Pseudanthias ignitus Breeding Guide

The flame anthias is an Indian Ocean, harem-living protogynous fish that broadcast-spawns pelagic eggs over the reef. Its planktonic larvae make home breeding impractical.

Overview

Pseudanthias ignitus, the flame anthias, occurs in the eastern Indian Ocean and far western Pacific around the Maldives, the Andaman and Similan Islands and Sumatra. It inhabits outer reef slopes in clear water at depths of roughly 3 to 15 metres, reaches about 9 cm and feeds on zooplankton several metres above the seafloor, retreating to crevices when threatened.

Sexing

The flame anthias is a nonandric protogynous hermaphrodite: all individuals are born female, and the largest, most dominant females change sex to become males. The species occurs in aggregations in which males maintain harems containing multiple females. During courtship, males intensify their colour and erect their red dorsal fins.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

The dominant male displays to harem females before pairs ascend into the water column to release eggs and sperm. Aquaculture observations on related anthias show spawning concentrated around dusk, producing buoyant eggs that float at the surface and can be collected with an evening egg collector rather than from any nest site.

Egg & Fry Care

Eggs are pelagic and hatch into minute planktonic larvae that feed in the open-water plankton. In documented Pseudanthias breeding, larvae were reared on copepods and settled into juveniles roughly a month after hatching. A home reef cannot replicate the floating egg stage or the continuous live-plankton larval diet.

Common Challenges

Only a small number of anthias species have been aquacultured, and all came from institutional hatcheries. Wild-caught flame anthias also require expert quarantine and conditioning to feed reliably, so home breeding is not a realistic goal.