Anthias agression?

[Speaker]

I had five lyretail anthias. One male and four females. One of the females died a few days ago. I found her beat up in the rockwork. I placed her in my acclimation box and she died a few hours later. Today I have noticed two out of the three females do not want to come out of their hiding spots in the rockwork to eat or swim. One looks like it's tail is messed up and the other looks fine. Could the male or other female be causing issues with the other two? Would the best solution be to catch the two that I think are the problem and put them in the acclimation box, or do I need to add more lyretails to spread out the agression? I also have a bristle tooth, yellow, and blonde naso tang. A melanarus wrasse, midas blenny, pyramid butterfly, royal gramma, small percula clown, and a pink spot goby. Have not noticed any agression with these other fish. Most of the fish have been in the tank together since April. Newest addition was the pyramid at the beggining of August. Tank is 6ft x 2ft x 2ft mixed reef.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Makes can be aggressive
Assure its aggression and not water quality related such as
Ammonia
Ph
Low salinity
High temperature
High nitrates

They need to eat a few times daily
Is their skin/body clear- no rash?

 

[i cant think]

I had five lyretail anthias. One male and four females. One of the females died a few days ago. I found her beat up in the rockwork. I placed her in my acclimation box and she died a few hours later. Today I have noticed two out of the three females do not want to come out of their hiding spots in the rockwork to eat or swim. One looks like it's tail is messed up and the other looks fine. Could the male or other female be causing issues with the other two? Would the best solution be to catch the two that I think are the problem and put them in the acclimation box, or do I need to add more lyretails to spread out the agression? I also have a bristle tooth, yellow, and blonde naso tang. A melanarus wrasse, midas blenny, pyramid butterfly, royal gramma, small percula clown, and a pink spot goby. Have not noticed any agression with these other fish. Most of the fish have been in the tank together since April. Newest addition was the pyramid at the beggining of August. Tank is 6ft x 2ft x 2ft mixed reef.

Anthias tend to whittle it down from a group of 5 to 1 or 2 unless the starting group was a double digit and high number. As said above check water parameters however, if the other two are now staying in a cave then I would say that’s the male being dominant. IMHO we don’t have enough room in our tanks for these fish because in the wild they form harems of 10-20+ And in harems of 5-6 they tend to kill eachother off one by one.

 

[Speaker]

Anthias tend to whittle it down from a group of 5 to 1 or 2 unless the starting group was a double digit and high number. As said above check water parameters however, if the other two are now staying in a cave then I would say that’s the male being dominant. IMHO we don’t have enough room in our tanks for these fish because in the wild they form harems of 10-20+ And in harems of 5-6 they tend to kill eachother off one by one.

Would have been nice to know ahead of time. So much for a peaceful reef fish. Thank you.

 

[Speaker]

Makes can be aggressive
Assure its aggression and not water quality related such as
Ammonia
Ph
Low salinity
High temperature
High nitrates

They need to eat a few times daily
Is their skin/body clear- no rash?

No rash. Ammonia is 0. Salinty is 1.025. Temp is 78F. Nitrates are 13ppm. I don't test pH. All my fish have been qt as well.

 

[i cant think]

Would have been nice to know ahead of time. So much for a peaceful reef fish. Thank you.

Just a male/female pair could work but I find only in the larger (8’ tanks) these work because in those tanks you can for 10-20 of these fish in there although that would be a species only by that point if I’m not wrong. Sunburst Anthias are probably the easiest to keep because they don’t NEED a big shoal (Then again, no Anthias NEED the large shoal but most do better in a shoal) and are more solitary animals.

 

[Speaker]

Looks like they have gone down to two already. I'm going to get a few more wrasses and call it a day. Thank you both for your help.