Skip to main content
Loading...

When a Lyretail changes its sex

  • male-anthias-hdr

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.

squamipinnis

And here's a male:

male lyretail

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.

male-anthias

male-anthias-2

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. :)

Website Area:
Reef Blog