Fathead anthias

[Chromis]

Does anyone have them? What do yours eat? How long did it take before they would eat pellet or flake? Mine won’t take flake yet - just frozen mysis and brine. Weirdly, even though there’s a pic of fathead anthias on the PE calanus package, all 3 of mine completely ignore it.

 

[Meshmez]

Mine eats freeze dried calanus and 0.5mm thera+a NLS pellets.

Iirc, it took the freeze dried calanus pretty quickly, started eating pellets after quite a while (a couple months?) of them being fed together. Has to be in the water column and moving around from powerheads.

I think mine also eats small parts of these that come off when others bite it.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Daphnia, cyclops, mysis shrimp, PE mysis
All at the same time in a squirt bottle
Appetizers every 3 hrs

 

[Chromis]

Mine eats freeze dried calanus and 0.5mm thera+a NLS pellets.

Iirc, it took the freeze dried calanus pretty quickly, started eating pellets after quite a while (a couple months?) of them being fed together. Has to be in the water column and moving around from powerheads.

I think mine also eats small parts of these that come off when others bite it.

Is this the fish food you meant? Looks it has added garlic which should encourage fish to eat it. I’m not even going to try dried calanus since they won’t touch the frozen variety.

 

[Chromis]

Daphnia, cyclops, mysis shrimp, PE mysis
All at the same time in a squirt bottle
Appetizers every 3 hrs

I tried frozen cyclops too - it’s like now that they have been spoiled with those large frozen mysis they don’t mess around with these tiny planktavore foods even though that’s what they’re supposed to eat.

 

[Meshmez]

Is this the fish food you meant? Looks it has added garlic which should encourage fish to eat it. I’m not even going to try dried calanus since they won’t touch the frozen variety.

That's the stuff. You will probably have to mix it in with the frozen and watch closely until they start grabbing it and keeping it.

You can also try freeze dried mysis. I assume you're trying to get them on something dry to put in a feeder?

There's also the PE pellets you could try.

I have found that the food really needs to be moving though. If it's just floating on top I don't think they will go for it

 

[Chromis]

That's the stuff. You will probably have to mix it in with the frozen and watch closely until they start grabbing it and keeping it.

You can also try freeze dried mysis. I assume you're trying to get them on something dry to put in a feeder?

There's also the PE pellets you could try.

I have found that the food really needs to be moving though. If it's just floating on top I don't think they will go for it

Yes - trying to get them to eat dried food like the other fish who enjoy the fish feeder all day.

 

[Matt_Wandell]

I had a few of them at Steinhart. One got real big! Honestly never tried feeding them small flake or pellet but if they are taking mysids I bet you could get away with one or two feedings a day. How long have you had it?

 

[Chromis]

I had a few of them at Steinhart. One got real big! Honestly never tried feeding them small flake or pellet but if they are taking mysids I bet you could get away with one or two feedings a day. How long have you had it?

Wow that’s a fathead anthia! His color looks really good too. I imagine they have a good varied diet at Steinhart. I wonder if I should soak the mysis or brine in vitamins now and then to help them maintain their color.

I’ve had one since Sept ‘21 and two more since Mar ‘22.

 

[NATURAL_REEF]

I am on my second one since July of last year (the 1st one never eat anything and die after about 2 months).
This current one would only eat frozen Brine shrimp and occasionally Mysis! It is still in my 34gal quarantine tank and I really want to move it to the main tank bit afraid she won't make it with so many fast eater in the main tank.

 

[Rcruz392]

I feed mine frozen brine and tdo medium size pelleted. He doesn’t even touch the thera A+. I’ve had mine for about a year now.

 

[Chromis]

I am on my second one since July of last year (the 1st one never eat anything and die after about 2 months).
This current one would only eat frozen Brine shrimp and occasionally Mysis! It is still in my 34gal quarantine tank and I really want to move it to the main tank bit afraid she won't make it with so many fast eater in the main tank.

I’m waiting for mine to get bigger before trying them in my display too.

 

[NATURAL_REEF]

My Fathead is a good 1.5" or so but such a picky and slow eater and probably will have difficulty surviving the main tank. I also have 3 Lyretails in their and they seem to be very aggressive as well