keeping lyretail anthias from going male

[29reef]

I would think aggression could be limited by feeding, my experience with anthias over the last 3 years has been that if I don't keep them fed the smaller and weaker ones lose out. It's easy to overlook them as being happy, but if they are dying in the manor your describing I would suspect underfeeding or parasite/disease.

I hope you decide to try again when you get the new tank set up and going.