Who wears the pants between my Lyretail anthias?

[platax88]

Hello,

I started out with a trio. One was certainly a male with bold colors andd markings. Over the year I was left with the male and one of the females.

The males colors have definately faded although he still has the spots on the pect fins, but is now more of a murky orange. The female did the opposite, instead of remaining bright orange, she shifted to be darker.

So what do you think is going on here? Is my male reverting or not displaying its best color because there are no other females other than one who may actually be a sub-male?

What do you think would happen If I add 3 new females. I would hope that the pecking order would be rest, my male would morph back to it's bold colors and the submale will revert to dominant female?

Thoughts?

 

[falconut]

I believe it's common for anthias to fade in captivity. My original single male lyretail anthias had his colors fade a little from what I recall. And the 2 females I recently had definetly went from a bright orangish color to a lighter pinkish orange color. The one female did change to a duller male. Growth the spike and all, just not the bright purple-red coloration.

 

[platax88]

I believe it's common for anthias to fade in captivity. My original single male lyretail anthias had his colors fade a little from what I recall. And the 2 females I recently had definetly went from a bright orangish color to a lighter pinkish orange color. The one female did change to a duller male. Growth the spike and all, just not the bright purple-red coloration.

Yah, that exactly explains what I'm seeing here.

That sux, i thought that Lyretails where one of the few that dont change. I was hoping he was just wanting more ladies.

anyone else?