male to female anthias

[pheromo]

can male anthias turn back to females??

 

[Reefnub]

Yes

 

[pheromo]

under any conditions .. i can by five mail lyre tails and they will resex themselves?

 

[albano]

under any conditions .. i can by five mail lyre tails and they will resex themselves?

better chance of 5 males killing each other

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

as far as I know... no they do not change back. buying 5 males would be a disaster

 

[Reefing Newbie]

I don't believe they can go back to being female. I could be wrong, but I don't think they can.

You would want to buy all females and the dominant one will turn male. This is the easiest way to form a harem of anthias. Males will fight each other if they are not housed in a very large tank.

 

[albano]

not sure about anthias, but I had a F Bellus angel, that turned male, was 'bullied' by another Genicanthus angel (Lamarck), reverted back to female...months later I removed the Lamarck, and the Bellus turned male again! ...all within 18 months
2 different M Zebra angels reverted back to F...so I may have to remove the Bellus to get a M Zebra again!

 

[Reefnub]

Disregard what I said, I was under the impression of them changing back from male to female because there were hermaphrodite. My apology for misleading information. :headwally:

 

[MIKE NY]

it's highly unlikely that a male will turn back..most likely, as mentioned, one will become dominant and eventually kill off the others by not allowing the others to feed or from injuries unless it's a very large tank, but this also depends on the species of anthias because some are more aggressive than others. If the others are not in full male coloration most likely they will remain as sub-males until the dominant male is gone.....I have Lyretails and Bartletts, which are both aggressive species, that have remained in the sub-male stage....they have the longer fins and dorsel spikes, but are remaining in the female coloration.
Hey Alfie how places are you living in..LOL .....feel better my friend and hope to see you at NERAC.

 

[Mark 75g]

I think they can change back to female. Just bought one male and 3 female. I had a female that was in the tank for a year. The male was red when I bought him. With a 2 week time period he has changed to orange. He has lost all male color.

 

[klepto]

Yes, they most certainly can swtich back to female.

I had this happen with a Maldives male lyretail (P. squamipinnis). I lost the female I purchased with him, and he gradually lost the vibrant red color and transitioned back to the bright orange that the females exhibit. I think this was due to the fact that he was the only anthias in the tank and had no females to dominate. Not only did his color shift back, but after roughly a year the fish lost it's elongated dorsal spine.

Now the fish is in a much larger display. Some new lyretails were added in the hopes that he will revert back to male. The dorsal spine is growing back, but is far away from how it used to be.

As others have said, buying a bunch of males would be a terrible idea. That would most likely lead to way too much competition and stress.

 

[Reefnub]

I had 3 male Bartletts in my tank but none of them changed back female. They were originally all females and over time became all males. They all had male physics but one of them had female coloration but still had the bar in the middle and dorsal on his head. I'm removing them soon because there's a lot of aggression between them. Going to get 2 more females again and see it it changes anything. Also I have 3 Lyretail, 1 is a full male, 1 is a sub male, and one is a female. The 2 males show a lot of aggression too, I haven't seen males go back to female yet. Maybe it's more difficult going M-F than F-M.

 

[Soccernut5824]

If I but 4 female Maldives. How long befor one turns male and will it have the same exact color and behavior of a male if I would have bought a male?

 

[albano]

If I but 4 female Maldives. How long befor one turns male and will it have the same exact color and behavior of a male if I would have bought a male?

they all start out female, doesn't matter if they change to male in the ocean or in your tank...it's still a 'real' male

 

[29reef]

Some wild males have better coloration than "tank grown" males. However, once they are in the tank there's many variables that may cause them to loose some of that nice wild male coloration.