When a Lyretail changes its sex

Did you know that if you get a harem of female Lyretail anthias, you'll end up with one or more males at some point? Lyretails are beautiful bright orange fish with a purple eyeliner like Cleopatra, when female. When one decides to change to male, the fish will turn bright purple, extending a spike on their dorsal fin and will express dominance over the females. This pictures today were unintentional, the fish swam into my field of view so I snapped a couple to share.

First, here's an example of a female.

And here's a male:

Quite the change, wouldn't you say? See below, this fish is clearly in transition still, but in a couple more months it will be purple.

Normally, one male in an aquarium is best. If there are two, they will fight until one is the winner. And as far as I know, males will never revert back to female so if one changes sex, it must think it's got a good chance at success. :)