Guppies change sex??

[flames9]

The fellow at the LFS said guppies can change sex?? Is that true??

 

[Jaxom_Ruatha]

I doubt it, although I am by no means a guppy expert, the only fish species I know of that can do that is the clown fish (better known as "Nemo's") and they only turn from female (which all of them are from birth) to male if there are no males present already. Although I'll bet the clown fish aren't the only species of fish that can change their genders, I highly doubt whether guppies (Atleast the fancy aquarium kind I am thinking about) are one of them.

 

[Liggs17]

It is not true. Many people will say that swordtails, another species of livebearers, will turn from female to male if there are not enough males, but this is untrue. It is merely a late-developing male.

Depending upon where you purchase fish, always be careful when speaking to the salesperson. I often find that salespeople in chain pet stores (I won't name names but they all begin with Pet-) have no clue as to what they are talking about. If you really like guppies, go check out the American Livebearer Association (I don't know the link) or TFH has a pretty good softcover book on guppies, as well, called "Guppy Quarterly", I think.

Liggs

 

[flames9]

This was a small mom & pop fish store. the lady I had on Wed was sooo nice. She was the reason we drove out of our way to go there. But today we had a younger guy, that seemed bored with us!! Very bad service, i will defiently think twice about goig back!! But not many options around arlington va!! Mind you the one petsco that we visited was very clean. Cheers Scott