ANTHIAS - FAIRY BASSLETS

It feels a bit like sitting at your computer watching one of those lovely aquarium screen savers... there’s a repeating pattern of bright orange flashes against a dark blue background. In, out, in, out. The little flits of orange are anthias and there’s literally hundreds of them, all swooping away from the reef in a choreographed movement.

Just there - right in the middle, one little fish catches the eye. This one is paler and with a bright pink flash on his flank. It's the male, the lone one lording it over the group. Rather like the ruler of the Harem.

Anthias are members of the true bass family, Serranidae. This highly diverse group also includes groupers and soap. In the whole family there are 50 genera and well over 400 species. However, these figures are constantly changing as many other species are confused with them, often when they muscle in, and pretend to be part of the harem.

Often called fairy basslets, which somehow seems more appropriate, anthias are found right round the world on tropical reefs. There’s a local form as far north as Japan and as far south as the Great Barrier Reef. They live in relatively shallow water and amongst hard and soft corals with plenty of nooks and crannies to retreat to. Yet they also like to be in places that get some hefty waves - dashing about in the surge is probably their favoured form of exercise.

All fairy basslets live in large groups, sometimes with as many as 2000 in a harem. Yet in amongst that vast number there will rarely be more than one adult male who sits at the top of a very specific pecking order. The overall shoal will consist primarily of juveniles and adult females and in some species there’ll be a few non-territorial males. Rather like the eunuchs in the harem, these are greatly outnumbered by the juveniles and females.

When the Lord dies, another male will develop from the largest, most dominant female who is usually about two years old. The first signs of female sex change are a darkening of the head and fins then a gradual changing of skin pattern to match the male version. These initial changes take about 16 days but it will take another month or so before she becomes a fully fledged chap.


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