Tentacles said:
great articles, but it doesnt address the issue of a clown being by itslef in captivity or the wild, if a clown is alone in a tank, and has no contact with any other clown or fish of any kind, what sex will the clown become at maturity.
Weve established that it is male/unisex but there isnt an article yet that ive found to proove that.
loyalrogues answer i quoted above is what im looking for, but in an actual article. this guy is driving me crazy, he insists they become female after a month.
My advice to you is to ignore him and don't let him drive you crazy with misinformation that he can't back up.
As I said, there isn't a scientific article that addresses your specific question because that isn't a situation that happens.
You will not find any article on the web or anywhere that states anemonefish become female after 1 month because it isn't true.
If they became female when alone don't you think that one of the thousands of marine research papers or sites would have mentioned it???
As a matter of fact, most anemonefish don't even reach sexual maturity until after they're over a year old... so your friend saying they turn female after a month doesn't make any sense at all.
At a month old they've barely turned from larva into juveniles.
You can't even buy them in a LFS at that age.
If what he said were true then every single lone Clownfish in every LFS would be female, and we all know that's not true.
I've really tried and I can't find one single article that backs up your friend's claims and says that anemonefish turn female if they're kept alone... whether it's after a month or after 5 years... so I really have no idea where your friend could be getting his information from.
Let's take a moment and look at some of the thousands of available articles on anemonefish and their lifecycles...
MarineBio.com said:
All anemonefish are born male with active male and dormant female reproductive organs. If the female dies, then the dominant male will sex-change into a female, and a non-dominant male will change into a dominant male. This allows anemonefish inhabiting one anemone to remain self-sufficient in that if the female dies there is no need for the male to find a new mate. The responsibility for caring of the eggs becomes the "new" female's job!
Full Article
Nope, nothing about turning female when alone.
Australian Government Site said:
As a general rule anemonefish enter into permanent monogamous pairings. Juveniles live on an anemone with a sexually mature male and female pair. If the female dies, her male partner develops into a female to take her place. The largest juvenile then grows rapidly and replaces him as the dominant male.
Full Article
Nope, nothing about turning female when alone.
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology said:
One of the most interesting characteristics of anemonefishes is that all offspring are born male, and mature as such. Therefore, all females are sex-reversed. This sexual metamorphosis occurs when the female of a group leaves. This will trigger the largest male remaining to switch sexes and will allow the largest juvenile to become a mature male. The adult pair will then continue to stunt the growth of the remaining offspring.
Emphasis mine.
Full Article
Nope, nothing about turning female when alone.
World Association of Zoos and Aquariums said:
Anemonefish are born male with active male and dormant female reproductive organs. If the female dies, then the dominant male will change sex into a female, and a non-dominant male will change into a dominant male.
Full Article
Nope, nothing about turning female when alone.
Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History said:
The maturity age range for both male and female pink anemonefish is 1.75 to 1.83 years. When they reach maturity, reproduction takes place primarily between the months of April and August, but can occur in February. This species live in social groups that have a strict dominance hierarchy. The larger fish is always the female and the second largest is the male. They are the only two individuals that reproduce within the group. Pink anemonefish's mode of reproduction is protandry in which only the testicular tissue matures. Under certain conditions- the death of the female- testicular tissue degenerates and the gonads change to ovaries, thereby allowing the fish to avoid self fertilization.
Full Article
Emphasis mine
Nope, nothing about turning female when alone... as a matter of fact, this article goes so far as to explain the age of sexual maturity (almost 2 yrs old) and the degenerative tissue process that accompanies gender change. That is an extreme and irreversible biological process that the fish is not going to go thru until it joins a group and it becomes an absolute necessity for mating.
If your friend insists on giving you a hard time and won't listen to reason then tell him to sign up here and post whatever information he has.
The whole point of this place is to share good info, dispel bad info, and to help each other become better aquarists.
The fact that you're here asking questions and he's so stalwart in his ignorance just tells me that you are going to become a much more reliable authority on aquariums than your friend could ever hope to be.
Good luck.