So I picked up a trio of lyertails (one mail/2 females) and the male is a complete jerk. I know he is used to huge harems in the wild, but you would figure he would be a bit nicer to the only ladies he now comes across. He already intimidated one of the females to death and the other one spends most of her time hiding from him in the rock work. Any ideas on how to get them to play nice?
Lyertail anthias; I thought you guys were supposed to get along
- Thread starter benjc
- Start date
nonimmigrant
New member
Not terribly uncommon unfortunately. They can be nasty buggers...
Exactly. The reason that larger tanks are recommended for more than single anthias is this.
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Sure, all the above posts point out the #1 rule about keeping more than one anthias. Read what LA says about them:http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+20+54&pcatid=54
gweston
New member
I'm planning to get a group of 4 or 5 anthias myself (bartletts or carberryi are my faves at the moment), but they will go into a 125gal long.
You could opt to just keep one, but I think a pair would be destined to become two males and duke it out. Three might work out, but add another fish or more, and chances of success improve. Ultimately space and distribution of aggression is key.
There may also be so-called tricks to introducing them to hopefully improve success. As to how effective it really is, it may be anecdotal evidence rather than anything actually proven.
I recently tried to pair up two melanurus wrasses and had no luck. One was an obvious male (but young), the other was a juvi female. In a matter of days in the 125gal tank, the 'female' started taking on a male attitude, and even started changing to male colors I had to separate them due to the war that broke out... so now I have one in each of my displays. Going into that though, I knew of that possibility and was ok with that end result. Though it sure was disappointing.
The cool thing though.. the former 'female' of the two is now displaying even though it is the only wrasse in the tank. I come home to it doing it's dance most evenings. Its pretty cool.
Sorry for digressing there
Keep thing is mind though, one persons experience isn't necessarily going to be the same as someone else. Fish will be fish.
You could opt to just keep one, but I think a pair would be destined to become two males and duke it out. Three might work out, but add another fish or more, and chances of success improve. Ultimately space and distribution of aggression is key.
There may also be so-called tricks to introducing them to hopefully improve success. As to how effective it really is, it may be anecdotal evidence rather than anything actually proven.
I recently tried to pair up two melanurus wrasses and had no luck. One was an obvious male (but young), the other was a juvi female. In a matter of days in the 125gal tank, the 'female' started taking on a male attitude, and even started changing to male colors I had to separate them due to the war that broke out... so now I have one in each of my displays. Going into that though, I knew of that possibility and was ok with that end result. Though it sure was disappointing.
The cool thing though.. the former 'female' of the two is now displaying even though it is the only wrasse in the tank. I come home to it doing it's dance most evenings. Its pretty cool.
Sorry for digressing there
Keep thing is mind though, one persons experience isn't necessarily going to be the same as someone else. Fish will be fish.
LinkinReef
Member
I had a trio in my old 210g and the male was still and jerk. They are very territorial/aggressive. At least in my experience. Next time I'll go with some dispar or ignitus instead.
coralreefnc
New member
i have male lyetail male-female on 220 g i bought midas bleeny, and lyetail kill him.
MrTuskfish
Team RC
This thread is so typical of all the questions in our hobby that just don't have an answer just opinions and experiences. We keep living creatures with tiny brains and never can be sure what will happen. Personally, I love this aspect of our addiction----you pays your monies and you takes your chances.
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Could be; but i think its a classic "its the individual fish" thing. All members of any species don't behave the same way. With most species, all we can really go on is what a fish is most likely to do. And, there are exceptions to everything.
That's true for my cats, so it makes sense it would be true for my fish too.
As for my lyretails, as SDguy suggested, I started with three females of three different sizes (larger, medium, small). There was a bit of agression between the two larger ones when they first went into my 20g QT, but nothing since they've been in my DT. They don't bother the other fish either.
