Female changed sex!!???

[dwarflover]

Not a joke! I kid you not....

 

[cichlidmac]

Not a joke! I kid you not....

I know.... I'm really annoyed with my pair it's like having two males. Is it normal for them to lose interest so soon and stop breeding?

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[dwarflover]

cichlidmac, I don't know if it's normal, but I've had several cases with it. Some of which picked back up in a couple of months of nothing. Maybe try changing the water parameters to induce spawning? Also post a few more pics of your pair, so we can get this figured out! Or consider buying another female?

Anyway, Since adding the..."male" I've seen emidiate response. The female colored up a lot brighter and seems to be more active (i think she was lonely) And has been doing the whole tail slapping think near the..er male. and flipping sometimes on her side. She's been trying to get him to come into either of the two caves I have... Male has followed her, and he displays his fins.

After taking pics I'm almost positive I have had a sex change happen....

By glancing at this pic, wouldn't you say this is male??

female trying to get him to come in

again...

the female

SO what does everyone think. Sex change???

Yes, this fish was a female. 100% positive.

 

[cichlidmac]

.....eagerly awaiting Mikes response.

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[ADC Nederland]

Check out this link: http://apisto.sites.no/page.aspx?pageid=48

 

[dwarflover]

ADC Nederland, Interesting. But heres the thing, that not what happened for me. This was a proven female. She has had two batches of fry. My male is still alive....

 

[Mike Wise]

ADC, don't be so skeptical. Sex change has been reported for many cichlid species, including apistos. Many of the reports are just alagoical, but some are based on controled tests. If you think sex change is impossible, what do you think of a Caquetaia spectablilis that reproduced as a female, her male died and then the fish - alone in the tank - laid viable eggs and raised fry months later? As Michael Crichton wrote in his novel "Jurassic Park, "Life finds a way".

 

[Mike Wise]

You and everyone else should read Koslowski's discussion of sex change in A. sp. Wangenflecken in his book 'Die Buntbarsche Amerikas, Band 2: Apistogramma & Co.' Ingo explains what steps he used to verify that sex change actually happened. I agree with Tom, most 'sex changes' are actually sneaker males, but not all.

 

[dwarflover]

Will have to check that out. I know for sure this fish was not a sneaker male. It was my very first of six females to have fry, and I removed her and her babies to a seperate tank, as well with the second spawned female. Then the five females who were left, went to LFS. I could always tell them apart because the first female had orange in her fins, while the second did not, and was smaller in size, and always has been.

And then boom, this happens....

 

[dwarflover]

I GOT EGGS!!!! While I was at school today, they spawned and came home to find atleast 100 eggs...there are a ton. I will be moving the mom and eggs right away as there are snails in the tank, and I have countless accidents where the snails ate the eggs, and I am NOT losing these. If they are viable, not only will I have a proven sex change, I will have fry!!!

 

[dwarflover]

Well I moved her and her eggs. It took her awhile to find them again, but she found them and calmed down a bit....male is wondering where she is now.. hate doing this.

eggs actually look a little white, but I remember her last batch and i thought, wow those are kinda white...looks like they are bad. But i left them anyway, and every single one hatched. so i have hope.

 

[Mike Wise]

Good luck. I hope they hatch. There are 2 possibilities: 1) that there has been a sex change and you get fry or 2) both adults are females and spawned together, producing a large number of eggs but no viable fry.

 

[dwarflover]

Update: Eggs are still good. No white ones. They have turned pinkish-orangeish in color. Pretty sure these are good eggs. I'm think I have a sex change....Really excited for fry

 

[dwarflover]

1. And they are currently hatching as i type this! i took pics prior to hatching of the eggs and counted about 100, slightly over. will post pics of fry tomorrow. now i know its a sex change. awesome.

 

[cichlidmac]

This is very interesting and I would be more skeptical, however my female is either changing sex or growing into the largest female cac I've seen. Ill post pics soon.

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[dwarflover]

PICTURES!! Shes got quite a batch back there, and I believe this is my biggest batch yet.

 

[gerald]

Amazing ... and great work getting pics to support your observations. I'd love to see side-by-side pics of "him" before and after the sex change.

 

[dwarflover]

For Gerald,

shows the stages of the change side by side so you can see them

i know they don't look like the same fish, but I assure you they are.

Fry are not free swimming yet, but their eggs sacks are almost gone, so I'm guessing tomorrows the day So excited to see them swim for the first time.


Other pics from yesterday:

the mommy, sorry for dirty glass....i need to clean that....im just so lazy still a good pic of her though.

got right up to the camerae...probably wondering why I take so many pics.

 

[cichlidmac]

My female is still growing lol

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[Brian Banks]

Interested to see this series of posts as something similar has happened in my tanks. Last winter I obtained six young bitaeniata from a U.K. breeder. As they started to mature I had two females that bred, with eggs being observed. A further female bred under an azalea root and was defending this space vigorously from the large male. Both of these fish have taken on male characters. The female in this picture had eggs on three occasions, as recently as at the end of September/October. It did not have a rounded tail, none of them did, but the spines on the dorsal fin have started to extend and the colour pattern is more like the males - it is the middle fish in the group of three.