Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Species => Livebearers => Topic started by: ID2 on December 21, 2016, 09:24:08 AM

Title: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: ID2 on December 21, 2016, 09:24:08 AM
I know the difference between male and female livebearers and I kid you not one of my female platies is now a male  :o  I thought 'she' was pregnant not long ago as well due to the body shape.

I read something that said it could have been a male all along but the anal fin hadn't fully developed. Could this be true?
Title: Re: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: Sue on December 21, 2016, 12:45:51 PM
Yes it is. It is an old wives' fishkeepers' tale about livebearers changing sex. Some males are very slow maturing, and as you know all fry look female until puberty.
I don't know if the same thing happens with livebearers but subordinate cockatoo apistogramma males often take on female appearance to avoid the attentions of the dominant male in a tank with multiple males. If this is possible with livebearers perhaps pheromones secreted by the fully adult males suppress puberty in the male fry  ???


Very old females sometimes develop a gonopodium, possibly in the same way that post menopausal human women can develop some male characteristics, but they never become functional males.
Title: Re: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: ID2 on December 21, 2016, 01:06:37 PM
That is so interesting.

So much for getting all females like I planned. I asked for three females in the shop. Got home and discovered one was actually a male...and now one of the females is actually a male. The last is definitely a female though. Which is not ideal as the ratio is all to pot now.
Title: Re: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: fcmf on December 21, 2016, 10:42:00 PM
Very interesting indeed. Would there be room in your tank for more platies (hopefully definitely female) to balance the ratio out a bit? Alternatively, if not, and if you don't have any particular plans for the bigger, unused tank, would you consider using it to accommodate a larger group?
Title: Re: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: ID2 on December 22, 2016, 01:42:44 PM
As expected, I currently have fry in there at the moment. Three (as far as I've been able to see recently) have survived. I will wait to see what gender these are and see how they all get along I think. So far, luckily, the two males don't seem to be harrasing the female to be honest. It's pretty calm in there :)
Title: Re: Platy changing gender?!?!
Post by: Littlefish on December 22, 2016, 02:45:08 PM
Let us hope that things continue to remain calm.  :)