Livebearers changing sex???

[kaaikop]

Okay, you might laugh your head off... 3 weeks ago, I got 6 platys,
5 fem. & 1 male. In the meantime of course, they gave me fry, which is
surviving nicely in the community tank.

Now... just noticed... I have 2 males & 4 females... 8O
Is it possible that livebearers can change sex???
I thought I read something, long time ago, about some species of fish,
changing sex for some reason...
Or do I need new eyeglasses?

 

[krap101]

sometimes when stressed (i think) the females can keep their lil under fin or whatever from fanning and that might of been it

 

[SerLunchbox]

no it is not possible for a sex change .... they can change their looks but that is about all. I have heard of the change in looks from people who have owned swordtails.

 

[TomK2]

Nah, it was just missed. There are some Marine fish (can't remember if it was damsels or clownfish) who spend part of the life cycle as female and then part as male, but it is definitely not Platy. There are some "amazon" Mollies so named because only one in ten thousand is male. The female only species reproduces asexually by essentially cloning. But they hang around males of other species since the mating ritual is need to start the reproductive cycle. The one in ten thousand male is some sort of recessive throwback gene from bygone eras. Strange but true.

 

[kaaikop]

okay... so I do need new glasses, LOL
and when I get rid of greenwater, maybe I can see a bit better

 

[prettyvacant]

The same thing happened to me, kaaikop, a couple of months ago. I had many more female platies than males, and one day I saw that my biggest female had definitely turned into a male. I made a post about it a while back, and was told that yes, it is possible that she turned into a male. This was the post: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?p=338645&highlight=#338645

 

[Rach101]

Well it happens with swordtails. I believe i read in my book
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...1050?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1
when females get older, or there are in a large group of females with no male, they will change to male, but cannot change back to female. Since platies are closely related to swordtails maybe.

 

[Toirtis]

Sorry, no. There are a number of fish that can (and some amphibians, and some fish with 3-4 genders), but not platys.