View Full Version : Lyrtail Anthias - Morphing
m2434
02/23/2011, 10:49 PM
Hi all,
I few weeks ago I picked up 3 lyretail anthias. Right after, I noticed one had a spiked dorsal fin and suspected this would become the male. Latter, another started becoming somewhat aggressive to the submissive female. This one did not show any signs of becoming a male other than behavior though. However, in the last week, this aggressive one has started changing color. And really changed in the last 3 days. In fact in this picture, all of the black in the fins happened overnight last night. I am excited and worried at the same time. I have watched closely, and there has never been any aggression towards the one with the spiked fin, which would suggest, the this one, that I originally though would become a male isn't actually. However the fin still makes me a bit worried. I happened to catch both the male and the sub-male in the same shot. Any thoughts? If not then I guess just enjoy the pic and we'll see what happens :)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/5472167959_9810b3405d_b.jpg
Apercula
02/24/2011, 05:26 AM
The gender change to male can happen very quickly. In my case I had purchased a trio and one of the females came in with an elongated dorsal spike, a couple months after purchase the male died, and a couple months after that the female with the elongated dorsal changed to male over the course of three weeks.
In my thread the question of whether a female colored individual with elongated dorsal was a dominant female or a submale was brought up, and since there is no real way to be sure, I have changed to calling them dominant females.
My thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1531326
Another changing thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=972936&highlight=lyretail+anthias+male
Looking at your picture, I am guessing the one with the female coloration and dorsal spike got beaten to the change, and will stay female but will change quickly if given the opportunity. Do you know the source location for yours? Mine came from Maldives, and Peter's (SDguy) first one to change was also Maldives, and when it died his second one was Indo.
m2434
02/24/2011, 08:26 AM
Thanks Apercula, that's helps a lot. It seems to be difficult to find reliable info on this for some reason. Great that some people have documented it. Unfortunately, I don't know where they were collected. I'll see if I can find out.
d3rryc
02/24/2011, 12:34 PM
I got three female lyretail anthias awhile back that all had elongated dorsals. A quick note to WetWeb later, Bob Fenner called them, "mostly-male," and told me not to worry. Sure enough, the dominant of the three morphed (from your pic, yours is about halfway there), and the other two settled down. FWIW, both of my females have a dorsal like the sub-male in your pic, and I've had the three of them for about 15 months now with no problems between them.
Be sure to take lots of pics - the morphing process is WAY cool! In addition to changing color, he'll also become larger. My male is easily 20-25% bigger than the two females.
m2434
02/24/2011, 08:16 PM
I got three female lyretail anthias awhile back that all had elongated dorsals. A quick note to WetWeb later, Bob Fenner called them, "mostly-male," and told me not to worry. Sure enough, the dominant of the three morphed (from your pic, yours is about halfway there), and the other two settled down. FWIW, both of my females have a dorsal like the sub-male in your pic, and I've had the three of them for about 15 months now with no problems between them.
Be sure to take lots of pics - the morphing process is WAY cool! In addition to changing color, he'll also become larger. My male is easily 20-25% bigger than the two females.
Awesome, that's great to hear! The male and "mostly-male" seem to do fine together, so far, so I was hoping others had seen something similar. I'll certainly keep the pictures going :)
m2434
02/27/2011, 07:06 PM
Here is an update, 3 days latter. There is also a very bright blue florescent line across the dorsal fin, that unfortunately dosn't show up well in the photos. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but so far the tank has been nice and peaceful :)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5483354945_6c68b54101_b.jpghttp://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5483354931_97e49328b1_b.jpg
m2434
03/13/2011, 12:45 PM
Here is an update from today. Still progressing, but slower. Seems to be getting bigger and purple is more "purpler".
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5012/5523583732_0645d89650_b.jpg
d3rryc
03/13/2011, 12:51 PM
Are yours from the Maldives?
m2434
03/13/2011, 12:59 PM
I actually asked the supplier, but they could not tell me.... Any way to id?
Also, here is a picture of a female for reference and because I like the picture :)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5214/5523634860_e40e5cbca3_b.jpg
d3rryc
03/13/2011, 01:27 PM
From the pics I've seen, those from the Maldives tend to have more yellow on the body of the male. However, I'm not sure that there's a 100% way to tell where they're from.
fasteddie99
03/13/2011, 01:39 PM
That's awesome. Keep up the pics! He seems to be getting very dark, I like it.
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