Abrupt sex change in wrasse

YellowFinsReef · Aug 19, 2019

Can anyone help make any logical sense of my situation?

I got back from my trip in Thailand in April and have been sort of lazy about doing water changes. Long story short, I decided to do a 25-30% water change a week ago after 5 months of just topping off water. Immediately, almost over night, my female leopard wrasse of 3yrs changed from female to something between a female becoming a male. Then, my pair of redtail tamarin wrasses (1 male, 1 female) turned on each other, so I had to separate them. I didn't notice it immediately, but after a week, it has become more apparent that she's also becoming a male. Other wrasses have gotten a bit more aggressive as well.

Any speculations on why this is all happening after doing a water change (after not doing it) for 5 months, or was this just a coincidence?

Macdaddynick1 · Aug 19, 2019

There’s something in the water. Lol. Jk can’t help but this sounds interesting.

redfishbluefish · Aug 19, 2019

@evolved knows about wrasses. Hopefully he has something to say

evolved · Aug 19, 2019

Almost certainly just coincidence. If anything, if you stirred up the tank or maybe did something else inside the DT which might have caused a bit of stress or chaos then that could have sparked things, but I see no chance that a very small change in water chemistry itself would spark such events.

YellowFinsReef · Aug 19, 2019

evolved said:
Almost certainly just coincidence. If anything, if you stirred up the tank or maybe did something else inside the DT which might have caused a bit of stress or chaos then that could have sparked things, but I see no chance that a very small change in water chemistry itself would spark such events.

I figured it was probably a coincidence as well. I did fix the rock work as they were either in awkward positions or fell apart. But it was very nuanced. I just wished I took a before and after photo of that night of the fishes to just document the dramatic change overnight.