How to Breed Marcia’s Anthias, a Colorful Coral Reef Fish

Anthias are one of the most commonly kept fish in reef tanks. They’re colorful, peaceful, safe for coral and other inverts - what’s not to like? Of course, the down side is that they’re not for beginners - they require at least a couple feedings each day - but if you can manage that then you can keep Anthias of all sorts in your tank. So, if they’re so colorful and common, why don’t we breed them like we do Clownfish? Turns out, we can! ORA is already doing some work with Anthias, no doubt using this paper as a base. There’s nothing hard about what you need to do - this is something you and I could do in our homes if we wanted. To duplicate the study, you’d need a 1000 gallon aquaculture tank, a big sump, protien skimmer and UV filter - and 12 sub-adult Marcia’s Anthias (Pseudanthias marcia). Within a year they’ll mature and you’ll have at least one pair of fish. Next you need some greenwater cultures going - along with both Parvocalanus crassirostris and Brine Shrimp cultures. Add the P. crassirostris to the larvae tank (a 150 gallon off-white plastic tank work fine) along with eggs from your adults and in 4 days they’ll hopefully be eating the copepods. When the larvae are big enough, transition them onto newborn brine shrimp. In 120 days you can sell them to other reef hobbyists! I do think this would probably work with other similar species like the Lyretail anthias or similar ones. The title card is a female Evansi Anthia from an old tank. Anthias do jump, and I eventually lost her that way :( Make sure you have a net lid on your tank! I hope you enjoy the scicomm! Captive broodstock development, breeding and seed production of Anthid fish (family: Serranidae) Marcia’s anthias, Pseudanthias marcia in recirculation aquaculture system Dura-Cast tanks would work great! Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video! I upload at least one video each week, so check out my channel for more!