Sexing Bartlett's anthias

solid14th

Member
How do you tell male from female Bartlett's anthias. My LFS got 3 in for me and they are all about 4" and look the same, I'm afraid they're all males.......
 
It can be tough some say that if there is a pink splodge or line appearing on the head of a yellow fish its started to turn male, I not convinced by this.
The front half of a male will be pink with the tail yellow and it will have a very pronounced sharp top lip.
(also present in females and juvis but not as pronounced)
I also think there are four different states they can be found in
Juvi, female, turning male/immature male and supemale.
This may help with some id Here is a pic of my old one,I think it was a female.
and a link to a good thread.
bartletts
113133IMG_0682-med.jpg
 
I agree with the above statements. If you want to be sure you get females, look for small individuals with yellow foreheads. Only a tiny pink stripe on the front edge to the leading dorsal spine should be visible.
Bartlettfemale.jpg


Of course, full blown males are pretty easy to ID....
Malebartlett3.jpg
 
Great, thanks for the info. I asked for small ones but they got larger ones in.

All 3 of them have pink on the head, but more yellow than in the last pic posted. So maybe they are turning male or are already males.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14979317#post14979317 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adtravels
I also think there are four different states they can be found in
Juvi, female, turning male/immature male and supemale.

I think this pretty much sums it up, with "turning male" really being a full dynamic range of color changes :)
 
So if the OP winds up with more than one male will some revert to female or just kill each other off? I ask because I think I have more than one male in my group of ten and there is some squabbling going on.

Ken
 
They can only go one direction. They can't revert. Sometimes they can live together, sometimes they can't. But they won't hang with each other.
 
I have a male, an almsot male, and a female, pretty easy to tell apart, if you can't then odds are you have males imo.

like stated above, very small pink strip on the forhead of the female, and much less, if any, pink on the body.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14980650#post14980650 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Aadler
I have a male, an almsot male, and a female,


Are they in the same tank? If so do they get along? I have a 120 DT I want to put a group into. So far I have seen no aggression but it is still early days...
 
I'll tell you how it went with me... I've had my group of 10 for about 3 months. Right in the tank they started chasing one. It's still alive but it lives in the rocks. They got along great after that for weeks. They would even group into a tight ball sometimes and every night 3 or 4 would break off and do this spawning dance kind of thing. A couple of days ago I noticed a lot of chasing going on. Now only 7 hang out together. Since they can't go back to female and I can't get them out I guess they will have to work it out amongst themselves but it doesn't look like more than 1 male can live happily together at least in my size tank. It is a 6' long 125.

Ken
 
Thanks Ken. I didn't think 2 males can get along. The 3 I have all look the same w/ pink patches on their heads. Looks like I'll have to get rid of 2 of them and then look around for 2 females.
 
I have 2 males and 4 females. The 2 males posture and occassionally do a little lock-jaw fighting, but neither ever gets hurt. They also pretty much split the tank in 1/2 for their territories.
 
Good to know, thanks Larry!

And thank you everyone that responded to my question and posted pics for me, I really, really appreciate it!!!!
 
here are my pair and they along fine...
she started turning male, but she has stayed in this phase for many months now
IMG_2458.jpg


IMG_2429.jpg
 
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