About to try my hand with Lyretail Anthias

[Anemone0524]

..Was thinking of 1 male, 5 females in a 150gallon rimless.

Anyone have any advice for a first-time anthias keeper? Thanks!

 

[chimmike]

I'd say start with 6 females and let one become the male.

 

[Anemone0524]

interesting. I suppose that is because that allows the most dominant personality of the bunch to become the male in a natural way... As opposed to forcing a male to a group of females.

I was going to get a really big male, like 3-4.5" and a bunch of small females .75-1.5", so that its clear whos in charge.

 

[chimmike]

yeah. the only thing I'd be concerned about is if one of the females you get is in process of changing, then you'd have some battles to the death

 

[MCCOOL]

I'd also start with all females and let them work it out themselves. No anthias are going to thrive long term in a rimless tank though. They are expert jumpers and require a very tight fitting lid.

 

[niter]

Ditto on both counts: order all females and they will jump!

We recently added both lyretails and ignitus to our tank and I think we got very lucky as one was already male. We have one female lyretail that is the outcast and has lost her eye. I am by NO means an expert as this our first go around with anthias and my first time being "in charge" of fish selection. I have noticed that the lyretails are considerably hardy but more fiesty than the ignitus. If I had to pick ONE anthias, I would be inclined to go with only ignitus or dispars. That cohort went smoothly into the tank and are very peaceful.

 

[Amoore311]

I'd go with all females, but make sure they are 100% female and none are transitioning.

I don't know about jumping.... I have absolutely nothing over my 180 and haven't lost a single one. I've had 10 of them for just shy of a year, no losses at all.