Anthias ?'s

[ser_renely]

Ahhh. Well hopefully one will start.

Mine has kept on getting darker purple/red and fins and base of the tail is definitively dark now. It is Very clear its changing now.

 

[matt888]

Lyretails are quite fascinating once you get over the fact they look like fancy goldfish.

Seriously though, I have 3. All had small spikes on their dorsal fin indicative of dominant females, sub-males, whatever you wish to call them but one ultimately got the really tall spike, while the other two had their spikes literally recede completely away in about a month. At that time, the dominant one started to get slight pink/red hues but what has recently developed on "him" at the 2-month mark is black outlines on all of the fins. The black is now transitioning further into the fins and all of the fins are becoming elongated and he's really starting to gain body length. Pretty darn amazing! I will try to get a pic of them.

 

[ser_renely]

cool

 

[UCReefer]

Nice that what i wanted to hear, a good success story ha. But ya as of today mine are basically the same as before. I checked the rim of their fins and i can notice a blue line on the rim of the most dom female and on one of the other females as well. Also the most dom female dorsal spike seems to be getting longer but that may just be wishful thinking ha

 

[Triggerfish]

I tried a trio of what I thought were 2 females and one noticeable male with elongated dorsal. they were ok in qt except the submissive one never really ate.
after a few weeks in qt..I put in display 75g and all hell broke out shortly after. I was think the dominant female was starting to change over and wnt to battle with the male over a period of several days, it ended up getting killed, the one that didn't eat ended up dying and the male eventually died as well. not sure why. sucked big time ..fish are stunning for sure and really wanted it to work out.. due to the price not likely to try again any time soon.. I was also told that once they start to transform they cannot change direction.. turning male cannot revert back to full female.. don't know.
good luck

 

[UCReefer]

Just wanted to give u guys an update on the anthias situation. I had a friend over with a good camera so i was able to snap some pics.

A couple of months ago I lost the smallest of the group due to it not eating and a week or two I lost another, which left me with The alpha male and two submales. Since then things stabilized, though they don't really school with each other. The Alpha acts more like a tang and swims all other the place while dive bombing the subs if they get in his path. And I can notice the smallest one not getting enought food too. The alpha male will literally stuff its mouth to the gills during feeding to steal as much of the food he can from the others...

I am excited to say that the beginning of the color change seems to finally be starting. The alphas pelvic and dorsal fin have the most noticeable changes. I had honestly given up all hope that it would happen but it seems like it may work out. I'm hoping that when the male gets full color he will get more comfortable with the others.. Also i was thinking about buying another small lyretail or two to even out the males aggression but for now I think I will keep it to the three of them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/106220129@N03/

 

[Triggerfish]

too bad for the losses. what you describe is probably typical behavior with the male staying apart from the females and occassionaly go after one quickly then move off.

bout a month or so ago i picked up 3 dipars, not sure what they are but they pretty much stay together with no observed aggression.. hope it stays that way.. similiar to hte lyretails in appearance but just not as deep colored. but so much easier so far.