DuganBolt
New Member
So I was visting Trinidad Colorado and I decided to take the plunge. 
Sorry bad joke... Funny if you happened to know the worthless fact that Trinidad is the sex change capitol of the world but I digress... As some of you know I recently bought four female Lyrtail Anthias and like all Anthias they have the trait of being hermaphroditic and all one of my lovely ladies has decided to make the jump.
It was fairly evident which fish was the dominant female of the group, one she was the biggest, she was the first acclimated and the first to eat. "Alpha" showed her domince to another female of the group. We call this female Stumpy because she no longers has lyres on her tail. Luckily Stumpy is doing very well and has returned to her normal eating and feeding behaviors. I noiticed some changes starting to take place in Alpha's behior and her physical apperance. As this is a first for my in fish keeping I thought I should share the process with all of you. And after I get my digital camera back there will be pictures a plenty.
The first sign I noticed something was different when Alpha was resting more at the mouth of her cave. She is in perfect condition physically and while her eating habbits have decreased she still seems very healthy. Note she has shown this behavior for about a week and I have been keeping a very close eye on her and have been conducting water tests daily to make sure everything is AOKAY. I think alot of this behavior is due to her sex change, the way I figure is that she needs all of her energy to complete the sex change. I believe there are other animals that take this similar behavior during or before mating, pregnacy and rearing their young. The first physical sign I noticed was the lengthening of the front part of Alpha's dorsal fin, at the same time her hue started to change from the bright orangeish color to pale and is now starting to show slight pink to purplish hues. Her dorsal fin is really showing the purple as well. This brings us up to date with her progress. I will be the first to admit at first I was very worried for Alpha's health and then it dawned on me that this could just be the natural process. Or at least I hope
By no means am I an expert and I would love to hear the stories if anyone has gone through a sex change before.... I promise I will get pictures as soon as I get them.
Kevin
Sorry bad joke... Funny if you happened to know the worthless fact that Trinidad is the sex change capitol of the world but I digress... As some of you know I recently bought four female Lyrtail Anthias and like all Anthias they have the trait of being hermaphroditic and all one of my lovely ladies has decided to make the jump.It was fairly evident which fish was the dominant female of the group, one she was the biggest, she was the first acclimated and the first to eat. "Alpha" showed her domince to another female of the group. We call this female Stumpy because she no longers has lyres on her tail. Luckily Stumpy is doing very well and has returned to her normal eating and feeding behaviors. I noiticed some changes starting to take place in Alpha's behior and her physical apperance. As this is a first for my in fish keeping I thought I should share the process with all of you. And after I get my digital camera back there will be pictures a plenty.
The first sign I noticed something was different when Alpha was resting more at the mouth of her cave. She is in perfect condition physically and while her eating habbits have decreased she still seems very healthy. Note she has shown this behavior for about a week and I have been keeping a very close eye on her and have been conducting water tests daily to make sure everything is AOKAY. I think alot of this behavior is due to her sex change, the way I figure is that she needs all of her energy to complete the sex change. I believe there are other animals that take this similar behavior during or before mating, pregnacy and rearing their young. The first physical sign I noticed was the lengthening of the front part of Alpha's dorsal fin, at the same time her hue started to change from the bright orangeish color to pale and is now starting to show slight pink to purplish hues. Her dorsal fin is really showing the purple as well. This brings us up to date with her progress. I will be the first to admit at first I was very worried for Alpha's health and then it dawned on me that this could just be the natural process. Or at least I hope
By no means am I an expert and I would love to hear the stories if anyone has gone through a sex change before.... I promise I will get pictures as soon as I get them.
Kevin
