Lyretail Anthias: Two males?!

iced98lx

iced98lx

New member
Hi all, I've had a selection of Anthias in my tank for a while now, including:

3x Female Lyretail Anthias
1x Male Lyretail
1x female Carberryi
1x female ignitus

the biggest female of the lyretails (roughly the same size as the male) has started showing darkened dorsal fine and rectal fins, as well as a darkening of her head. She appeared to be female when she arrived. The two are currently co-existing peacefully (outside of the typical anthias chasing) but I assume that if she is really turning male this won't end well and I'll need to pull one or the other out.

Crappy Potato Pics:

Front fish is the "new male" or larger female, behind to the right is the current male:



"new Male" center frame:



"new male" center frame:



Any scenario where I don't have to pull one or the other out? I don't want to wait until they get bullied into submission.
 
Looks like you either have 2 males, or 1 male and a female turning into a male. Male anthias normally harass the females to keep them from turning, but if the transformation is already underway, they are likely to continue to spar with eachother...
 
Actually looks like two sub males. Neither looks fully male even though the one is far more turned than the other.

My male and females do that though too... Lyretails are mean to each other.

Bartletts are worse and most females will change males. You do not see that too often in lyretails where there is more than one male but it does happen. How long have you had them? Maybe one was changing already when you bought it? It odd anyways.

Are the others ignitus? They look a little thin, ignitus require lots of feedings.
 
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I'm not overly concerned about the chasing, anthias chase, that's how they keep dominance, I understand this, I'm just under the impression that if both are male (or turning or what have you) I will absolutely need to get rid of one, though for now they seem to be spreading the dominance mostly among the females with nothing that gives me concern, certainly no ripped fins or other negative outcomes from what I see as totally normal chasing.
 
David - the skinniest are the two smaller lyretails, though they've started putting weight on. The single female ignitus is up in weight considerably over when she arrived, as is the carberryi. They get fed pellets three times a day and LRS Reef Frenzy (which they all eat) once a day. The feeding setup was originally for a group of Princess Anthias who had a parasite problem that I could not cure prior to losing them all.
 
Tagging along. Same situation - started with 4 female and 1 male lyretail in August and now have 2 males and 3 females. Does not seem to be any undue aggression although the original male tends to be a loner now. They are in a 280 so perhaps tank size dilutes aggression?
 
I had a sub male that stayed that way almost a year and then completed.
Like Droth, they did not really fight but the original male became a loner, and this lasted not quite a year when that original male just vanished, I'm sure either chased out or kept from feeding or something.
usually it's just a matter of time before you have just one male again.
 
davocean said:
I had a sub male that stayed that way almost a year and then completed.
Like Droth, they did not really fight but the original male became a loner, and this lasted not quite a year when that original male just vanished, I'm sure either chased out or kept from feeding or something.
usually it's just a matter of time before you have just one male again.
Click to expand...

That is why allot the recommend one lyretail in anything but a large tank with lots of females to disperse the aggression.. Like I said bartletts are worse for this. They all become male allot of the time but they do not seem as aggressive as lyretails.

My male anthias is now after my ignitus. I believe it is a phase he is going through while he is growing/changing and has become more aggressive. My male Ignitus was twice the size of lyretail but not no more. My male lyretail was kept in check by my male ignitus but as they become closer in size the lyretail has been going after the ignitus and now the male. Ignitus are not very aggressive at all. I even had a sub male ignitus and there was little aggression between the males. The sub did get closer in size the male ignitus did get more aggressive but still not much.. My male lyretail went after the sub though and last night found him dead.

Anthias can be a hardy fish once eating but they are one of the most sensitive fish to stress and it dont take much to kill them or put them into shock.
 
In my situation in that particular tank and that group of anthias(Not my present grouping) I had bought a male and 4-5 females shipped from LA.
I think either the male was just not aggressive enough or maybe the group of females were too big and maybe one was already beginning transformation.
After this incident everything was fine.
This was in a 150g
 
The "New" male is turning pretty quickly and is taking more control of the ladies, though the old male isn't getting beat on much he isn't keeping as close to the females.

I'll have to get the other camera out and see if I can get some good photos of the transition.
 
If it were my tank I'd just pull that old male that isn't taking charge and rehome it somehow, it's days are numbered in your tank w/ this present change of command.
 
davocean said:
If it were my tank I'd just pull that old male that isn't taking charge and rehome it somehow, it's days are numbered in your tank w/ this present change of command.
Click to expand...

That is my exact thought. Just need to figure out how to trap him now, any suggestions? He's pretty skiddish and has plenty of rockwork to hide in.
 
That's a tough one, normally I'd say drain your tank into brutes and refill after catching but I know how they hide in rockwork.
Maybe you can do that
 
I'm going to try baiting my acclimation box (I've got a big one from reef gently) and see if I can get him in there..
 
If you ever go scuba diving and you see anthias there's like 100+ females and juveniles and one male so I'm sure in a tank there could be issues I honestly steer clear of anthias because of this they just randomly turn male sometimes two or three at a time

Your best bet to not get them to switch is to get a already turned male and a group of small females that way he will always assert his dominance and repress the group
 
Well my "new" male has transitioned further than the "old" Male now, oddly they are currently inseparable. The old male has lightened up, no black/purple anywhere on him, almost a deep rose gold. Odd color, but seems to keep the new male at bay for the time being.

No luck catching him yet. Caught the clowns, the hogfish over and over, all three wrasses and the copperband- even my shrimp once, but no anthias.

The quest to catch continues.
 
New male update:

IMG_2700_zpsqmx7rs4b.jpg


Old male:

IMG_2703_zpsfa3qzr4n.jpg
 
Seeing as how you work from home and keep an eye on the tank I would leave the former male in unless you start to see aggresion. I could be you have one that moved to dominate female but never made the full leap to male. If everyone is eating and just the normal chasing then I would call it good to go.

Of my 3 the dominate one has started the move to male. Has the dorsal spike but little else at this point. The LFS guy was funny when I wanted the obvious dominate one in their tanks and 2 of the submissive ones. Made the transition all but assured and there was no fighting. (fingers crossed)
 
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