Anthias Male vs female size concerns?

Enderg60 · Oct 30, 2023

I have been hunting for some Fiji Lyretail anthias for a while and finally found some but the males are in the 3.5-4" range and the females are in the 2-2.5" range.

Im planning to get 4 males and 8 females in an effort to keep the males in full color mode.

I have concerns about the size difference between the males and female. Will the males be too aggressive with the smaller females? Will the females be too small to keep the males, well male?

Thanks

flashsmith · Oct 30, 2023

If you get 4 males it's not going to go very well. Three of them will end up dead. Only 1 male per harem. I went with 1 male and 3 females a couple years ago. I still have the male and 2 females. The larger females killed the smallest one after about a year. Shortly after I had a female start transitioning and now she/he's challenging the original male. My remaining female mostly tries to hide now. I've always heard with Anthias no matter how many you get you'll end up with one eventually. From what I've experienced it seems to be true. As far as size goes the females will eventually be aggressive toward the smaller ones. The male doesn't care about that. He's only interested in other males trying to take the harem and they'll fight till one is dead.

Enderg60 · Oct 31, 2023

Multiple males can be kept just fine in a large enough tank, with enough females present. This is how you end up with super males.

If someone tends to always "end up with one anthias" Thats not a person Id want advice from.

How many did you start with? How big is your tank?

nereefpat · Oct 31, 2023

Is this a really big tank?

With enough females, I suspect the males won't cause harm to them. I've seen a "pair" become a problem. I think the males will be more concerned with each other.

Conventional wisdom is to get them all as juveniles/females, and let them sort out the dominance and sex. So, a dozen females instead, in your case.

With that said, I'm not an expect anthias keeper. I'm curious to find out what others say.

flashsmith · Oct 31, 2023

Enderg60 said:
Multiple males can be kept just fine in a large enough tank, with enough females present. This is how you end up with super males.

If someone tends to always "end up with one anthias" Thats not a person Id want advice from.

How many did you start with? How big is your tank?

You know what they say about opinions right? And everybody has one...