Anthias Changing from Female to Male

[RGS2]

I have 4 lyretail Anthias (1 male, 3 female). I couple of weeks ago the male injured his eye and it became a "pop eye". It is slowly healing and I expect he will recover just fine.

The problem has been that while the male is hiding in the rockwork while he heals, one of the females as quickly begun changing into a male.

What kind of issue will I have when the original male heals and returns to the group? Will the two males fight? or will the fish in the process of changing revert back to female?

 

[jjoos99]

I would like to also know how long it takes the females to change. I recently lost the male of a 3 fish group. I would like to replace it with a bright red male but didnt know how long I had before one of the female changes.
thanks
Jeff

 

[d-man]

There is no set time frame. Sometimes it happens in a few weeks other times a few months. Mine never changed after 6 months. It started with the elongated dorsal spine, but then never went through any other changes. There were 5 in the tank

 

[RGS2]

Mine has almost completed the change in one week. I'd guess in another week it will be completely changed over.

 

[jjoos99]

So what happens if you introduce a store bought male into the tank after one of the existing females has started to change? Pretty much the original question.
Jeff

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I had a female change to male when the existing male wasn't being dominant enough (I guess)... had to remove the old male or the new male would have killed him...

 

[suta4242]

Anthias can be surprisingly aggressive within their harem. I was in an LFS a while back watching a dominant female lyretail picking at the eye of another female, who had already lost the other eye. The shop owner said the victim came in with both eyes intact, and I wouldn't be surprised if your fish with popeye was involved in an exchange with one of his females.

Anyhow, to answer the original question... Changeover can be very rapid especially if the usurper has an abandunt food supply (there's usually a big growth spurt) and theres a good chance the new leader won't tolerate the old male rejoining the group. If he doesn't kill it, the loser could be confined to hiding away from the group. Alternately, when the eye heals (which can be within a week), the male can return and reassert his control. He is more likely to succeed if the other fish is only a sub male.

HTH and GL

:wave: