Anthias identification

[Anonymous]

Pseudanthias that is.

I picked these up at the store the other day the owner told me they were "Lyretail Anthias" Pseudanthias squamipinnis. However of all the pictures I've seen they don't quite look like them as far as coloration. Specifically the fact that the tail and lower fins are yellowish in appearance. Now I've seen females as the golden color, and my thought is maybe these are simply females in transition, but just wanted to get a proper id on them first.

Sorry these are the best images I could get, these suckers are fast movers.

This is the smaller of the two, I'll call "the female" just for sake of identification, no "lyretail" spin above her

Front view of one of them (not sure which), also not sure if this is a useful image

The "male" in all his glory, lyretail and all

Another shot of the male with his cowlick slicked back

Both together

And again, now the issue I'm having is that every female picture I've seen they're quite different in color than the males, orange/yellow looking, if both of them are in transition towards maledom I'm going to probably have a dead fish, although they do tend to get along. The fact only one has the "lyretail" makes me wonder if they might be a different species all together (they have some traits that remind me of resplendent pictures I've seen).

 

[Len]

I wouldn't worry. That is a female P.squamipinnis Colors can and often are very similar ... the defining characteristic for the male is the first dorsal fin and its bigger body. When your male is courting, it's going to look VERY different in color; most pictures online are of courting males since they look their brightest and best during this time. My hunch is you'll see it turn a fluorescent purple.

But that said, I know a lot of people who keep harems of lyretails and females can still try to change into males even if there is a male in there.

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW most typically do not distinguish between P. squamipinnis and P. cheirospilos. We have several of the latter sold as squamipinnis. The difference is very subtle, but the fish look nearly identical at the stage of maturity you have there. When they are fully mature males the margin of the caudal fin is different in color. Both are identical in behavior and hardiness.

Anyway, yes, they are "lyretails" and definitely one of these 2 species.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks a bunch guys. My problem is P. cheirospilos wasn't in fishbase.org! After going through 72 different Pseudanthias pictures... grrrr. Seems the P.cheirospilos pictures (after searching specifically for that) look more like what I have than P.squamipinnis. But I'll ride it out and see which direction those colors go, either way I'm happy with the fish so its not a big deal.

Now here's my question, my overall goal was a harem, even though I've not often seen "lyretail" females (the orange buggers) if I were to find them would this male take them as his wimmen regardless of the species they are?

Say Matt, I've noticed quite a few orange buggers in your big tank... can I swing by with my net??

 

[Hyolee]

Found this juicy tidbit from Kevin Kohen at LA:

There are numerous species of marine fishes that have a broad range across the world. The Lyretail Anthias is one such fish that can be found throughout the Central and South Pacific Ocean, Indonesia and Philippines, and in the Indian Ocean and up to the Red Sea. Although the females of these fish from around the world look very similar, with slight variation in the hue of their orange coloration, males from these three distinct regions look different. For this reason some marine biologists and taxonomists have segregated these fishes from each region. All three of the fish listed below can be found in the two books listed below:

Basslets Hamlets and their Relatives, A Comprehensive Guide to Selected Serranidae and Plesiopidae- Rudie H. Kuiter, TMC Publishing 2004.

World Atlas of Marine Fishes- Rudie H Kuiter, Helmut Debelius, IKAN Publishing 2006.

Indian Ocean Lyretail Anthias- Pseudanthias squamipinnis- Formerly Serranus (Anthias) squamipinnis, Peters, 1855.

These fish are prevalent in the Indian Ocean from the East Coast of Africa, up to the Red Sea and over to Maldives and Sri Lanka. Males of this species have a long filament off of the first dorsal spine, deep lunate tail, and are vivid purple/red coloration with yellow and orange on their sides.

Indonesian Lyretail Anthias- Pseudanthias cheirospilos- Formerly Anthias cheirospilos, Bleeker, 1857.

These fish are prevalent in both Indonesia and the Philippines, Males of this species are reddish/purple with yellow outlining their scales in the sides of the fish back to the caudal peduncle, a bluish anal fin, and a blue outline on the edge of the caudal fin which is more truncated that their Indian Ocean counterpart.

Fiji Lyretail Anthias- Pseudanthias cf cheirospilos- Broken out from Anthias cheirospilos with the abbreviation cf which stand for resembles or looks like, and appears to be an undescribed species.

These fish are abundant in the Coral Sea, Papua New Guinea, and over to the Central and South Pacific. Males are mostly purple, and young males have a yellow anal fin, and the entire caudal fin is blue, and not as deeply lunate as their Indonesian counterpart. These fish lack the yellow markings or spots on their sides.

The care for all of these fishes listed above is identical. They require a large aquarium with plenty of swimming space, and frequent feedings of meaty foods such as enriched frozen mysis and enriched frozen brine shrimp. We feed all Anthias offered in the Divers Den section of the LiveAquaria.com web site 6-8 times per day.

Happy Fishkeeping!

 

[Anonymous]

Minor update, the coloration on the male definitely are getting distinctive from the female, the female doesn't look much different at all from above, however the male , as the dorsal fin has darkened up quite a bit near the top with a very bright line along the tip. The tail went from drab to fab though! An electric blue outline along the whole thing, along with streamers that remind me of a mature Naso (although smaller in size obviously )

Also it was an extra hard PITA to photograph this guy, out of 50 shots (at 1/100th frame speed too!) I got maybe 2 decent pictures... and by decent I mean they're the least blurry

 

[Anonymous]

Mike that is either P. cheirospilos or P. cf cheirospilos as described above. The margin of the caudal fin is yellow in P. squamipinnis and blue in P. cheirospilos.