Anthias???

[CompulsiveAqua]

Soooo... about 4 months ago I bought 3 Spotfin Anthias. All of them had short top fins. Now one of them has a longer plume and is a bit more active ( and colorful).....AND A COMPLETE FREAKING PSYCHO!!!!....turned male? or female? (you would think by the actions that it was a female, sorry girls!). On top of all that, the PSYCHO is having skin issues (sorta flaking, sorta part of the jaw missing) and I am hoping that it is just fighting and not disease. It, the fish, seems to mostly chase the other two Anthias, but I have seen him get too close to the mated pair of Tomato Clowns, (thats a mean female!). Having a large Naso, Sailfin, Hippo in the mix prob doesn't help...oh yeah and the the Bluechin Trig would most likely not put up with its crap either. I guess my question is this: Is this normal behavior for Anthias? and if so....would Anthias make a good meal for a Mantis Shrimp?....kidding.....kidding. Ooops, forgot..the reason why I thought of disease is because one of my other fish, a Sixline Wrasse also has a discoloration on his side, but there are to many factors for that....he could have fallen asleep too close to a coral....ahhhhh....why....why does this poop gotta happen the week that school starts, CJ????? All summer things have been good....minus the freaking Sahara temperatures!
Here's Hagar the Horrible...lol



My fav pic....look at the claws holding on to the orange part....forget that!!!!...that could be your finger!!!
Stop fighting Anthias....or else!!!lol

[CompulsiveAqua]

ha...not a single reply.....lol.

[CarmieJo]

Ha ha, my semester finishes on Tuesday so I have not been here much. I love the pix of the mantis, its beautiful! Did you ever see this http://www.ted.com/speakers/sheila_patek.html video?

I don't know much about anthias because I haven't kept them. However, I do believe that the ones with the dorsal threads are males.

[saxman]

Late reply, but as Carmie mentioned, one of the Anthias is becoming a secondary male (assuming you have 3 females). We had a "she-he" lyretail (Pseudanthias squamapinnis) for about 8 years, and it began as a dominant female, but later developed a dorsal spike and a more pink coloration.

Many Anthias species will bicker amonst themselves on occasion, while other species will eventually pick each other off until only one remains.