Tips?!

[mandyplo]

Well, some good news!!

The anthias arrived alive and healthy. One is a deep orange/red with a purple dorsal fin, the other is a more yellow/orange with a light pink/yellow dorsal fin. Could the drastic color differences mean male/female? who knows!

Anyways they are beautiful and the good news is the deeper orange/red/purple one has partnered up with my one blue chromis and they are best buds, they sit in the current of one of my powerheads all day schooling together. I just fed everyone some P.E Mysis and this is the first day I have seen the Anthias eat! Once he tasted the first piece of mysis he went on a feeding frenzy, didn't stop catching pieces in the current until they were all gone! Only the one anthias schooling with the chromis ate though. So One down, one to go!

As I am typing this I am noticing the second anthias hanging out with the first anthias and the chromis. So the three are currently schooling together (First time I am seeing this since wednesday) All very good news. Maybe there are still some small pieces of Mysis in there for the second Anthias to eat... I have not seen the second one eat at all so I have my fingers crossed.

I'm too scared to lift the lid and add more mysis for the second one as I don't want to scare him from the group... This is the first time he has come out of hiding and is hanging with the group. I will add some more later perhaps.

Anyways just thought I would update and let everyone know how they are doing. So far so good!!

[Leah]

Maybe get some Garlic Extreme and soak the mysis in it and feed.

[mandyplo]

So I'm thinking of adding a few more anthias to make everyone a little happier in being able to swim as a school. Would you guys reccomend I add the same types of anthias (So just add more dispars?) Or can I add 4 Lyretails, and have 4 lyretails and 2 dispars in total. Will they all school together or are they generally aggressive towards eachother? Thanks in advance.

[Proteus]

I had 4 different species together. They never schooled together and the only bad guy was a male lyretail

[mandyplo]

Originally Posted by Titus99

I had 4 different species together. They never schooled together and the only bad guy was a male lyretail

Hmm okay thanks So if I want them to school together, my best bet is going with 4 more dispars eh...
At the moment my 2 dispars are schooling with my 1 blue chromis. Its pretty damn cute.

[ScubaSteve]

More anthias doesn't always mean more fun. When you get them into a school they form a well defined pecking order. This usually involves having the smallest one being beaten on until it dies, then the next and so on. Oh, and the dominant female can change to male, which causes the dominant male to kill that one too. Big happy families... Dispars are less prone to this but it does happen. Unless you have a really big tank, I'd stick with the pair and get a compatible but different species. I keep 3 different species of anthias together without issue.

[mandyplo]

Crazy how different everyones experiences are... Heres 3 different people telling me to get 6 or more anthias as they do better in larger groups and like to school, and now heres someone telling me they will kill eachother if all the same species and you have more than 2...