It seems I can't keep these small Queen Anthias as the 4 of them are gone. The slightly larger ones with the bright yellow stripe and the one with the muted yellow stripe are doing very well and have been in there for a month to 3 or 4 months so far. I think they will live their normal lifespan.
These small purple ones didn't live to long. They either jump out or just disappear, I guess from not having enough of the right food even though I fed them new born shrimp a couple of times a day. Some fish "I" just can't keep long but many people can keep them. Luckily, they never die from disease. I also can't keep banded pipefish very long. But copperbands I have no problems with as they are large eaters and seem to be able to store food. I got this one as a baby and now she is the size of a hub cap.
Not in my fully stocked reef anyway. You really need a species tank for them and some fish and you need to have a constant supply of tiny, preferably living food. I do like those kinds of tanks but I only have my one 100 gallon reef tank (which I think is really a 90 but was sold as a 100)
If you have no life, I mean if you can spend all day tinkering with your tank, you can easily keep any kind of fish, but if you are active and are out all the time, forgetaboutit.
We were out late last night with other people for dinner as we do a lot and when I got home, the lights were off in my tank, so they didn't eat. They will be mad at me this morning but I will be going out before the lights come on, so they won't have breakfast either.
But I will be home to give them lunch so they will still be talking to me.
WE also stay out in the boat late and those days the fish don't eat, unless I collect something for them for desert.
Not eating for a one, two, three days or more won't hurt most fish. But for planktivores, they just don't have the storage capacity to cope with thea and they starve. It's a fact of fish life.
I try to be here all the time, but I can't.
When I travel, I am sure I will lose some of those types of fish as I can't ask my Supermodel tank sitter to do what I do which is hatch brine shrimp every day, strain them and put them in a feeder twice a day, collect mud from my white worm culture and separate out the white worms, suck up blackworms and baster them to both sides of the tank so all the fish get a chance to eat them before the copperband and blue wrasse gets it all.
Supermodels have other things to do such as do things that Supermodels need to do to continue to look like a Supermodel.
I only ask her to put a pre made frozen food package, that I make, into the defrosting cup and dispenser I have hanging on the tank, and I only ask her to do that every other day. There is some frozen baby brine and cyclopese in there which those fish eat, but it's not enough and I normally target feed some fish like the Janss Pipefish which live in a cave with a possum wrasse.
I am sure those fish will find some food but with about 25 fast feeders they won't get enough. I also have a small perchlet that I target feed.
These are the guys that seem very hardy.
I didn't do to well with this guy either. I have only a few SPS corals or the types of corals he eats and with all the other special feeders I have I couldn't spend the time that this beautiful fish needs to keep him long term. A few months is not long term so I will say I sucked at keeping him.