Odontanthias borbonius

[jason edward]

Has anyone ever kept this fish? To what degree of success?
I managed to get my dirty hands on one today.

 

[Len]

Oh wow. Those are amazing fish. I only know one person (in Japan, not surprisingly) who has one and it's suppose to be hardy but prefers cooler waters.

Do you have pics?

 

[jason edward]

I'll try and get a picture today. It is in a 580 g tank, so it could be tricky!
I thought these fish came from southern Japan. This one came in from Bali, of all places.

 

[jason edward]

Very pleased. Just got to the shop and he is out swimming.

 

[sedgro]

Where did you manage to find one? I have not seen any species of Odontanthias in years. The last one I saw was Odontanthias fuscipinnus with swim bladder issues at Coral Fish Hawaii in Honolulu in 2002? The $600 was too much for a sick fish.

VERY, VERY, VERY COOL!

Odontanthias aren't supposed to be too tricky if healthy (e.g. not doing the head stand/I wasn't decompressed/needled right).

 

[NKT]

wow.... is it for sale? :X

I know marinecenter offered a fuscipinnis a number of years back, and haven't seen anything close since then. How large is he? Is he eating? Awesome find!

 

[jason edward]

He's about 2 1/2 inches, and is eating arctipods. Hangs out under a plating monti.
I really should learn to take better pictures...

 

[Len]

Gorgeous and adorable Find me one, will ya?

 

[Len]

Hey Jason, what are his tankmates?

 

[jason edward]

Hey Jason, what are his tankmates?

Oh Boy! quite a lot I'm afraid. A bunch of blue eyed cardinals, garden eels, choati leopard, bipartitus females, psedojuloides, paracheilinus rubricauda trio, splendid fairy, terelabrus sp., a bunch of anthias (tiger queens and pulcherrimus), a pair of sunburst, amongst others.

No one is showing any agression towards him. He is behaving rather like a pulcherrimus, in that much of the time is spent hovering sideways or upside down under an overhang. He also keeps other anthias away from his spot.
He seems quite happy to come all the way up to the front of the tank when there's food in the water. Certainly more gregarious than I would have thought.

 

[Len]

Ah, cool. So the other Anthias aren't harassing it.

One other question: what temperature are you keeping it in?

 

[jason edward]

Len,

the sunbursts hassled him a bit, but not anymore. As for temp, I'm probably way too warm, at around 80*. That being said, I'm pretty convinced this was caught in shallower water, as I've not seen this fish ever offered from Bali before, and it came from a standard supplier.
Seems to prefer larger foods, ignores cyclopeeze, but happily eats arctipods, and especially hikari mysis. He's definitely found his spot, hanging sideways or upside down.
If anyone's interested I'd be happy to post progress.

 

[Len]

Definitely post progress.

I'm surprised that these suddenly turned up from Bali. I wonder if they're going to continue to be available or if it was a fluke.

 

[jason edward]

Len,
Only one came in. My guess is it was a stray juvenile.

 

[Len]

Hey Jason, I've heard reports that a few more came in as well from the same Indo supplier at pedestrian prices. I really am perplexed how a deepwater fish becomes suddenly available for "reasonable" prices. Nearly 20 years in this hobby and I haven't seen this happen. It's either a fluke or someone found a shallow pool for juveniles.

 

[Anonymous]

I''ll take 12.

Louey

 

[Vili_Shark]

Jason,
Can you please share your experience with the P.pulcerrimus?
Thanks.

 

[Len]

Hey Vili,

I have either a P.pulcherrius or an undescribed cave basslet that is in the various books. It's definitely one of the Randalli complex and they all behave about the same. My Anthias either came from either Tonga or the Cook Islands. They obviously came from deepwater as most of the ones I saw had severe decompression issues. They're not very different in behavior and care then other Anthias I've kept. They tend to like to stay around rocks more often then others. These anthias swim face down a lot. Mine feed on most anything and prefers small whole mysis.

The two I got are really incredible color shifters. They're either bright orange front half with rich violet back half or can change to a crimson red with some yellow shadings. The caudal fin and pectoral fins are either translucent or yellow (again, it changes). Whatever colors mine takes on, its gorgeous. I just don't know what species it is (P.pulcherrius, P.privitera, or undescribed).

 

[sedgro]

Len,

Here are some images of P . priviteri Chip Boyle sent me when he first collected them:

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[Len]

John, those are similar to mine but not exactly either. I gotta take pics. The problem is, they change to very different colors so I gotta take multiple shots.