Carpenter wrasses gender change question

[MaxM]

I already have a male C wrasse. If I purchase 2 females, or apparent females/juveniles, will they remain females?

 

[SaltyT]

I would not recommend keeping a group of the same species of flasher wrasse. Eventually the juvi/female flashers will transition to male. Your existing male will probably try his best to keep them from transitioning, but eventually they will transition. No way to know how long that will take. Usually the "new" male will end up taking out the "old" male.

If you want to see your carpenter wrasse display more often, add a few more different species of male flashers. The different males will flash and display at each other.

 

[MaxM]

So are you saying that all carpenter wrasses are eventually going to become male? There are none that are destined to be female?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

So are you saying that all carpenter wrasses are eventually going to become male? There are none that are destined to be female?

My understanding is that most wrasse will transition to male at some point in our tanks (though not necessarily in the wild), but some species are less likely to transition than others.

We're not sure what exactly triggers the transition, but there's at least some info on the change below.

That's my understanding too. The transition seems to be caused by specific stressors of some kind, but we don't seem to understand what the stressors are. In the wild, they'll transition when the terminal male of the group is removed, so it is related to their social structure in some way, but, clearly, the stressor or stressors that initiate the change are not necessarily tied to social structure.

from my understanding the change happens because of certain stressors triggering a few different chemicals in the fish, and that leads me to believe that something about our tanks makes them subpar environments from a stress standpoint for the wrasses, but that’s another matter.

 

[SaltyT]

So are you saying that all carpenter wrasses are eventually going to become male? There are none that are destined to be female?

In our home aquariums, yes. The reason isn't easy to explain, but to put it simply most of us can't replicate a protogynous hermaphrodite harem in our home aquariums so without the social cues and controls of the harem, nature will eventually take its course and the female will transition to male.

 

[MaxM]

In our home aquariums, yes. The reason isn't easy to explain, but to put it simply most of us can't replicate a protogynous hermaphrodite harem in our home aquariums so without the social cues and controls of the harem, nature will eventually take its course and the female will transition to male.

I wonder if it's the abundance of food? Does the male influence feeding behavior in the wild?

 

[SaltyT]

I wonder if it's the abundance of food? Does the male influence feeding behavior in the wild?

The dominant male spends his time defending his harem from rivals, spawning daily with females and also dominating the females to keep them from transitioning to male. It's hard work to dominant all those females so as the females get bigger some will be able to transition into initial-phase males that will sneak and spawn with the other females. It's another way to ensure survival of the species I guess. If the dominant male dies or gets weak, the biggest initial-phase male will turn into a terminal-phase male and take over. This cycle repeats over and over.