Lyretail Anthias: Two males?!

[iced98lx]

She/He [old male] had some significant coloration changes and the fin spots already, but has basically landed on "Gold" now with all coloration really turning bland. appears submissive to the new male and they are together with the other girls a lot. I don't know of any "SubMale" type phase but it's feasible I guess she was interrupted in her change and now isn't going to complete the switchover. The new male gets prettier by the day.

 

[iced98lx]

For anyone who may run into the same situation, this group is still together (and doing well). The old male became what appears to be a sub-male (not full female but certainly female coloration vs male) and the dominate male lets him hang with the females in a group.

 

[davocean]

We have pretty much the exact same thing going on, one of my females was just too big at purchase and has now turned, pretty much exactly the color of your new male.
Mine were sold to me as South African species, different than my fiji male who was all purple, and now also a dusty rose color, and suddenly very passive and actually tries to hang w/ the new male.
Last time this happened they seemed to coexist, then one day, nearly a year later, the old male simply vanished, I fear that may be the outcome here again.

 

[iced98lx]

Interesting! I keep watching and waiting for aggression of any kind. So far it actually appears the sub-male (I have absolutely no clue if that's even a thing in Anthias but I'm using that terminology vs old/new male) actually gets less aggression than the females from the male. I do have 2 other Lyretail females as well as 3 other types of anthias (ignitus/dispar/carberryi) so perhaps there is enough places to spread the love.

 

[iced98lx]

I'll try to get photos of the male/submale/female to compare as well.