Male or female lyretail anthias first?

[Fish Ed]

Is it possible for me to get a male anthias first and then add a couple of female later or should I add them all at once? Or female first?

Someone tell me which one should I add first?? Male, female, both at the same time?

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Every description of Anthias I read online said to put all at the same time or females first. I don't have first hand experience of keeping a harem of Anthias so can't be of more help.

 

[Lord_Spice]

Buy all females one will turn into a male.

 

[Shanet]

I put mine in at the same time, had no trouble. The females are more dominant than the males, well mine are at least.

 

[Fish Ed]

There's a male for sale but no females at the moment, so I'm wondering if I should get the male first? Well I could always put in the quarantine/holding tank until I find a couple of females and introduce all at once in the main tank. Would this method work?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Buy all females one will turn into a male.

This is the method I would recomend with squamipinnis anthias.

 

[mbauma]

I have a 3 fish Lyretail harem that I got from DD. They were fine in QT, but now one of the females seems to get harassed and looks like she has some scales missing. Not sure if it's from being chased around though.

She was hooked up with my cleaner shrimp the other day.

 

[falconut]

If you're going to add separately, probably adding the male first, then females later would be best (but you'd have to hope that none of the females were changing). I would think adding the females first, then adding a male later would be an issue. One of the females might start the change before you add the male. But, adding all together would probably be the safest bet. Good luck.

 

[Moort82]

Wait for all females and let the dominant one change. That sometimes means they are less aggressive to each other than a male who normally looks after a huge harem.

 

[anbosu]

Add all females then wait for one to change

 

[ca1ore]

I concur with the majority sentiment. With all anthias species, I always add females and wait for the dominant one to turn. Sometimes happens quickly; sometimes not.