I have had a pair of lyretail anthias for about a year and a half. One male, and one female. They have been great together. Since yesterday, the female has been beating on the male badly. The male sticks to the sides of the tank. Will the male now become a female? or will it just beat it to death? I have a large refugium I can move it to, if it will die, however, don't know if separating, and maybe putting them back together will make it worse..... any suggestions?
anthias pair
- Thread starter atrain
- Start date
Unfortunately the female is taking an opportunity to become dominant and turn into a male. The current male cannot revert to female, and therefore will likely get bullied to death. I would remove him, and get the female a couple small females as replacements.
iced98lx
New member
If you can catch+ remove the male do it now as Peter suggested.
Make sure the new females are smaller than the new male by a noticeable amount (you should be able to tell easily they are smaller). I prefer to have the females all be roughly the same size as well, but I've seen others prefer them stair stepped in size to help establish a pecking order immediately. I do not have any scientific / proven opinion on either preference, perhaps someone else would.
Make sure the new females are smaller than the new male by a noticeable amount (you should be able to tell easily they are smaller). I prefer to have the females all be roughly the same size as well, but I've seen others prefer them stair stepped in size to help establish a pecking order immediately. I do not have any scientific / proven opinion on either preference, perhaps someone else would.
