Female lyretail anthia chasing / harassing male lyretail

[VintageReefer]

Hello, I ordered a male / female lyretail pair and they came happy and healthy. I expected the male to be the dominant one, but for some reason, it’s the female. Tank is 75g.

Everyday the female chases the male. A few times she’s forced him to stay low towards the sand bed under a shelf and if he came out she would chase him back under there.

The male shows no signs of aggression to the female or any other fish. The female is not a bully to anyone but the male

Anyone else ever experience this?

Just watching them as I type this, it’s happening again. Here are some shots taken all about a second apart. She went out of her way to chase him until he hid in my Duncan’s. A few min later he came out and she chased him more. When he’s down low towards the sand she usually doesn’t bother him and goes back to normal.

Definitely a dominance thing going on. They are equal size as far as I can tell but why is it the female and not the male being aggressive ?

 

[Miami Reef]

This is why it’s best practice to only get females and let the dominant one change.

I’m not sure if the dominance behavior will go away or not. I can ask @eatbreakfast for you since he’s not on this forum anymore.

 

[VintageReefer]

This is why it’s best practice to only get females and let the dominant one change.

I’m not sure if the dominance behavior will go away or not. I can ask @eatbreakfast for you since he’s not on this forum anymore.

I don’t know who that is but if they have knowledge or experience I would be thankful for it.

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t know who that is but if they have knowledge or experience I would be thankful for it.

He is extremely knowledgeable on fish behavior and cohabitation. I asked on your behalf.

 

[VintageReefer]

He is extremely knowledgeable on fish behavior and cohabitation. I asked on your behalf.

Wild caught, my vendor got them on 5/2
They were housed together in qt and moved into my tank 5/16/24

 

[IntrinsicReef]

Usually the male anthias of the group will keep the females "suppressed." But if a female has an opportunity to become dominant, she can harass a male into submission ( sometimes death), then transform into the male of the group. If there are two males in the group one will be a Alpha super male and the other a beta male, and they pick on each other and flare fins all day.

 

[IntrinsicReef]

Their little fighting dance makes for some great poses !

 

[crazyfishmom]

I had a little lyretail harem before my initial tank came down with ich and they succumbed. The male was super chill, one of the females was a little terror and she would torpedo against the other females and the male. It took just one moment of dominance by the male and she fell into line. Not sure if that will happen with yours but it was very interesting to watch. He’d obviously had enough and she wasn’t ready to take what he had to dish.

 

[flashsmith]

One male and multiple females in odd numbers. 3-5 etc.. It will take awhile but eventually one of the females will transition and challenge the dominant male. I got 2.5 years out of the last harem I purchased. They will eventually pick each other off over time. Either keep just one total or a harem of females with one big male as they are in the wild. They are beautiful fish in a reef tank but they come with baggage.

 

[Miami Reef]

@eatbreakfast responded back to me with some not-so-good-news.

This is what I said:

“A friend of mine got a male and female pair of lyretail anthias. They are roughly the same size, and the female is swooping and showing dominance toward the male. Will this behavior mellow out overtime?

Their tank is 75 gal

This is what the friend said

“Wild caught, my vendor got them on 5/2
They were housed together in qt and moved into my tank 5/16/24”


This was his response:

Probably not anytime soon. She is trying to establish dominance and is seeming to succeed. She will shortly be transitioning to male and one will likely kill the other.

 

[VintageReefer]

@eatbreakfast responded back to me with some not-so-good-news.

This is what I said:

“A friend of mine got a male and female pair of lyretail anthias. They are roughly the same size, and the female is swooping and showing dominance toward the male. Will this behavior mellow out overtime?

Their tank is 75 gal

This is what the friend said

“Wild caught, my vendor got them on 5/2
They were housed together in qt and moved into my tank 5/16/24”


This was his response:

Well that’s just great lol

I’ve noticed it’s not constant. But it’s a lot. And it happens when I’m up close to the tank. It could be she’s anticipating getting fed, and chasing him away. They are both aggressive eaters


If I’m distant I don’t see the chasing happening

 

[VintageReefer]

Just an update, the female has stopped chasing the male and they either coexist fine and swim together, ignore each other completely, or the male very very occasionally chases the female.

The female is noticably larger but this doesn’t seem to matter

 

[Miami Reef]

Just an update, the female has stopped chasing the male and they either coexist fine and swim together, ignore each other completely, or the male very very occasionally chases the female.

The female is noticably larger but this doesn’t seem to matter

That’s excellent! I’m really happy to hear this update.

 

[VintageReefer]

A turning point was I realized my male wasn’t eating. He would eat and spit out food. Mysis, flake, pellets, krill, and every frozen product I had.

I found out accidentally, while feeding coral, he was eating copepods and gobbling them up. I bought a bottle of refrigerated copepods to keep him fed. Turns out all my fish go crazy for them. Then I bought these orange frozen cubes of reef plankton. He eats that also.

I started mixing these both in with mysis and eventually he started eating mysis. Now he eats almost anything

Maybe he was not having his normal an natural personality because he was feeling weak from not eating. So the female stepped up. And now that he’s eating and more active and sliiiiightly aggressive/dominant, she’s backed down?

I don’t know the logic behind it. Just a guess. But the change was definitly noticeable about a week after I got him to start eating. It’s been over two weeks and no aggression from the female…as this used to be almost constantly, all day every day

 

[VintageReefer]

Months later this is the pair, the former female flashes the spine but they don’t chase or fight. A lot of time they are together and sometimes they are apart but the aggression period that started this post is over