lyretail anthias

[Liverocknroll]

My large Lyretail anthias is a female, and lives with another smaller female lyretail and a small blotched anthias. It is obvious the large anthias is in charge, but she has not turned male yet. They all eat like twice a day. When I put in a male because I wanted the coloration she immediately attacked it with the other smaller one until it was to weak to hang on. I rescued it though and it is in another tank but she completely dominated a male and still is not changing her coloration at all. Any hints on how to speed this process along? I want her to be a male mostly because of her sheer size.

[davocean]

You should post pics.
It's possible it is sub male, or maybe even male, different regions will become different colors of lyretails.
If you wish to add more, just add small females.
They do best w/ a harem of no less than 3

[Liverocknroll]

Its orange like the females, no dots on the pectoral fins and its dorsal spike is not as large as a male yet, I am pretty sure this means sub male, the other one has dots on the pectoral fins so it was probably transitioning when I bought it and cannot due to the large female.

[davocean]

There isn't really much you can do to speed up anything.
My anthias came shipped and bagged seperately, and i had a male and one female that was beginning to turn, stayed sub for about a year, then it changed to male as well.
I would probably only intro females to your tank, maybe w/ a proper harem that could spark things a bit, maybe.

[Liverocknroll]

I just noticed today some darkening of the tips, possible indicator it is changing? these are new and I suspect the other male may have set her off.