Guppies changing sex

[Brownsnoutuk]

id read about people seperating their females and males, and then the females anal fin turning into a males fin.

well i seperated all my females about a month ago, and they were definately all female. now i have two females with the male fin. the females still have the body shape of a female (theyre not fat males) but they now have colour along their sides.

anybody else had this happen? i know they wont be able to impregnate the other females, but i thought it was cool anyway.

chris

[Ellen]

Re: Guppies changing sex

I have a platy, it was a female a year ago, dropped fry and everything. Then she was all alone for about 10 months. She stopped dropping fry, and slowly her bottom fins started changing. You know how females bottom fins are triangular where males have their gonopodium? Now her fins she keeps folded up next to her, like she wants to have a gonopodium.

A few weeks ago I added some more platties in with her. I added 2 females and one male...She ignores and is ignored by the male completely, but she is always pestering the females, like she is trying to mate with them.

Its very interesting, IMO.

Ellen

[Brownsnoutuk]

Re: Guppies changing sex

yes, i know the difference in the anal fins.
the most interesting thing was the fact the females are getting as colourful as some of the males. They actually have colours that i dont have in any of my males.

chris

[Ellen]

Re: Guppies changing sex

Do your colorful females still have 'normal' looking fins? I thought it was interesting that my female looks at first glance like a boy 'down there' now.

It is neat that they are colorful. Do you know if they're still fertile? Do they act like males?

Ellen

[guppymax]

Re: Guppies changing sex

The male guppy's anal fin normally morphs to a gonopodium at about one month of age. The color or amount of it changes too. I had some that morphed at 3-4 months that grew bigger, were pale in color, and nearly sterile. Eventually I lost this line. I have also had all female drops of about fourty. Guppies are supposed to be an XY system, but what I see makes me think it is more complicated than that. In some of the other fish sex is determined by environmental factors. There are other genetic conventions besides XY as well

max