Lyretail anthias behavior

[mskvarenina]

I just purchased 3 lyretail anthias today from my LFS. Two of them were smaller and quite orange. The 3rd was larger and more red in color.

The dealer made a statement that the bigger one was transitioning to a male.
The 2 orange ones are happily swimming around the tank and eating well, the third, bigger one is locked between some rocks. He looks at me and wiggles around now and them but he's not coming out to eat. He was like this in the store when I first looked at the tank.

Is it common for these fish to be shy and hide or play dead when they are transitioning from female to male?

 

[Shanet]

All normal, mine hid when first in QT. They will get better.

 

[m0nkie]

I have a red one. Hes very shy. Eats and hide.

After introducing my tang, its been hiding for 2 weeks. I can see him sitting on sandbed. Still havent came out

 

[markalot]

I just purchased 3 lyretail anthias today from my LFS. Two of them were smaller and quite orange. The 3rd was larger and more red in color.

The dealer made a statement that the bigger one was transitioning to a male.
The 2 orange ones are happily swimming around the tank and eating well, the third, bigger one is locked between some rocks. He looks at me and wiggles around now and them but he's not coming out to eat. He was like this in the store when I first looked at the tank.

Is it common for these fish to be shy and hide or play dead when they are transitioning from female to male?

My male has never been that shy, but it is normal for them to lay sideways and sleep under corals. My male also likes to hassle my cleaner shrimp for a cleaning.

Did you add these all at once? What are you using to control the ammonia spike that adding 3 fish will create? IS this a QT tank or your display tank? In either case I usually dose Seachem Prime (detoxes ammonia) for a few days after adding new fish to give time for the bacteria to catch up and prevent any added stress. The bigger the tank the less you need to be worried about this of course.

 

[mskvarenina]

Did you add these all at once? What are you using to control the ammonia spike that adding 3 fish will create? ... The bigger the tank the less you need to be worried about this of course.

It's a pretty big tank, these 3 little fish won't effect the biological.