How long for anthias to change?

[kupadupapupa]

Those of you with anthias females, how long did it take for a female to change into a male? I have a trio of female lyretail anthias for a few months now and none are showing signs of changing.

 

[cy93]

I don't think you will actually be able to tell the difference physically!

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've had a group of 6 in QT for 2 weeks and I can already tell which is going to be the male.

Do you have other anthias in the tank?

 

[namxas]

Here's a pic of our "she-he" that we had for 8 or 9 years...they don't look EXACTLY like a male, but as you can see, she did indeed develop a dorsal spike and a pinkish tinge:

 

[scrambler1880]

I started with three Bimaculatus anthias some years ago (one male 2x female)... for whatever reason the male did not survive past a month, I suspect that one of the females may have had a part to play in this though can't prove anything . The time it took for the dominant female to visibly turn male (the difference in this particular breed of anthias is quite apparent) was less than 3 weeks!! Very cool transition to watch, count myself lucky to have witnessed it first hand. Still have both in my system.

 

[kupadupapupa]

Well that kind of stinks. So the male really doesn't get as red as the picture on live aquaria makes it out to be? Currently all my anthias have a pinkish hue to them, here is a picture of them when I bought them. Nothing had changed about them, I was hoping at least one would transition into a red male so it would decrease the number of Orange fish in my tank, lol.

 

[andyrm66]

Im in the same boat as you, 3 lyetail, had over a month, no change but 2 keep lacking jaws every now and then.

 

[rupatel]

I have 2 for over a year and none have changed

 

[namxas]

Before one of your fish changes, it will have to establish dominancy. The fish you see in my photo was a terror, and beat up several other females. She was definitely the dominant fish.

 

[kupadupapupa]

Before one of your fish changes, it will have to establish dominancy. The fish you see in my photo was a terror, and beat up several other females. She was definitely the dominant fish.

So if all of them get along then they will all just stay female right?

 

[Baldguy]

Our lfs had a group of female lyretails in their DT and once the dominant female starting changing it only took a few weeks to change from the bright orange to the red. it was very similar to the LA pic. I don't know how long the females had been together in the tank.