Lyretail Anthias: Ain’t That The Truth

[jlanger]

Well, after having mine for a couple of months (pics above), my male stopped eating and has gone into hiding.
This is not good.

Unfortunately, no.
I have had two males do the same thing; back-to-back, not at the same time. They lasted for a little while, but they refused to eat and spent their time hiding in the rocks. When they would venture out into the water column, his swimming was lethargic and erratic. Eventually they just wasted away.
Beautiful fish, though.

Now the third male lyretail that I lost was completely different.
Back story... I have only ever bought all of my lyretails as females. I enjoy watching the transition from female to male; and my kids found it to be very interesting to watch and talk about. I started with a trio of females in which the largest transitioned to a large and gorgeous male. When he passed (see above), the larger female transitioned immediately so I added another trio of females; 1 male to 4 females. After some time, the anthias began to spawn nightly in my tank for a couple of months until the male passed. The largest female (which was the most gravid and spawned regularly) started to transition. This freaked out the fish so that it never came out and cowered in the rocks. I could see the fish's body and colors changing, but the fish looked like it had no idea what was happening. For month's it had been a spawning female and now it's body was changing to the other sex. The fish never recovered and soon perished.
I wonder if the gender transition occurring with a fertile/actively spawning female completely messed this poor fish up.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Love these guys!

 

[Christopher Davis]

Got these guys yesterday!

 

[3mm3]

Love mine... the male is just gorgeous.

wow

 

[Kmsutows]

Got these guys yesterday!

Good luck with the male. Better off getting all females and let one change to male

 

[Christopher Davis]

Good luck with the male. Better off getting all females and let one change to male

Already been together for a while, no issues. They all grew up together.

 

[Juskr]

I added 4 lyretail anthias (1 male, 3 female) back in May and they are doing great 2 months later. The male spreads the aggression between the 3 females who are of similar size. These are my first anthias and was concerned about feeding based on what I had read. However, the 4 anthias began eating all foods ranging from flakes, frozen mysis, and pellets within a few days.

 

[Christopher Davis]

I added 4 lyretail anthias (1 male, 3 female) back in May and they are doing great 2 months later. The male spreads the aggression between the 3 females who are of similar size. These are my first anthias and was concerned about feeding based on what I had read. However, the 4 anthias began eating all foods ranging from flakes, frozen mysis, and pellets within a few days.

I have 2 females I’m wondering if I shouldn’t go back and grab the 3rd

 

[wowkingjames]

Interesting topic, following.....

 

[User1]

My experience with them is such that they added a splash of color, movement, and open water activity. However, it was short lived. As alluded to in an earlier post they go from eating anything that enters the water to hiding in the rocks and failing over time to due to starvation or some internal parasite. I'm still not sure what it is or causes the decline but I picked up 4 healthy Lyretails and they started to eat immediately. Pellet, flake, and frozen. It didn't matter what but they all ate and ate with gusto. I used an automatic feeder for 2 feedings a day with a 3rd by me usually some form of frozen. I'm lightly stalked with no aggressive fish. In any case what I started to noticed is that one becomes more dominate and bullies the others around. All female here. Anyway it would get the best spot in the water column or so it thought and would dart after or strike the others during feeding time. So it was over time it would eat more of the food while the others would only get scraps.

They remind me a lot like trout. If you have ever hunted trout (not like gun hunting, right? But I mean by examining the river or stream) you can see how they conserve energy by hanging around a tree log or rock(s) to conserve energy yet face the water movement and column to wait for food to pass by. Then dart out and strike it and back they go to the calmer spot. My Lyretail's reminded me a lot of that activity. Could be my tank wasn't as mature with coral, could be internal parasite, could be the bully keeping them from eating. But even the last one showed similar patterns with hiding in rocks, not eating, and before you know it - I'm at 0.

Great looking fish and one of my favorites. The color is really noticeable and their open water swimming is impressive. I'm just not sure I understand their husbandry requirements at the time.

 

[wiselyy73]

My anthias color aren’t as vibrant as you guys. Do you guys add any supplement in the food? Or just because you guys use LED with more color while mine are T5s.

 

[User1]

I have LED's but I don't think that was affecting their color. I was feeing Hikari A and S, New Life Spectrum, and some flake for which I forget who made. For frozen it was again Hikari brine and mysis cubes.

 

[ca1ore]

Although I'd not judge any pseudoanthias to be easy, what makes the Lyretail easier is it's willingness to accept pellet and flake food. Some other species will as well, just not so readily.

 

[David Mc]

I've had three females in my 240 gallon for about 6 months. They readily shoal with my blue green chromis.
There are no sign of a male transitioning although one is slightly more dominant than the others.

 

[davocean]

Good luck with the male. Better off getting all females and let one change to male

I actually prefer having a much larger dominant male, this prevents from another too close in size making a change and challenging that male

 

[davocean]

My anthias color aren’t as vibrant as you guys. Do you guys add any supplement in the food? Or just because you guys use LED with more color while mine are T5s.

Multiple daily feedings of a mixed diet, and lighting does help bring out color

 

[davocean]

I have 2 females I’m wondering if I shouldn’t go back and grab the 3rd

Yes, yes you should!

 

[davocean]

I've had three females in my 240 gallon for about 6 months. They readily shoal with my blue green chromis.
There are no sign of a male transitioning although one is slightly more dominant than the others.

Same here, I've had a number of tanks w/ both green chromis and anthia that shoaled together, no problems here long term on either.
Love the mix of colors!

You can see in these pics how they often traveled back and forth together into the flow of vorts from side to side

 

[Kmsutows]

I actually prefer having a much larger dominant male, this prevents from another too close in size making a change and challenging that male

True true. So long as you can pick out a nice big healthy male and all small females. I just find male anthias to be more finicky

 

[falconut]

I moved my single male, I've had for over 2 years, over from the 90 to a 180 and then added 2 small females. No real aggression, but there's plenty of other fish to pay attention to. They definitely add coloring.