Lyretail Anthias sex change

[haninja]

I had 1 male and 3 females. I lost 1 female a long time ago and the male about 3 month ago. One of the remaining females is acting kinda aggressive towards the other female but doesn't appear to be changing to a male. So my questions are, how long does the transition usually last? Can I safely add a male?

 

[Drauka99]

Sometimes the change stalls for one reason or another, mine has the tall dorsal spike and the tail seems to be slowly changing but no color changes, has been going on a month this way, I know of another who's seemed to change almost overnight including color.

The safer bet is to add another small female, if the tank size is enough I might try to add a couple small females to spread out any aggression the new one might get. They will sort out who is the dominate in time.

 

[Baldguy]

I agree the change stalls sometimes. I had 3 lyretails bought as females and the same size. One of those grew to almost double the size of the others and showed dominance but never changed color at all. It was just much bigger. Out of the blue the big one died. Within a week one of the two remaining females completely changed color. Amazing how fast that change was after I had waited years for the first to change.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I've seen some changes happen really quickly, others stall for years.

I wouldn't add another male. I agree it is better to add another 1-3 females and let them settle it amongst themselves.

 

[haninja]

Thanks. Seems like the way to go is to add females only.