What kind of food for Anthias?

Hi,

I bought four days ago three Anthias (tricolor/princess/sunbursts) and tried to feed them with small pellets but they don’t touch it.
What should I feed them?

Also I am a bit worried because the occupant of my tank are tangs and wrasse and they literally eat food from my hand in 3 seconds. These Anthias are currently in my QT until they eat properly, but when I will put them in my DT, they may have hard time to eat with these tangs. How can I go around that?

As always, thank you.

 

My anthias love frozen brine with spirulina, frozen mysis, flakes, pellets and Cyclopeeze. Mine are lyretail anthias, so they are pretty aggressive and don't have any problem eating with my other voracious eaters. In your case, squirt food into the current from the power head, anthias love to chase down their food.

 

My anthias love flake food and mysis. They do seem to like to chase food like kcbrad mentioned. They will become such aggressive eaters, you'll be worried about your tangs and wrasses getting enough food!

Congrats on the new purchase. I hope you like them as much as I like mine.

 

Thank you Kcbrad & Grant, will try my luck with flake food then.

 

Will this work as well?

 

I don't know, I've never used that....but my LFS told me to stay away from food that isn't sterilized because it can bring disease and stuff into the tank. I'm not sure what that instant brine is.

Also, anthias are known to be hard to get eating...so if they take awhile don't get discouraged. Keep trying new foods and hoping something will peak their interest. And don't forget about garlic! I had an anthias who didn't eat for like 2 weeks and now can't get enough - huuuge fat pig

 

Thanks,

Found this flake as well which is fresh fish protein, fresh seafood, plankton, brine shrimp, minerals, vitamins and carotenoids.

Will try it as well.

 

Anthias eat in the water column and they eat flake food and frozen food that is rinsed off well and cyclopeeze. They especially like mysis shrimp. I recently bought a mated pair of Pictillis Anthias from Australia and they would not eat anything. They both died and broke my heart. I have two lyretail anthias and three Disbar anthias that are chow hounds big time. Don't put them in the display until they are eating well. I tried adding garlic and live brine shrimp and still no go. Good luck.

 

I tried last night the Baby Brine Shrimp and two of my Anthias started to eat it . the Sunburst didn't touch it however and didn't touch as well the flakes...

Today another try

They will stay in the QT for as long as it takes for them to eat well.

 

Anthias in general can be finicky when it comes to the home aquarium. They live in large harems in the wild, something like 1 male to 200-300 females in the wild(lucky bastar*s...LOL). Honestly, I normally don't recommend them in tanks less than 100 gallons but people have success with them. They can grow fairly big, having one of the fastest metabolisms for their size. They do require frequent feedings two or more times per day. If you can get ahold of live brine from your LFS, try that, and mysis shrimp.