Transvestite Nijsseni?

[Marcos Avila]

Hello Everyone,

First post here. I suddenly got really curious about a long-lasting question I have so I decided to come over, register and ask :wink:

I have two A. nijsseni that have just completed 2 years of age, they were the only ones I kept from my first-ever Apisto batch (the others were sold to LFS) and I specifically chose the largest one (deep blue male colors) and smallest one (female colors) to keep. For the first year or so, the smaller one stayed dressed in beautiful, intense, 100% female coloration, and behaved as I would expect from a female, to the point of teasing the larger male with tail slaps, etc...

Then, at one point, 'she' simply gave up the female colors and adopted the variable male blue, which is kept until today. Is this a puny male who was intentionally disguising himself in order to avoid harassment from the older brother, or did he really have hormonal issues and thought he was a female, or was it really a female who just grew old and gave up trying to have sex? They're in a 60 L planted community tank, the big male is really easy-going and never gave 'her' much attention anyway.

So what's your verdict? I can provide photos if needed...

 

[beleg]

I have read this happens with apistos and seen similar behaviors in my kribs. Similar things exist even in some Tanganyika cichlids especially the dwarfs.

I think its perfectly normal and your fish was born a male.

 

[Mike Wise]

My gues is that the smaller fish was always a male, but kept his juvenile (female-like) color pattern to avoid aggression from the larger male.