Long term success with a harem of bartlett anthias?

i just got 3 bartletts in today from live aquaria, absolutely gorgeous! I couldnt tell you if they are male or female yet still hiding in their pvc tunnel in quarantine. i didnt locate this thread until after ordering them.

my question is this, should i increase the size of my harem maybe get another 3 or 4 females in hopes of the males not turning male on me. looks like the few people that have maintained females had a larger harem..what would you think the minimum harem i could get would be? i can go the the LFS and order some today if I need too.

i have a 135 they will be going in. They will be housed with a couple tanks, kole, yellow, and hippo tang so i am hoping that the will focus their agression towards the tangs not each other.
 
So, a few months ago I picked up a harem of lyretails (1m/3f). I'm really liking them. Took to frozen mysis pretty easily.

One of my LFS has 6 small female Bartletts for sale. They looked very good and ate the first time they were fed at the store.

After reading this thread I'm hesitant to buy a harem but how about just one?

In your estimation what would the behavior of one Bartletts be?

Aggressinve towatds smaller fish?
 
I agree with kong, they can be aggressive to smaller, passive fish, like firefish, small wrasses, etc. I doubt you'd have an issue, though, in a 225g tank. I'd get at least a pair though.
 
SDGuy; was just thinking about it, but at one of my LFS show tanks (300g+), they have a bartlett in there that hasnt gone male..

She used to be solo for a long time, and then I gave them one of my males (after it turned). Hes been in with her for several months and she's still a female... she's very large, too.. certainly big enough to be a male.
 
Bradley had one of his stay female for a while too. But she eventually turned. My lone female is large and fat! We'll see if she stays female...
 
I guess my point was that if I like this particular fish but a harem will ultimately be all male and aggresive towards each other, shouldn't I just get one? Wouldn't it end up being just one eventually?
 
Great thread. I hope my post can add to its value.

My question is to those who had 2 males. I've read this thread countless times, and it seems that one thing that sticks out is if 2 fully transitioned males are in a tank, they will tolerate each other's existence.

Is this still true? What type of aggression did you see between your 2 males? I finally took the plunge and picked up a male and 2 females yesterday (after researching bartlett's for 5+ years). They are in a 100g QT tank, and will go into a ~260 on 11/15.

At this moment, I'm thinking that maybe their social structure spans across more than just one harem. Maybe there needs to be the presence of another (rival?) male to keep the harem intact. Like packs of monkeys on nature shows, perhaps the chain of command is kept as the supermale(s) role is to protect the harem from other males.

The LFS i purchased these Bartlett's from has 4+ more males, all in the same tank, no aggression what so ever. They have been in the tank for 3 days. I'm considering buying one more male as a means of keeping the females from turning.

Am I asking for trouble? Does my test have merit?
 
Well, i noticed a yellow bar developing on one of the females. If it's truly changing sex, then i don't want to risk adding another male.

phooey.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11006913#post11006913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by opihi
Well, i noticed a yellow bar developing on one of the females. If it's truly changing sex, then i don't want to risk adding another male.

phooey.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd agree with that. From the ones I've seen, once that yellow bar forms, that's it.
 
opihi,

I have 3 males and 1 female Bartletts. The supermale tolerates one of the other males and only occassionaly takes a run at him but he regularly harasses the other male so that it hides alot. Previously, the male that now hides alot was second in command and didn't get that much harassment. The lone female so far has remained a female. I'm not sure how if this affects your theory but it is interesting how the subdominant males' roles have changed.

I've also noticed that my alpha male's colors are intense for a period of time and then less intense and then they become more intense again. He has still maintained his dominant position. Has anybody else noticed this?
 
Just finished reading this excellent thread! My 90g tank is cycling now and I'm planning the fish to go in it. I noticed a theme in this thread of having other aggressive species to keep bartletts in line, and also starting with a dominant male to keep female bartletts in line. Here's what I'm thinking of so far, I appreciate your thoughts:

pair of oscellaris clownfish - 1 month
blue tang
fridmani pseudochromis - tang and fridmani added at same time, 1 month
flame angel - 1 month
four bartlett anthias - one bigger male and 3 small females added at once
 
I bought 4 about 4 or 5 months ago, 3 of the 4 were female when they arrived and after about a month I had one female and 3 males. From what I have read that is normal, one of the group will remain female and the rest male...i think the change over took less than 3 or 4 weeks when the two females began to get the male coloration.

One fish jumped (right after I put screen covers, but it found a hole) and I replaced it 4 or 5 weeks ago...it was a female and I still have 2 males and 2 females.

They have been exhibiting some of what I think are mating behavior but both females remain. Hoping this continues, as from what I remember the change from female to male in the original group began well before a month had passed and possibly had completed the change by that time.
 
This thread is great. I held back on buying my group of Bartlett after reading about their aggression and sex morphing practice. Now waiting to see how dispar fair in terms of this.
KingKong, can we give us an update on your group of dispar? How are they doing? sex ratio? temperment with each other and other tankmates?
 
They all died except for one.

I think they had some kind of disease or parasite.

THe majority of them went frmo being out and eating, to hiding and not eating, over night. THey never restarted eating, and subsequently died.

The one that never exhibited this has been fine, and is a strong eater.
 
id consider if i could get a healthy group... they started eating almost immediately.. then just randomly stopped a month in... no clue...

like i said, the last one has been eating and behaving fine for months and months.
 
anthias

anthias

Really excellent thread and just in time. I am considering getting 7 or 9 bartlets in my 210 and I am re-thinking how I will do this. One thing I was thinking is maybe getting 2 or 3 males to begin with and then getting a bunch of females. Maybe just having one male initiates the changing response and if you already have more than one the females will not be as inclined to change. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
Well, I can say that I still have 4 out of 5 bartletts from my original . All of them males. Dont know what happened to the 5 th one, but each of them have their own territory in my tank. It's been about 18 months now.

100_6998.jpg
 
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