Purple Tilefish/Ventralis Anthias - Opinions

[idrum]

Thinking about a couple of fish for my 72G Reef.

1. Purple Tilefish
2. Ventralis Anthias

Questions:

Anyone have any experience with them? Are they hardy? Susceptible to parasites? Aggressive? What do they eat?

More importantly, will they stay out in the open or are they hiders?

I currently have a yellow tang and a lineattus wrasse.

[ranaman]

Don't have personal experience with either but according to John Hoover Hawaiian ventralis do well if they are properly decompressed. They are deep water fish 100'+. I saw some in a Honolulu LFS that definately had decompression problems. So they might be a fish you buy only if you see them. They are beautiful fish. Most Anthias don't hide and if you got the space and money think school. Somebody posted pics of their tank that had a ventralis anthias in it some time ago.

[sexysam0010]

hey im looking for info on ventralis anthias becasue im need info cause i want one and i want to reasearch on it first !!!!!!!! plezzzz and theank you




- sexysam

[salt-rookie]

Ventralis Anthias are very delicate and can ONLY be kept with peaceful species...probably not a tang. The Purple Tilefish does well if kept in pairs and once eating. I accomplished this by feeding gut loaded fresh hatched brine shrimp. They are JUMPERS! But beautiful! They do swim in the open, but are most frequently peeking about halfway out of thier caves. They need LOTS of rock and holes to hide in. They are a deep water species, also!

[kevinpo]

Hello,
I keep P. ventralis from the Cook Islands. They are very delicate and shy. They do best as the first fish in the tank without other anthias. One male and six females or one male and one female. If you really want to mix them with other anthias P. dispar, and N. carberryi are your best bets. They do fine with most other reefsafe peaceful fish. Tangs and Rabbitfish ignore them as a general rule. Flasher wrasses can bully them a bit but not too bad.

HTH,
Kevin