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Can endless change sex?

H

hudsonpd

Member
Joined
17 Jul 2011
Messages
114
Ok so this might seem a strange question but I bought 5 males.

Now I still haven't got any females but one looks half way! And it is always being chased by the other 4 who seem to display the same mating type ritual that my platys do.

The one in question is much larger with much more grey and dull markings. I know females have no markings at all and are much larger. But is this male changing sex?
 
Wrong. Fish don't change sex. Only some species define they'r sex a bit later, that's making people to think they change sex. An ENDLER, female from birth its gray same as male, but once the black spot start to appear on caudal, that's a male for sure and from that point it will be male till his death.
 
I'm sure that a number of marine fish are able to change gender, clown fish being the most notorious I believe. I'm not entirely sure if the same is true for freshwater fish though. If marine fish possess the ability however, it could well be true.
 
I've had mu endler for about 5months now, bought as a pair male and female. Female is much bigger and like you said grey and dull but how i kmnew it was a female was becasue of its gravid black spot and anal fin two confirmations of sex. The gravid spot also indicates pregnancy. Post up a pic if you can, and i will post my female later on in the week.
 
scifficus said:
Wrong. Fish don't change sex. Only some species define they'r sex a bit later, that's making people to think they change sex. An ENDLER, female from birth its gray same as male, but once the black spot start to appear on caudal, that's a male for sure and from that point it will be male till his death.
Click to expand...

As has been said by others a number of fish species change sex during their lives. Clowns start life as males and the largest of the pair or group becomes a female. In Anthias and other basslets and wrasse they all start life as females and the largest most dominant fish become territory holding males.

There is even a type of cichlid that has been observed to change sex - Crenicara punctulata. Some of it's close relatives are suspected of being able to also. This isn't too big a surprise as they are related to the basslets mentioned above.

The sex of cichlids that don't change sex can be influenced as they develop in the egg by pH and temperature so their sex isn't determined chromosonally as in other animals.

In livebearers though it usually is chromosonally determined but there have been reports of females in swordtails becoming functional males after they have ceased to be reproductive as females. I don't know whether any of these reports have been confirmed though.
 
Many years ago I had a sword tail female that became a male. I had purchased 3 females as the males can be a bit aggressive towards other fish and after three months one of the smaller females became a male.


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