Mixing multiple single female anthias?

[Reefchik]

I know this thread is pretty old, but I'm curious how this ended up working out long term? I'm considering doing something similar with a group of multiple anthias species in my 200 gallon.

 

[X-37B]

I would add them all at once.
I had 2 lyretails for 2 years and one started to turn male. It then just dissapeared in my 150. Can not jump out so?
About 3 weeks later I added 2 more females. The resident one chased one constantly and I have not seen it in over 2 weeks.
The other one swims with the old one with no issues.
I wanted to add a male but may hold off now as the system is peaceful.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I never got around to adding any more after those first 2.
After adding the initial two anthias, they seemed to do fine at first, but then the Randall started slowly losing weight. He seemed to eat just fine, but kept losing weight regardless.
The carberri on the other hand did just fine and I still have it now more than 4 years later. The Randall slowly lost weight and eventually just disappeared one day. So now I only have the single carberryi which has been a great fish, but I'm hesitant to add any more since they do seem hard to keep happy for whatever reason. I've read that many of them come from down deep in the ocean and don't adjust to aquarium life as easily as some other fish.

My plan was to add some of the other less common (non aggressive) types, but many of them seem difficult to make thrive in our home aquariums for no obvious reason, so I backed off adding more.

 

[Uncle99]

I have a harem of Lyretails, a converted female and 4 females. Really resilient fish, always out on show.
They get no special treatment at all.
Started with 2 females, added 2 more, then 1 changed to male, added another 2 females 1 month later. Had them years. Neat social interaction. I have never mixed them, or at least yet. Great fish.

 

[Reefchik]

What size tank do you have? I’ve been eyeing Lyretails or Bimacs since they would hopefully be robust enough to handle my four active tangs, but I also want to avoid adding any aggression to the tank. My main hesitation is their adult size; five full grown Lyretails or Bimacs feels like a lot of mass, even for a 200 gallon system.

In my old tank, I had a mix of Randall's and Resplendents that seemed to do well, but the group did gradually whittle itself down from seven to zero over about three years, maybe typical long term attrition for anthias, but I would like to avoid as much of that as possible.

 

[Reefchik]

Meant to add that as a reply to this post but can't seem to figure out how to do it retroactively or even delete my previous post I'm sure I'll get the hang of this app eventually

I have a harem of Lyretails, a converted female and 4 females. Really resilient fish, always out on show.
They get no special treatment at all.
Started with 2 females, added 2 more, then 1 changed to male, added another 2 females 1 month later. Had them years. Neat social interaction. I have never mixed them, or at least yet. Great fish.

 

[Uncle99]

What size tank do you have? I’ve been eyeing Lyretails or Bimacs since they would hopefully be robust enough to handle my four active tangs, but I also want to avoid adding any aggression to the tank. My main hesitation is their adult size; five full grown Lyretails or Bimacs feels like a lot of mass, even for a 200 gallon system.

In my old tank, I had a mix of Randall's and Resplendents that seemed to do well, but the group did gradually whittle itself down from seven to zero over about three years, maybe typical long term attrition for anthias, but I would like to avoid as much of that as possible.

I have 5 Lyretails in 180g along with a Sailfin, Bristletooth and Yellow for tangs. Also included is a Copperband, Adorned Wrasse, a Longnose Hawk, a Flame Hawk, a bonded pair black Occs, a spotted Mandarin and a Royal Gramma.

I’ve had great luck with the Lyretails, have great colour and reasonably priced and available.

They don’t bother anyone and are fast. The stay out in a loose group always.

Over the last decade, I’ve lost 3 at different times, but simply replace with another female.

But, I’ve never mixed them so have no idea how that works but many posts lean towards that multiple can work also.

To be honest, the lyretail in my area are cheap at $30 so for a harem, that’s $150.

Below a short video to see there interaction.

 

[dwest]

I have 5 Lyretails in 180g along with a Sailfin, Bristletooth and Yellow for tangs. Also included is a Copperband, Adorned Wrasse, a Longnose Hawk, a Flame Hawk, a bonded pair black Occs, a spotted Mandarin and a Royal Gramma.

I’ve had great luck with the Lyretails, have great colour and reasonably priced and available.

They don’t bother anyone and are fast. The stay out in a loose group always.

Over the last decade, I’ve lost 3 at different times, but simply replace with another female.

But, I’ve never mixed them so have no idea how that works but many posts lean towards that multiple can work also.

To be honest, the lyretail in my area are cheap at $30 so for a harem, that’s $150.

Below a short video to see there interaction.

Great tank! What’s the big acro in the center?

 

[Uncle99]

Great tank! What’s the big acro in the center?

Thank you.

That coral, I call it annoying.
Bought as a “Rainbow Loom” at 1”
Did nothing for a year. Can’t see the “rainbow”
Nice coral, green basically, gets big fast, robs others of light.
Threes years of growth.

 

[Reefchik]

What size tank do you have? I’ve been eyeing Lyretails or Bimacs since they would hopefully be robust enough to handle my four active tangs, but I also want to avoid adding any aggression to the tank. My main hesitation is their adult size; five full grown Lyretails or Bimacs feels like a lot of mass, even for a 200 gallon system.

In my old tank, I had a mix of Randall's and Resplendents that seemed to do well, but the group did gradually whittle itself down from seven to zero over about three years, maybe typical long term attrition for anthias, but I would like to avoid as much of that as possible.

I have 5 Lyretails in 180g along with a Sailfin, Bristletooth and Yellow for tangs. Also included is a Copperband, Adorned Wrasse, a Longnose Hawk, a Flame Hawk, a bonded pair black Occs, a spotted Mandarin and a Royal Gramma.

I’ve had great luck with the Lyretails, have great colour and reasonably priced and available.

They don’t bother anyone and are fast. The stay out in a loose group always.

Over the last decade, I’ve lost 3 at different times, but simply replace with another female.

But, I’ve never mixed them so have no idea how that works but many posts lean towards that multiple can work also.

To be honest, the lyretail in my area are cheap at $30 so for a harem, that’s $150.

Below a short video to see there interaction.

Thanks, that's super helpful! The prices on the lyretails are definitely a little more palatable than the bimacs when you're getting 5 or 6 lol. I tried to include a lot of smaller crevices in my aquascape as well as swim throughs, so I think they'd have enough hiding spots to feel as comfortable as it looks like yours do.

 

[Uncle99]

Thanks, that's super helpful! The prices on the lyretails are definitely a little more palatable than the bimacs when you're getting 5 or 6 lol. I tried to include a lot of smaller crevices in my aquascape as well as swim throughs, so I think they'd have enough hiding spots to feel as comfortable as it looks like yours do.

very very nice!
That’s perfect, they gonna love that!