Female Swordtail Is Now A Male?

[Rawwrhh]

Yesterday while looking at my swordtails i noticed that my large female now has a sword and a gonopodium. I did a bit of research and from what I've gathered, she changed sex as there were not enough males in the tank. I have had her for about 7 months now and i bought him/her when he/she was fully grown according to the manager at the store i bought him/her from. My male swordtail still tries to mate with him/her but she/he just scares him off.

In november i bought 3 swordtails, 1 male and 2 female. the female that changed sex has had babies but only 1 survived. The other female is now pregnant.

So what should i do? I've heard you should have 1 male to every 3 females.

 

[mattlee]

im not sure that fish or any animal can change its sex.... some snails need no mate to reproduce and a single snail can become many but ive never heard of a fish change sex!
i male to every 3 females is a general rule for livebearers so the females dont get too stressed out from being harrased by the male.

 

[Mr&Mrs Newb McFish]

hi. i got some pinapple swordtails about a month ago that all looked fully grown to me.

i got 1 male and 4 females.

i noticed a couple of days ago that one of the ones i thought was female is now developing a sword and gonopodium which has come as a shock.

 

[Rawwrhh]

I've heard of male Clownfish changing sex when the female dies as there is only 1 female to about 4 males, Although they cannot change back.

It's really confusing because my she has had babies which proves she was a female but now she appears to be a male.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Rawwrhh.
Swordtails cannot change sex, it is determined genetically for swordtails. What they can do, and are notorious for doing, is hide their male gender for a long time before exhibiting male characteristics like the sword and gonopodium.
What happens is easy to understand. Male common swordtails, the kind most of us see in a LFS, are quite aggressive toward other males of their own species. An adaptive strategy used by some of the less dominant males, to avoid that aggression, is to not let their gender be obvious to the dominant male for as long as they can get away with it. I have had wild type X helleri not show their true gender for over 18 months. When they finally give in and allow their true gender to become obvious, they are often some of the most strikingly beautiful males in the tank. In that condition, they need no longer fear harassment by the former dominant male in the tank. They become the dominant male in the tank and have their choice of the real females.

 

[fish48]

i agree with oldman Swordtails cannot change sex
some times old females can take on the characteristic of a male swordtail however they can not function as a normal male .

 

[helterskelter]

Again Swords dont change sex.

As oldman say's it's a strategy ployed in some males to allow them self's to get much larger and stronger with less hassle from other males.
These late developers however are then the best males your ever see. I've commenly seen fish of a year old suddenly turn into males. However if you had studied this fish well you would of noticed it was never pregnant and had never given birth before.

Also fish48 is correct about old females developeing male characteristic's, this is due to hormone imbalances in old age which makes the secondary (external) characteristic's to develop, like for example the gonopodium.

 

[Rawwrhh]

I've learnt quite a lot now but I'm still a bit confused because if it was a male all along, how did it have babies?

And yes it is a very big and beautiful fish. He is black with some blue scales scattered around his body. His eyes are also quite large in comparison to the other male. When I bought the two I was sure that they were different species because of the size difference

 

[helterskelter]

Well it's defo had fry then it's now passed it.

As i said already, old females can develop hormone imbalances of male hormones which then allow then to develop a gonopodium and sword, but as far as I'm aware they are infertile.

 

[Rawwrhh]

Oh, Ok.

Today I bought a female swordtail and I just want to know if there's a possibility that she is actually a male. Are there certain things I should look for to make sure it is a female? I know that when they're young you can't tell the difference, and I don't think she has matured yet because she is very little compared to my other swordtails.

The woman at the store where i buy my fish from said that it was a female but that's what they said about the last one

 

[Coool]

i looked up the swordtail profile and i found this:

Young Livebearers are fairly large at birth and their development is very advanced. They can swim right away, which is needed to avoid their enemies including their parents who give no natal care whatsoever. The fry grow very rapidly and will eagerly accept fine flake food. An interesting fact on Swordtails is their ability to change sexes. All young swordtails are female and if a potential male starts to develop early, he will continue to become a slender small male. If a potential male goes through a female stage complete with the typical female form and gravid spot, he will develop into a large thickset "late" male.




Read it and look does it sound something like yours ( read it all )

 

[helterskelter]

i looked up the swordtail profile and i found this:

Young Livebearers are fairly large at birth and their development is very advanced. They can swim right away, which is needed to avoid their enemies including their parents who give no natal care whatsoever. The fry grow very rapidly and will eagerly accept fine flake food. An interesting fact on Swordtails is their ability to change sexes. All young swordtails are female and if a potential male starts to develop early, he will continue to become a slender small male. If a potential male goes through a female stage complete with the typical female form and gravid spot, he will develop into a large thickset "late" male.




Read it and look does it sound something like yours ( read it all )

Some very wrong facts in this last posting. This is just someones idea of they think happens.

An interesting fact on Swordtails is their ability to change sexes

Incorrect (Read above posts)

All young swordtails are female

Incorrect again, they are genetically different. So males are born males, they just don't develop the external signs untill they mature

 

[Coool]

alri
i sow that like a week ago and then i sow this post so i just coopied and pasted it

if you wanna see the webside just type in swordtail profile in google

 

[helterskelter]

Well I've sent badman a message but dont expect anything to happen

 

[Coool]

ok