change gender ?

[blinkmiao]

will DC changer their gender by nature ?
if yes....which DC will?
thanks

 

[Neil]

This is a debatable question! Both types of checkerboards (Crenicara and Dicrossus) have been shown to have gender transformation. I suspect that they are not the only cases. It would not be particularly suprising if this happened to numerous other genera. It is certain that gender is not established at birth (hatching) and can be determined (possibly) as much as 6 weeks later. This suggests to me the biological capability for this to happen later as well.

Neil

 

[Mike Wise]

Crenicara punctulatum is recorded as changing from female to male, but few other verifiable claims exist. Many female cichlids, as they age, take on masculine features. Sometimes subdominant males retain female features until the dominant male is removed. Suddenly he takes on male features and breeds. Neither of these occurrences are actual sex changes.

A real sex reversal requires that the female be the only female in the tank so there is no possible confusion. The female has to spawn and produce viable fry. Then the female needs to be in a tank without any males (when the male dies & she is left alone, for example). If another female that has bred is added to the tank and one changes sex and there is a successful spawn, then there this is an actual sex reversal.

There have been reports of several apisto species that have shown sex change, but the only report that followed all of the requirements above was reported by Koslowski (1985) in A. sp. Cheek-spots/Wangenfleck. Still, I would not be surprised to see this occur in other species.