Square Anthias Quad from EdAquatics...

[Mr Cob]

Thanks Ed! Love em...

Ed rocks....tell him what you want and he'll get it! I got my last Quad from him a couple of years ago and I totally regretted selling them when I moved. Anyways...super stoked that he was able to get these for me.

Male and 3 females acclimating with a Cleaner Shrimp:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4291774365_d5f151fd3b.jpg

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http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4292519394_0229bedeb0.jpg

[Mr Cob]

They quickly found a cave to call home...
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/4292512796_e6991e15b4.jpg

Females out and about (male is still hiding)
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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2753/4292521906_0ac45919cc.jpg

[Mr Cob]

Their new home: .......................................Anthias Cave: bottom right>
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http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4292508128_ff550af02b.jpg

[justahobby]

Nice choice. It's always a relief when they come out of hiding so quickly.

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

nice fish..lol sweet tank .... thanks for your buisness its greatly appreciated.. cant wait to see more pix ..

[Mr Cob]

Nice choice. It's always a relief when they come out of hiding so quickly.

Seriously...I know these guys can be extremely shy. The females acclimated well and the male is still very cautious and hiding for the most part. The good news is they are all together.


nice fish..lol sweet tank .... thanks for your buisness its greatly appreciated.. cant wait to see more pix ..

Thanks, Ed. 110% satisfied. Great fish at a great price.

[txav8r]

Sweet addition! I remember when you got the last ones at your old house way over on the other side of the..... street.

[Europhyllia]

They are beautiful!
How are you going to keep up with the feeding? I saw some cool dosing pump ideas in Coral Magazine.

[Mr Cob]

They are beautiful!
How are you going to keep up with the feeding? I saw some cool dosing pump ideas in Coral Magazine.

I feed twice a day. Between 4-6pm when I get home and around midnight before I go to sleep. My lights are from 2pm-2am.

It worked with my last quad for over a year. They were all fat, happy and healthy!

Jack... LOL! Yeah, I can throw a rock at the old house. LOL. I miss my last square anthias male (also from Ed)... he was beautiful and big.

[ballardjr2000]

Tank still blows me away everytime i see it I druel.

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

Tank still blows me away everytime i see it I druel.

yup i agree , sweet looking tank! really like that look, may have a few questions...

[Europhyllia]

I feed twice a day. Between 4-6pm when I get home and around midnight before I go to sleep. My lights are from 2pm-2am.

It worked with my last quad for over a year. They were all fat, happy and healthy!

That's cool. I was wondering what gave them the square name so I googled them. When I saw the feeding requirements they had listed for them I thought that would be a bit much even for me. lol
They will be a stunning addition once they're out and about. :)

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

any new pics yet?

[Kristy]

Yay... anthias! I just love them!

So, how / what are they eating? Time for an update, Rob!

[Mr Cob]

Well, all 4 are consistently out and in the open. The 3 females are always schooling and the male keeps his distance but a watchful eye on them and occasionally swims to them as if he is herding them. Very interesting to watch. If they are startled they all swim into their cave in the lower right of the tank… the large new white piece of live rock seen in the FTS pic.

The male isn’t really eating much that I can see, but the females are eating everything I put in the tank. I fed 4 different times yesterday to help them adjust faster. My food is a blend of all kinds of frozen foods that I thaw and refreeze together. Name it and it’s in there.

This Quad seems much more representative of how they might act in the wild. I can only think that it’s because they are all similar in size with the exception of the male who is larger. My last quad was made up of all different sizes and I don't remember them being as organized and schoooling as much.

I’ll get some better shots this weekend.

[aquasport24]

I've got the Trios on Tuesday, the 2 females are together and eating right away. The male have not get close to them and have not eaten yet. Is that normal for a male being finicky?

[Kristy]

This is only my opinion and not research-based, but after having two different types of anthias trios in our tank (the lyretails for almost two years now and then we added the bartlett's trio to the mix about six months ago), I would say that it is not about the male being more finicky. I have observed / interpreted the males to be more cautious, maybe even more stressed. The male anthias has "duties" of managing his harem that sometimes resemble that one deer in the herd that plays the lookout role, more watchful, etc. He is more focused on keeping the females in line and is sometimes more stressed about it. I have seen my male anthias not get enough to eat because he was so busy chasing the females away from the feeding frenzy. The anthias trios have very, very interesting social behaviors.

I would think in both examples (Rob's and Giau's) that your male(s) will catch on and eat like the females do soon, especially once he is feeling more at ease in the new environment. Anthias are great at demonstrating for one another how to survive in the tank.

[Mr Cob]

I agree Kristy. It's very exciting/interesting to watch.

I also would never ever again consider buying just a male. I have purchased 3 males over the last 4 years by themseleves and all of them persihed within a few months before I decided I would never buy another male without at least two females. Since purchasing a male with females I have never had one die on me. It is very typical that the male will not fully acclimate for a week or two. This has proven to be true in every scenario I have had with Square Anthias.

I will say that these recent fish from Ed, seem to adjust much easier than any I have ever owned in the past.

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

cool its great how good theyre doing im glad to hear everyones enjoying their new fish ...

[aquasport24]

You're right Rob, the male is much harder to acclimated. Came home today and found him laying down on the bottom breathing hard. Don't think he going to make it.(darn it).Beside that ,my ATO line came loose from the aqualifter and sent out about 15g of RO/DI on the carpet.:mad:

[Mr Cob]

Sorry to hear about that Giau!!!

I'm having some trouble right now too.

For some reason the quad split. I had thought the other day that it seemed like the largest female was challenging the male...I kept seeing her off by herself. Then this morning I noticed she was off in her own cave along with the smallest female and she was completely beaten up. The male was on the other side of the tank with one female and the male was beaten badly too.

No idea what happened but they are split now. Looks as if I'm going to lose one or two.

[Europhyllia]

can they change sex?
maybe they are on the way to be two pairs?
Sorry this is happening. Must be very stressful on fish and owner :(

[Mr Cob]

Yes, they can change sex and I'm certain the large female is headed to become a male. Then they will definitely duke it out. I think...???

I'm pretty sure one of the females is going to pass....the one that left with the large female. Looks as if they were fighting for her.

Here's the male and single female pair now.

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http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4299124603_312f9fb34a.jpg

[Mr Cob]

Here's the female that went rogue.... her cave is back there to the right.


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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/4299129905_2f59244896.jpg

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

oh no that s---s , lmk if i can help in anyway ,maybe seperate the two pairs .. lmk

[Europhyllia]

Wow Rob they are gorgeous. I don't think it will be a problem to rehome the female-male fish (if you can catch her). They are breathtaking.
Hope the injured female recovers quickly.

[jesserettele]

So it's not just about water quality, I'll have to worry about relationships too? What do you do? Put one in time out and seperate them?

[aquasport24]

Are they eating Rob? My two females are eating,but i had to take the male out of his misery (ziplock bag in the freezer:sick:).

[Europhyllia]

I'm sorry. Looks like a spot opened up for Rob's soon-to-be male...

[Mr Cob]

I tried catching my male last night. No luck. As usual. That's the only draw back with having these man made tunnels.

Anyways...gonna sit back and see how things progress over the next few days. There's no fighting at the moment and it looks as though they settled the living arrangements.

I can not find the hurt female that went with the rogue female...

[Kristy]

What SHOULD happen in theory is that the dominant female and the male duke it out for dominance and the one that prevails is the male of the harem and the other regresses to be the alpha female. However, sometimes the fish do not read the literature and do not know what roles they are supposed to have. What MAY happen is that the process of sorting out dominance may end up being too much for one and it may perish. I'm so sorry about all the difficulties, Rob, but I still have hopes that they work it out and you end up with a healthy harem, whether it is two or three females I guess is the question at this point. The rebuked female may be successfully hiding in your many caves and hiding places. Anthias are really, really good at this.

The greatest odds for success in my (very limited) experience is to buy only females and let the girls sort it out for who is going to become the male. It is also fascinating to watch that process.

Giau, you would do best to add at least one female to yours. With just a pair, the dominant one will become the male, but will dog that lone female so much that she may not fare so well. Or you could add the trio that Gabe has in his store (as of yesterday afternoon) and end up with five, which should be a very happy number in your size tank.

[Mr Cob]

I appreciate all the comments and feedback from the other Square Harems out there (giau). Square Anthias are one of my favorite fish and it's great to communicate/document the progress of keeping these fish whether that be successful or unsuccessful especially since they are wild caught and not currently bred in captivity to my knowledge.

Kristy, I really like your advice of trying only females and let them work it out. That gives me hope to try again in the future. For now I need to let things settle down and I'm still awaiting an outcome...

With that said, as I was typing this I found the established male had passed along with the female he managed to keep in his harem. The female that challenged him is still alive and she looks amazing...very healthy....she is also guarding a cave when I come near the tank. I'm hoping she has the other female in there...but uncertain where the other female is at and afraid she may have passed as well. When I leave the tank she comes out and swims all over the place so i would assume the other would come out too.... but nothing.

So...I can confirm that I have 1 healthy Anthias left of the quad and possibly a second since I can not confirm death yet.

What a weekend!

Kristy, you have great ideas so I'd be interested in your recommendation.

[Mr Cob]

If I do in fact only have one left and it's the healthy dominant female....I'm assuming she will morph into a male. If so, should I get more females before the morph takes place or after. Also, I'm not a big fan of adding more Anthias at this time so would prefer not to if she can stay happy alone....though that makes me sad because I really wanted a harem...but not sure I want all this drama again any time soon. I'm sure it's stressful on my other inhabitants as well.

[aquasport24]

That's sucks Rob, that's male was standing out the most in my DT w/ bright pink and the square signature.It sucks man.:angry:

[Mr Cob]

That's sucks Rob, that's male was standing out the most in my DT w/ bright pink and the square signature.It sucks man.:angry:

Yep. So you have 2 left of the 3? How are they doing?

[aquasport24]

They're not really together,but EATING ok. The male was never eating anything.

[Mr Cob]

Well...that's it! No more Square Anthias for me. The last female is no longer doing well, she is at the bottom breathing heavy and not swimming around.

I don't get it. I'm tired of trying to get it and I'm done flushing money down the drain on Square Anthias....I also refuse to kill anymore. If I buy them again it will only be specimens that have already been in captivity for several months and proving to do well.

Bummed.

[Kristy]

Sorry Rob... anthias are really tricky and it's very frustrating when they don't fare well. :(

[kkiel02]

Ive wanted to try anthias but after doing research they seem to be hard to get eating. Kristy seems to have the magic touch with these fish. They have great color though and maybe someday I will try some. I think Dr Mark has some he wants me to have. *hint hint*

[greatwhite@AlamoAquatics]

sorry to hear that guys , i feel really bad .. lmk if i can do something ...

[Europhyllia]

I'm sorry

[aquasport24]

Sorry Rob, i'll keep my eyes open for the 2 females.