Lyretail Anthias females - kiss-fighting

[Spar]

I picked up a male and two female lyretail anthias about a week ago. they are in a 10g QT for another 6 days, then will be going into a 20g QT for a couple more weeks before finally going in my 450g DT.

I am hoping this is just pecking order fighting, but worth checking just in case. the two females are constantly (at least when I am in the room...) fighting by locking mouths and wrestling. I see no damage on the fins or body (or even mouth for that matter) of either female. they eat and share food fine.

does this behavior seem fine?

and on the lyretail questions; i have never seen the male eat... he is very shy around me, but when I peak around the corner he is out with the ladies. he seems to be keeping up strength and weight fine. is this normal until the fish gets to know/trust the owner?

 

[ca1ore]

I don't keep Lyretails anymore, too prone to killing each other off, but when I did they'd do this all the time. A constant battle for pecking order. Things that I found that helped, in no particular order, were very high flow, heavy feeding and lots of active tank mates, with a few large fish.