Pseudanthias is a genus full of the most colorful, gorgeous schooling fish ever to swim. Many of them you've seen in your Local Fish Stores or perhaps online in forums or articles. Most of you will have seen Dispar and probably Lyretail Anthias; both make excellent choices for the home aquarium. One fish you probably have not seen, especially in person, is the White Bar Anthias. These are some of the rarest and most beautiful Anthias ever to grace an aquarium. If there was ever some Anthias that you could call dream fish, or showpiece, these are them.
For those of you inclined to full fish-geekyness, White Bar Anthias are known among scientists as Pseudanthias leucozonus. “Pseudanthias” roughly translates from Greek as “false pickerel” and “leucozonus” means “white belt.” They come from very deep water, often collected off rocky reefs in more than 125 feet of water. Their small range also contributes to their rarity in the hobby. They were once thought to be only found off the Izu peninsula in Japan, but another population has since been located in the waters surrounding Bali. (The Osaka aquarium has a mind-blowing walk-through tank that is full of them. Definitely visit if you ever have the chance)
An average day for a wild fish is spent constantly eating zooplankton out of the water column. They expend a lot of energy staying suspended in the strong currents around their reef homes and as a result of both these things, will require a lot of feeding. It isn't really feasible for most people to feed their fish all day long, so we suggest at least three feedings daily, and more would be better. They segue over to captive foods well if kept in groups, and even finicky fish can be trained by feeding them thawed foods along with some live brine or mysis. You should also mix a high-quality pellet into this feeding regimen, for a two very good reasons. First, quality Pellets like Nutramar Complete will offer them a broad range of nutrients in a very protein dense package. Second, once the fish are used to pellets, you can utilize an automatic feeder for one or more of their daily feedings, making it much easier to get them as many meals a day as they need. In house, we feed them a mix of these Nutramar Pellets and a full variety of Gamma Foods including Copepods, Artemia, Chopped Prawn, Mysis, and their full suite of enhanced Brine Shrimp. Click here to learn more
For those of you inclined to full fish-geekyness, White Bar Anthias are known among scientists as Pseudanthias leucozonus. “Pseudanthias” roughly translates from Greek as “false pickerel” and “leucozonus” means “white belt.” They come from very deep water, often collected off rocky reefs in more than 125 feet of water. Their small range also contributes to their rarity in the hobby. They were once thought to be only found off the Izu peninsula in Japan, but another population has since been located in the waters surrounding Bali. (The Osaka aquarium has a mind-blowing walk-through tank that is full of them. Definitely visit if you ever have the chance)
An average day for a wild fish is spent constantly eating zooplankton out of the water column. They expend a lot of energy staying suspended in the strong currents around their reef homes and as a result of both these things, will require a lot of feeding. It isn't really feasible for most people to feed their fish all day long, so we suggest at least three feedings daily, and more would be better. They segue over to captive foods well if kept in groups, and even finicky fish can be trained by feeding them thawed foods along with some live brine or mysis. You should also mix a high-quality pellet into this feeding regimen, for a two very good reasons. First, quality Pellets like Nutramar Complete will offer them a broad range of nutrients in a very protein dense package. Second, once the fish are used to pellets, you can utilize an automatic feeder for one or more of their daily feedings, making it much easier to get them as many meals a day as they need. In house, we feed them a mix of these Nutramar Pellets and a full variety of Gamma Foods including Copepods, Artemia, Chopped Prawn, Mysis, and their full suite of enhanced Brine Shrimp. Click here to learn more
