The Tale of 5 Lyretails (Pseudanthias squamipinnis)

[Tub Life]

LFS had a bunch of vibrant, active female Lyretails (Sea Goldies/Pseudanthias squamipinnis).
After a quick inspection of the bunch they looked quite healthy so I decided to get 5 of them and let them grow into their own heirarchy.

I jokingly told the guy netting them, that any of them would be OK except for the one with the beat up tail, ( jokingly because I thought that should be understood without being said).

Low and behold I get them home and I have purchased a $35 saltwater swordtail. lol

Upon closer inspection, which i should have done in-store:
There were actually 3 distinct sizes of fish.
1 x Larger
2 x Medium
2 x Smaller

The larger, I will call the male. Broader, more blunt tail. Longer 1st dorsal spine. Definitely in charge.

The 2 mediums, I will call them sub-males. 1st dorsal spine emerging.

The 2 smalls, I will call them the females.

 

[Tub Life]

The Male.

Obvious long dorsal spine.

Broader tail.
Also just started changing colors! Getting dark spots on rear of dorsal and pelvic fins!

 

[Tub Life]

Sub-males...
Both these guys have already been through some shizz...

Sub-male #1
This guy suffered trauma to the eye, leading to pop eye.
gas bubble also formed, changing sizes over a few days.
got really huuuge! like one of those fancy goldfish, just a giant eye and gas bubble dangling on its head.
bubble must have burst/punctured and the eye ball was seated in socket again, but visually damaged. I think the eye ball will drop soon.
otherwise healthy, still active and still has a great appetite.

although burry, you can see it's eyeball is damaged, turning white.

sub-male #2
the male was being aggressive and I actually saw the male grab this guy's pectoral fin in his jaws and try to do a crocodile death roll.
fish looks to have a broken pectoral fin now.

 

[Tub Life]

The 2 smaller females.

The one with the missing tail, quickly regrew without incident. It just does not grow back the extended 1st and last rays of the tail. Similar to the male. The other female and the 2 sub-males have the little extension on their tails 1st and last rays.

No longer looking like a freshwater swordtail lol.

other female.

 

[skey44]

I love me an Anthias harem! I tell visitors she’s a goldfish lol. Even named her Goldie. And it was an interesting topic of conversation explaining to my 6yo daughter that fish can change sex naturally and all the other associated convos including how we might have to change the name. Protogynous hermaphrodites I only have one so far but plan to add more as I go.

 

[Tub Life]

I love me an Anthias harem! I tell visitors she’s a goldfish lol. Even named her Goldie. And it was an interesting topic of conversation explaining to my 6yo daughter that fish can change sex naturally and all the other associated convos including how we might have to change the name. Protogynous hermaphrodites I only have one so far but plan to add more as I go.

If it becomes a male, please name it "Goldmember"!

Yep, hoping this small harem of lyretails works out.
Next is to find a harem of dispars to join my solo dispar.

 

[skey44]

Will consider the name, probably lead to more 6yo uncomfortable daughter questions. Following to see how your group does!

 

[Tub Life]

I guess 6 is too young for

 

[Tub Life]

Update: July 24th 2024
(Acquired all 5 June 29th)

Male is showing more color change.
Darker spots now appearing on pectoral fins.

sub-males:

Eye ball dropped.

Pectoral area looks inflammed. Still no movement of that fin.

 

[Tub Life]

Broken arm gal, died.
Area was quite inflammed and possibly infected. Was found dead on the bottom of tank today.

Circle of life.

 

[skey44]

Bummer.

 

[Tub Life]

Yah, crappy.

FWIW the male and 2 females look solid. The one-eyed submale looks like he's gonna be OK too.

In retrospect, I feel like If I was more diligent in picking the lyretails out from the LFS that I may still have all 5.
Making sure to pick out smaller specimens all of the same size. With zero signs of longer dorsal spines.

Pretty sure all the issues with my group were due to aggression, due to already having larger specimens that were transitioning. The key would be to have all juvenile (non-transitioning) females and let them grow into and establish their hierarchy.

They are eating well on a variety of frozen foods Have not seen them eat dry foods, flakes or pellets.

 

[skey44]

My solo sub male is feasting on size small tdo pellets. Just a little fyi. No idea how I’m gonna introduce more girls now that she’s gotten so dom in QT and just released her into display.

 

[skey44]

Also not to steal your thunder but my next QT adventure is in firefish… I bought three different ones today

 

[Tub Life]

My solo sub male is feasting on size small tdo pellets. Just a little fyi. No idea how I’m gonna introduce more girls now that she’s gotten so dom in QT and just released her into display.

Nice, I will try those pellets too then!

Yah, with time spent in QT is tough cuz they may have time to form heirarchy too. I'd go with several considerably smaller lyretails, that way even if they are in QT long enough to form heirarchy, hopefully none will transition to male. Or even if one starts to, it will be smaller so when they join the lone male in the display the disparity will be great enough that there wont be too much aggression. Hope that makes sense?

 

[Tub Life]

Nice firefish!
They are such elegant looking fish, and their colors are so pretty too!

 

[Tcook]

I bought two sets of three lyretail. One set had a male. One set I QT’d and other set from TSM. Added them to dt together and all the preformed aggression was then mixed up. They did well for 2 years until I stupidly added sn incompletely qt’d CBB and they all died.

I now am going to trythis group of 3 bartlets but need to aquire another 3 or 3 lyretail. They love a mix of frozen eggs and PE calanus

 

[Tub Life]

Too bad about the lyretails. They looked spectacular!

The bartletts look like a great addition!

 

[slingfox]

Also not to steal your thunder but my next QT adventure is in firefish… I bought three different ones today

Really clean looking QT setup. Can you should pictures of your setup and equipment?

 

[skey44]

Thanks, I have one of the aqueon kits from Petco. 29ga. I added a sicce shark internal filter, replaced the original filter with a seachem 55 (in retrospect this was not a huge upgrade imo, should have saved my money), and a tunze nanostream. Assorted pvc pipes, and plastic plants for hiding places. Did my best to make sure the plants I got were deemed appropriate for marine use. Bare bottom. Cycled with shrimp. I’ve been doing various water changes and cleanings of the plants and pipes. Sometimes I change a volume of water and sometimes I just suck out the poop on a weekly basis.
Just did a 10ga WC and cleaned the decorations in tap water right before the new additions.
It’s in my living room and the fish have to stay there for a while so I did my best to make it look ok and be inhabitable by the fish. The fire fish were all out together for the first time today