Changing Sex - Is It Possible?!

[fishykisses]

i just jarred up 5 big bright males last night - No oviposters... aggessive males
well i went down stairs to feed all of them this morning and check that my babies weren't too stressed after their first night in jars.
To my surprise - 2 of the 5 were now horizontal stripped, like the females in the grow out and....have oviposters!!!!!!!
They did not have those last night!
They were also not too happy about being in jars. The other 3 are still males and coloured the same but while one of my males was eating is breakfast he barred up like a female getting ready to breed, he stayed like that for about 5 minutes and then coloured normally again - but What's that About?!
Has any one else had these experiences?

 

[lozzles]

it doesnt sound like a sex change their oviposters are probably very small and so arent always immediately visible. males can show stress stripes same as any femaes if they show vertical stripes definately female

 

[splashluff]

>_< they have such raging hormones, don't they? The first 5 that I jarred all were dark and barred up and seemingly had ovipositors, and within a week 4 of the 5 were bubblenesting and clearly male. I'm REALLY scared to sell my females for fear that they'll suddenly decide to turn into males in their new homes.

 

[JBN]

Females bettas can change their sex to males after being injected by chemicals. This has been tested an proven. Just an FYI

 

[ezrock]

JBN...what's the source you read that from?

-Ian

 

[liz2]

Do they go round the tank with their fins on their waist saying "chase me chase me. What a gay day!"

 

[Synirr]

Females bettas can change their sex to males after being injected by chemicals. This has been tested an proven. Just an FYI

I hadn't heard of that, but I have heard that females with damaged/removed ovaries will become fully-functioning males, so I wouldn't doubt it's possible.

 

[ezrock]

Synirr...fully functioning as in they can spawn and produce semen? Kinda weird!

-Ian

 

[Synirr]

Synirr...fully functioning as in they can spawn and produce semen? Kinda weird!

-Ian

Yep yep! Pretty strange for us to think about, but sex changes aren't really all that uncommon in the fish world

 

[ezrock]

Hey. Yeah I've heard of them before...just not in bettas

I've heard about species that are pretty much all female except for spawning time...some will turn to males temporarily, spawn, then revert to female status! CRAZY eh!

Cheers,

-Ian

 

[aloaring]

i had a white Half moon double tail which was sent to me as a male and he blantantly looked male l-arge fins and everything but after about 4 months there was an accident with another male jumping in with him but there was no aggression at all which i thought was weird then i looked closey at "him" and realised there was an oviposter which explained why he didn't flare. So she went in with the females where she was the smallest of the lot. She unfortuneately died recently. my theory is that when they are very young their sex can be affected by chemicals, water quality and thier environment!