Redbar Anthias

[edit] Overview

This beautiful anthias often occurs in deeper water around wrecks and outer reef walls. It is among the hardiest of the anthias available to reef aquarists. It needs proper feeding and has a feisty disposition, making it best suited to communities of larger fishes that are not easily intimidated.

[edit] Feeding

Carnivore; plankton feeder. Offer meaty foods, such as mysid shrimp and enriched brine shrimp, at least three times a day. It is prone to color and weight loss if not given a varied diet, and an ample quantity of food and pigment-enhancing rations.

[edit] Aquarium Compatibility

This fish will spend most of its time swimming in the open, but will dash for a hiding place if threatened.

[edit] Breeding/Propagation

Egg scatterers that produce pelagic eggs, often in midwater mating rituals. Both eggs and larvae that drift with plankton in the water column and settle back onto a reef at about the time of metamorphosis. These are among the most challenging types of marine fishes to propagate in captivity.

[edit] Notes

This is a fairly pugnacious anthias. It is best to keep a solitary individual, unless you have a large aquarium (100 gal. [380 L] or more). To keep a group, it should consist of one male and six or more females. The males of this species are yellow posteriorly, have an orange head and a broad red bar on their sides. Females are light red with yellow marks on the scales and a white ventrum. It is also risky to keep this species with most other anthias species and peaceful zooplankton feeders, such as fairy wrasses and firefishes, in a smaller tank.

Category: Species