Very well said, Derryc. The biggest challenge with anthias is definitely getting them to eat and feeding enough for them to thrive. It can take a great deal of diligence in the early weeks to get them "trained" to take prepared foods. Some types of anthias are more pre-disposed to trying prepared foods and others are notorious for starving to death in your tank. There are definitely some species of anthias that are better left on the reef.

Even then (with all the efforts at training them to accept the food), they have a higher metabolism than many fish and burn through the food quickly because they are very active and always out swimming in the water column (which is what makes them such great fish to have, wonderful to watch) so they need to be fed freqently.

I have just offered to write up a little discussion about my experiences with anthias and my reading / research on the subject for our MAAST newsletter... so be on the lookout for this in the next few weeks.