Adding multiple female anthias into tank with single male

[Canada Land]

I am contemplating adding some more anthias to my tank
I currently have a 4 year old male Lyretail anthias, and he can be a royal turd sometimes. He has been the only anthias for about 4 years.

Do you think I will have issues adding 5-6+ females with my male?
Could I pick different species of females if the LFS doesn't have lyretails?
Thinking as long as I stick with "Pseudanthias" genus? huchtii look fairly similar in pattern but their so dull.... Perhaps "Red Fairy" or "Dispar"?
If I picked like 3 or 4 of two different species, would that work and my Lyretail would remain dominant male? Or would a female from each species turn into a male because they don't recognize my male as their "leader"

Tank size or feeding is not a concern. I just don't know about mixing species and what my odds are of my male accepting a new harem of ladies to lord over.

 

[blaujess]

Wait for answer too

 

[GimpyFin]

I'd say its a gamble. Anthias can be sort of bipolar with each other. I started with 3 bartletts and the male at the time would bully the other two somewhat often. Other times they seemed like 3 buddies out for a swim. I'm now down to one male after about 2.5 years (Was not the original male.) He's fine with the other fish in the tank and I even added a fathead anthias recently with no issues.

 

[Canada Land]

Hmmm so luck of the draw then hey....
I really want to get some bright colour back into the tank and get him some ladies but he's been alone for so long.
He does protect the clowns from the damsel and never picks on them... perhaps he thinks their really ugly looking lady friends?

 

[ca1ore]

I don't find that anthias interact all that much outside their species, so I guess it depends on what you are looking to achieve. If you add a bunch of smaller female lyre tails, most will probably be ok. Lyre's have a habit of picking each other off anyhow, so you may lose one or two of them to aggression. Conditioning the new fish in QT will help with success rates.

 

[anbosu]

How big is your tank?

 

[Canada Land]

How big is your tank?

150gal


Ive kept small schools of lyretail and dispar before (not together) a few years back with no aggression issues. My biggest concern is this male has been solitary for years now. Would he take the ladies as one of his own? Dont really want to deal with chromis like issues with them picking each other off until its just him. Or have him ignore them then the groups biggest female goes male and ive got 2 males on my hands....
He used to have 5 ladies. But ick or velvet wiped my tank clean of all but 2 fish.

Then its the question of if I can even get more lyretails. Not all species are always available here, hence questioning the idea of mixing species.

I just need more bright colours.

 

[itz frank]

150gal


Ive kept small schools of lyretail and dispar before (not together) a few years back with no aggression issues. My biggest concern is this male has been solitary for years now. Would he take the ladies as one of his own? Dont really want to deal with chromis like issues with them picking each other off until its just him. Or have him ignore them then the groups biggest female goes male and ive got 2 males on my hands....
He used to have 5 ladies. But ick or velvet wiped my tank clean of all but 2 fish.

Then its the question of if I can even get more lyretails. Not all species are always available here, hence questioning the idea of mixing species.

I just need more bright colours.

I could be wrong here but there's a chance your male in the tank is male because there aren't any females or he was most alpha at the time. Introducing females into the tank could cause females to change to male ultimately leading to issues.

Might want someone else to follow up on this, though. I feel like I read that among my searches but I haven't had any experience with them myself.

 

[Canada Land]

I could be wrong here but there's a chance your male in the tank is male because there aren't any females or he was most alpha at the time. Introducing females into the tank could cause females to change to male ultimately leading to issues.

Might want someone else to follow up on this, though. I feel like I read that among my searches but I haven't had any experience with them myself.

He was alpha 4 years ago when I had females. That's why I think he survived whatever my tank got, he was the biggest and strongest. But yes staying single he is definitely a male. But he is not getting the nice DEEP purple/red colouring standard to males who run a group. I have read that when males are on their own they still end up being males and pricks, but they don't get the same colouring of a male who rules some females. Kind of a halfway between females and a dominant males look.

I would have thought if I all ready had a male, and I add females, and my male takes on the females and is their alpha, it would be fine. But if he ignored them then the dominant female would become alpha and then turn male and 2 males is not what I want to end up with.

Its really... what are my odds of him accepting some ladies, and would he accept ladies of a different species?