Adding more anthias to one existing lyretail

[zwalter38]

So a while back I got 3 female and a male lyretail anthias. 1 female didn’t make it through QT, one died a few days later after QT. And then the single female and male were fine together for about a month and then the female just harassed the male and before I realized it was too late. Now lo and behold I’m left with a single female. What would be the best way to go about reestablishing a group? Just get a few more females and let one change to a male once they establish a pecking order? Or get two or so more females and a male?

 

[mfinn]

I would get small females to add. Chances are less of any smalls starting to turn male.
That female that's left may have already started to turn male since it was aggressive

 

[zwalter38]

I would get small females to add. Chances are less of any smalls starting to turn male.
That female that's left may have already started to turn male since it was aggressive

That makes sense kind of what I was thinking. I’m just worried about the existing anthias being so aggressive that it kills the new additions.

 

[mfinn]

That makes sense kind of what I was thinking. I’m just worried about the existing anthias being so aggressive that it kills the new additions.

In my limited experience, I've found adding multiples of fish helps defuses the possible aggression.
Fish are going to squabble. Competition for food, living space and dominance is built in.

 

[Seansea]

Did u ever do this? How did it work out? I have a 2 year old lyretail that i woukd like to add more with. Its pretty big for anthias

 

[zwalter38]

I actually never got around to doing it. I found that I like Bimac anthias a lot better then lyretail so I’m switching to them instead of the lyretail. I will most likely take out the lone female lyretail once I am able to get a trio of Bimacs to survive quarantine. I got a group of 5 and they all had internal parasites and died

 

[Seansea]

Oh man. Sorry to hear that.