Blue throat trigger question

[Fishingandreefing]

I am pretty sure I bought a male as it had blue on the jaw and colors on the tail trimming. Now it lost almost all the colors and he looks like a female to me.

One of my reason why I like thus triggerfish was his colors. Now what can I do?

Add a female? Or I can add another male so that the current “male” will change Sex or remain its color? Let me know what would you do or what you have heard or read to remedy this.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I’ll tag along for an answer. I bought two (2) smaller “males” (each showing a little blue) from an LFS that had them in the same tank for several weeks. Now that they are home in my 150-gallon, and close to 4”, they both look like females— no blue on the throat, no yellow rim to the fins.

 

[JGT]

I’ve read that there needs to be a female for the males colors to be very evident. Like a lot of fish they seem to be able to control their colors, esp the blue on the throat.

I have a female now and am looking for a male but haven’t come across any so far that are oozing testosterone. Still think the female is also a beautiful fish with its spotted blue gray body and the way it looks at me with its blue eyeshadow eyes.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I’ll tag along for an answer. I bought two (2) smaller “males” (each showing a little blue) from an LFS that had them in the same tank for several weeks. Now that they are home in my 150-gallon, and close to 4”, they both look like females— no blue on the throat, no yellow rim to the fins.

When I first started keeping them I got a female without noticing it was a female. So I then added a male but later they male lost its color or changed to a female. They’re dang tricky.

I hope yours will work out at the end

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I’ve read that there needs to be a female for the males colors to be very evident. Like a lot of fish they seem to be able to control their colors, esp the blue on the throat.

I have a female now and am looking for a male but haven’t come across any so far that are oozing testosterone. Still think the female is also a beautiful fish with its spotted blue gray body and the way it looks at me with its blue eyeshadow eyes.

Oh yeah they’re all beautiful but I just missed that blue jaw and bright yellow trim which why I got him at the first place.

 

[JGT]

Agreed. That’s why I want the male now too. Also the fact that with many fish you can’t sex them so having a known couple would be kinda cool. And they have great personality. My son calls mine “dog fish” since it’s behaves so much like a dog.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I think I read somewhere that you can’t really tell ‘what’ it will be until it’s a good 4”... so if there is any truth to that, I might just be on the cusp of seeing some blue and yellow on at least one soon. I’m hoping, because to be honest, my two are a bit drab. At least they pal around and don’t fight. I did have them do this weird ‘death spiral’ a couple of times that lasted about 20 seconds. It was like synchronized swimming. Lol!

 

[JGT]

I think I read somewhere that it is some sort of mating ritual.

 

[JumboShrimp]

(If that’s the case, then I REALLY hope at least one is a male. Lol!)

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

The couple males I've kept have stayed male, but were bigger than 4". I imagine they're hermaphrodites, so adding/keeping a second should help, but isn't always the case. I've kept a lot of Genicanthus sp angels in groups, only to have a male revert back to female, and they all stay that way.

As far as I know they are demersal spawners (sand bed layers), but that cupping is definitely some kind of mating behavior. Sorry for this poor quality, it's very old, but here are blue hamlets spawning in similar pose.