how to determine the sex of your clown fish

have you ever wondered how you could tell if your clown fish are male or female? well this small topic is to help you determine that.


first off for those that do not know ALL clowns are born male. as time goes on some will start to grow to a larger size than others, these larger clowns have changed sex and are female. so when shopping for clowns when you want a "mated" pair you eityher need 2 the same size (in which case one will change its sex to female, or you need an already mated pair in which your LFS should have them in a tank mated up already.


now another fact is that clowns can change their sex so the one you have that is female today may change its sex back to male later and your4 male become a female, and they can change their sex more than once (although i have not personally seen this i have had a female become a male and a male become a female.

Could you please tell me where you got your info on clown fish? I have always read that once a clown fish tuns female, it can not change bac. I would be very interested on reading about that.
thanks

my info came from 2 different shops, and amarine biologist at ethe dallas aquarium. basically in the wild (key is in the wild although it has on rare occasions happened in captivity) a clown can change its sex due to teh needs of nature and their particular place in their surroundings like if there are mor females than males some of the females will revert to males and vice versa.

weird!!!

i thought once they changed sex, they stayed.

no tim not necessarily, although in captivity they rearely change back in the wild it is common practice for them to switch back and forth to maintian a balance of sorts.

In all of the information I have read on clowns, and in talking with people, I have never heard of them changing back from female to male. That is certainly someting I wouild be interested in learning more about, since it goes against everything I have ever read or heard. I have been raising clowns for over 20 years now. So I went to the internet to find more. I found nothing saying they can change back, but did find this.
http://www.chehaliscoral.com/page.php?id=10.


As many of you know the clown fish is one of the most popular salt fish today. Movies have helped this along. Below is some informaion many of you may find very helpful in purchasing and breeding clowns.


Q: What is the nature of clownfish in terms of gender?

A: Clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites. Clownfish are hatched sexually immature or in other words sexless, neither male or female. This in the simplest of terms means that they change from sexless to male to female. This is a one way trip; sexless to male never to sexless again and male to female never to male again. They may spend their entire life as a sexually immature fish depending on their environment.

Q: So what is required for a clownfish to change sex?

A: For a clownfish to change sex two requirements must be met. First the fish must be physically mature (12-24 months old) and must have an environmental cue to transform. The cue to become a female is the lack of a female in the environment. The cue to become male is that a dominate female is present in the environment, but the environment is lacking a male. The cue to remain sexless is that the environment has an existing dominate female and male pair.

So with that being said, I am cedrtainly interested in hearing more from your expert on this happening. We all may learn a lesson here.

I've heard about them changing back and forth, but mostly in the wild.

they WILL NOT change from female to male. Clownfish only change from male to female. the most dominant of the group becomes the breeding female and when she dies, the next most dominant male takes her spot.

shadowninja wrote:

they WILL NOT change from female to male. Clownfish only change from male to female. the most dominant of the group becomes the breeding female and when she dies, the next most dominant male takes her spot.

well i hate to burst your bubble (i know you are trying hard to get it so you can sell something) but they CAN and WILL according to one of the marine biologists i spoke to at teh okc aquarium. next you will be telling me that frogs dont change sex

frogs change sex? i remember this from jurassic park lol

weird i knew they went from male to female but i never knew the other way around. so when that happens does the new female grow larger than the male, that use to be the female lol. or when a new fish is introduced to the tank does it change or stay the sex depending on what the other clown is??

drudown66 wrote:

weird i knew they went from male to female but i never knew the other way around. so when that happens does the new female grow larger than the male, that use to be the female lol. or when a new fish is introduced to the tank does it change or stay the sex depending on what the other clown is??

never been so confused in my life lol

i have heard of clownfish switching sexes in BIG aquariums but never a home aquarium. i think that is what lord is refering too

tim wrote:

i have heard of clownfish switching sexes in BIG aquariums but never a home aquarium. i think that is what lord is refering too

yes i am also referring not only to them doing it in large aquariums but also in the wild where large numbers are present

anything is possible and i wouldnt doubt it