Taking the anthias plunge, a few questions

[Kahuna Tuna]

So I am buying a small group of female Maldives Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis), after much research I decided this species and variant was the one I wanted and should have success with. I had a few questions for the anthias keepers and especially the lyretail keepers out there.

I purchased seven females and they will eventually go into my 180 standard display but will start out in my 60 gallon QT/fuge to get them feeding and acclimated, does anyone see any problems with this?

If more than one starts to turn male will I have to remove one of the males and how long should it take for one of the females to transform in a small group like this?

I am purchasing an auto feeder and hope to gey them weaned onto pellets or some other prepared foods, any suggestions? TIA

 

[SDguy]

IME, as long as you only get small, juvi females, then if more than one turns male, it's because you have enough room. I have them in a 150, and never had even an inkling of a second male, though. The thing is, when you order online (if that's what you are doing) you really don't have the benefit of weeding through dozens of them to find the ones with absolutely no dorsal spike (probably the easiest way to ID potentially suspect "females"... so, yes, at the end of the day, you may end up with conflicts.

My original male turned from female in a matter of months. My current "male" has remained orange. No idea why the difference.

IME lyretails will eventually eat pellets, and can go off one or two feedings a day once established without issue. I've heard nothing but great things about Eheim autofeeders, other than the way they mount.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Thanks Peter, I was hoping you would reply. I did order from LA so who knows if they will truly all be females. Do you think two males could co-exist in a 6 foot 180 gallon tank? Thanks again.

 

[SDguy]

I have no personal experience with multiple male lyretails, so I can't really answer that.

 

[fishnerd]

I had a pair in one tank and when the male died, I transferred the lone female to another trio of existing lyretails. The lone female was bigger than the male in the trio and was more dominate than the male so she turned male and they fought constantly. It was about 48hours after the from the time of transfer of the lone female from one tank to another so I dont think it would have transformed that quickly.

I too bought a group of 10 from LA yesterday hopefully they will all be female

Bryan

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

I'm expecting a good strong group, the price was really good and you cant beat LA's service. I do have a 60 gallon fuge if I have to seperate fish but I'm hoping for all females too.

 

[davocean]

I think I can shed some good light here since I did very much what you plan to do.
I got mine online as well, one male, 4 females, and they started out in my 67g solana.
No issues w/ that small space at all.
I transfered them to my now 150g 5x2x2 and all is well, but one of the females has either made the change or somehwere in between, not sure how that goes exactly, but it definitely has a dorsal spike, but it is still orange like the females rather than the purple of the main original male.
The original male does seem to chase it a little, and the sub male does seem to chase the females, sometimes the original male seems ticky when it does this and that will initiate the sub being chased a little.
No harm is done, and it's not anywhere near excessive.
Mine do eat pellets, but they definitely prefer mysis.
I usually do about 3 feedings in the evening, sometimes a pellet feeding daytime on the weekends.
I think it's hard to go wrong w/ them, and they keep great color, as opposed to my carryberri's, which have become more pale, but still pretty.

 

[xxtriggermanxx]

i have four lyretails in my 265 . two female , one female with a mullet, and one full Male. put the sub male in thinking it was a hutchi ..... don't ask me how ? anyway, I've had no real issues to speak of ... they are fed frozen at least once a day and flake when i think about it.... very easy fish to take care of.... enjoy them

 

[fishnerd]

Got my 10 in, 1 doa 2 full males 2 sub males 5 females. Fingers crossed :/

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Got my 7 in today, great looking fish and all but two look female. The biggest one is dominant and had a pretty good sized spike, the other I'm not sure about. Haven't seen any aggression yet and it looked like all of them ate.

 

[sanchoy]

I had 8 Lyretails in the beginning. 1 male and 7 females when ordered. HOWEVER, when i received the crew a so called female was already in the the phase of transforming. The female was much larger then the formed male. So the fight was on. The shemale eventually formed into the full fledged warrior within 1 month.. the battles continued, until the smaller male lost one eye.. They were in my 250 so there was plenty of space for them to move around. I observed there was fighting amongst the females as well. Over they years 4 females died due to in-fighting. Lyretails establish a pecking order, and will go after the weakest link. The dominant shemale turned male eventually killed the other male. Now i only have 3 Lyretails after 4 years.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

I've already done the chromis thing so I know what its like to watch a group of fish deplete its numbers, hoping these fish get along. They sure are beautiful and make an amazing sight when they are swimming around together.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

So far so good, they came in with a few frayed fins but they seem to be healing and I dont see any new damage or aggression. Looks like I have one fish with a spike and the rest look like females and spike seems to be the "boss" of the group. I hope I got lucky.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

Lost one today, the others are doing well. Not sure what happened but one fish was only out infrequently while the other six were always poking about and I think it was the one who often hid that died.

They are feeding better with each feeding (I have tried mysis, fortified brine, NLS pellets) and they like the mysis best. Anything else I should try to feed them? Fresh seafood?

 

[SDguy]

Minced shrimp and scallop from the grocery store (grated on a cheese grater while still frozen) is alwaysa favorite with my anthias.

 

[fishnerd]

Out of the 9 after the DOA only lost one submale, the 8 have found teir pecking order.
Now I wish LA/DD would put the caryberri's on sale again

Bryan