Mirolabrichthys tuka Breeding Guide

The purple queen anthias is a protogynous, harem-living planktivore that broadcast-spawns pelagic eggs over the reef. Its planktonic larvae and delicate feeding make home breeding impractical.

Overview

Mirolabrichthys tuka, the purple queen anthias, is recorded on FishBase as the valid name, with Pseudanthias tuka as a former designation. It ranges across the Indo-West Pacific from Mauritius to the Solomon Islands at depths of about 2 to 40 metres, reaches around 12 cm and forms aggregations on outer reef slopes, feeding on planktonic crustaceans and fish eggs.

Sexing

Like other anthias, the purple queen is a protogynous hermaphrodite: fish start as females and the dominant female changes into a male when the resident male is lost. Groups are harems of one dominant, vividly purple male with two to twelve females and up to two subdominant males, the males being more strongly coloured with yellow accents.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

The dominant male courts harem females with acrobatic U-swim displays before paired ascents into the water column release eggs and sperm. Aquaculture observations on related anthias indicate spawning near dusk, producing buoyant eggs that float at the surface and can be collected with an evening egg collector rather than from any nest.

Egg & Fry Care

Eggs are pelagic and hatch into minute planktonic larvae that feed within the plankton. In documented Pseudanthias rearing, larvae accepted copepods and settled into juveniles roughly a month after hatching. A home reef cannot reproduce the floating egg stage or the live-plankton larval diet, which is compounded by this species' demanding planktivorous feeding even as an adult.

Common Challenges

Only a few anthias have been aquacultured, all in institutional hatcheries. The purple queen is additionally noted for being a delicate, plankton-dependent feeder that is difficult to maintain at all, which removes any realistic prospect of breeding it at home.