Anthias locking jaws

[b-rad]

Hey guys I have had one anthia in my tank for a while now and put three more in my tank today and now they seem to be fighting , locking jaws etc what should I do? don't want them to kill eachother

 

[Manic]

Mine have been doing that for a while now and they seem fine. They don't seem to bite each other but they do that whole jaw locking thing.

 

[b-rad]

they seem to be getting on a lot better now

 

[crispin]

b-rad there are a few possibilities, but firstly do you ahve a dominant male? it could be that you have two females aiming at becoming the dominant male and are sizing each other out, or one of the new arrivals is already male and then you will ahve problems.

do you know how to sex them and what species of anthia are they?

 

[b-rad]

Crispin im not too sure on how to tell the difference between their sexes? They are the pseudanthias squamipinnis. They are still quite small

 

[Manic]

The females are gold and the males red, here's a pic:

 

[Manic]

If you don't have a male you should look at getting one, will calm things down a bit...

 

[crispin]

i am fairly sure you have two females fighting over dominance as to which will become male, thats just a hunch though as I havent seen the fish.

dont look at the color diffrences as i think yours will all be the same color as they are small as you say. If you look at the top pic of the male you will notice an elongated spine on the front dorsal, basically a long spike. Do both your fish show signs of getting a spike on the dorsal?

 

[b-rad]

Will the male look like that even when still quite small because at the moment all of mine look like the lower one, the female

 

[JD167]

If you don't have a male you should look at getting one, will calm things down a bit...

:Randy-git:

 

[b-rad]

I have four in the tank and the one keeps getting smacked by the others and the other three seem to be okay at the moment

 

[Manic]

When I got my anthias the one female has some reddish scales on her body, so I suspect this one was changing over.

 

[crispin]

When I got my anthias the one female has some reddish scales on her body, so I suspect this one was changing over.

the dominant spike on the dorsal is an easier way to sex them opposed to color variations

 

[b-rad]

So if they fighting will the one that loses become a male? haha

 

[crispin]

if they are fighting, the dominant female will revert to being a dominant male. in anthia shoals its the males which are domminant, while with clowns its often the female that is domminant.

although dont take this too lightly if the aggression continues and you do have two females reverting at once they could well kill each other, you need to work out what is going on and why the aggression is there fairly fast.

just a side note i had two males from different species of anthia in one tank and that nearly lead to the death of the smaller male in one night. when they decide to, they can become very nasty.

 

[seank]

Anthias's sex organs are sitting in their mouth, hence the jaw locking