diff --git a/brainles_preprocessing/registration/__init__.py b/brainles_preprocessing/registration/__init__.py
index 0550373..70b18fd 100644
--- a/brainles_preprocessing/registration/__init__.py
+++ b/brainles_preprocessing/registration/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,10 @@
-from .ANTs.ANTs import ANTsRegistrator
+import warnings
+
+try:
+    from .ANTs.ANTs import ANTsRegistrator
+except ImportError:
+    warnings.warn(
+        "ANTS package not found. If you want to use it, please install it using 'pip install antspyx'"
+    )
+
 from .niftyreg.niftyreg import NiftyRegRegistrator
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f824fb1..a7e5b42 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ classifiers = [
   "Operating System :: OS Independent",
 ]
 
-
 [tool.poetry.dependencies]
 python = "^3.10"
 # core
@@ -58,6 +57,12 @@ tqdm = "^4.64.1"
 auxiliary = "^0.0.41"
 rich = "^13.6.0"
 
+
+antspyx = { version = "^0.4.2", optional = true }
+
+[tool.poetry.extras]
+ants = ["antspyx"]
+
 [tool.poetry.dev-dependencies]
 pytest = "^6.2"