Livebearers changing sex?

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hardcyder

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 9, 2004
Messages
31
Location
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
It was over 20 years ago, but I remember having a female guppy that had produced young, morphing into a male within a short time. I read somewhere about livebearers morphing but can't seem to find any documentation on it. now. Has anyone else heard of it happening or am I crazy?
 
I have some of those where you can't tell right off the bat when you can tell some of the others, you're not going crazy lol I just took out 3 males who were supposedly females before
 
Blazeherd2306 said:
females don't morph into males

Precisely, however, they can become somewhat transgendered (and ultimately sterile) when fed hormone-laced foods....gives you a huge 'female' guppy with lots of colour and a big tail, but it cannot breed or be bred. This is sometimes done by suppliers that want to supply the purely 'pet' market with females that will sell as well as males.
 
flamingonhot, How does it change in to a female? If you could provide a link that would be great.
 
Here are a couple of links I found on fish morphing
http://www.aquariumsite.org/families.cfm
"Wrasses come in a multitude of shapes, colours and sizes, from the small cleaner wrasse and lunar-tailed wrasse, to the large broomtail wrasse, which, as its name implies, has a large brush-like tail with ragged, split ends. These colorful fishes inhabit all reef environments. They feed mainly on small invertebrates, either on the bottom or in midwater. They usually spawn a dusk either in pairs or in-groups that are dominated by one or more gaudily colored males. The numerous tiny eggs a rise to the surface and are not cared for by the parents. Most wrasses are capable of female to male sex change."
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/poecillidfaqs.htm
"Livebearer sex change
I placed five grown females into a community tank,
> and a month later have four females and a male? Do
> they morph if no males are available?
> <Hee hee... females, males of what?
swordtails
<Actually, yes.... this and other livebearing toothed carps (poeciliids) can/do change their sex in events of disproportionality, need. Bob Fenner> "
 
hardcyder said:
<Actually, yes.... this and other livebearing toothed carps (poeciliids) can/do change their sex in events of disproportionality, need. Bob Fenner> "

Some can, but it is exceedingly rare, happens at a very immature age, and as far as I am aware, has never been observed in home aquaria.
 
Ah, now with the X. helleri, recent studies suggest the existence of 2 main genders, and possibly as many as 3-4 sub-genders....so in that case, things get really complicated.
 
flamingonhot said:
For swordtails the male can change into a female but not back and it can't have babies for some reason.
Does the male lose it's tail? The swordtail was used as an example of females changing to males, many years ago. It is believed now that the maturation rate is different between individuals in a spawn, so that there is protection of the species. If all the early males get wiped out the late blommers will still be available to breed with the females.
 
He was probably placed in a tank with paranahs or some kind of fin nippers or something to lose his tail.
 
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