Finally..... after 16.5 years..... they got a male.

Zionas · Feb 15, 2021

Just found this link, where an aquarium in Switzerland have been keeping a pair of Genicanthus Melanospilos for 17 years. They were both females living inside their big display tank, but as of last year in December one of them changed to male. Phew, it took 16 and a half years.....

Sudden stripes – swallowtail angelfish change sex

For 16 years, display tank 21 in Basel Zoo’s vivarium was home to two female swallowtail angelfish. This suddenly changed last summer: over the course of a few weeks, one of the females began to change colour, displaying magnificent stripes from August onwards. to show that it had become a male.

www.zoobasel.ch

laverda · Feb 15, 2021

They sure got the clownfish part wtong!

mtfish · Feb 15, 2021

laverda said:
They sure got the clownfish part wtong!

The article statement is correct. Clownfish go from male to female, whereas the angel fish go from female to male. Did I miss something?

laverda · Feb 15, 2021

No clowns go from nosexual juveniles to male, to female. Big difference! They are not born male.

mtfish · Feb 15, 2021

laverda said:
No clowns go from nosexual juveniles to male, to female. Big difference! They are not born male.

Now you have me thinking.
Disclaimer: I do not breed fish so I may be blowing smoke.

Which of these statements best describe clownfish? In simultaneous hermaphroditism individuals possess fully functional male and female gonads while in sequential hermaphroditism fish change sex sometime during its life, either from male to female (protandry) or from female to male (protogyny).

I know clownfish do not change on size, but due to social structure, but it seems to me they have to have something to become functional males then females to begin with. Do they have both as larvae? Trying to learn something new today.

Zionas · Feb 16, 2021

I can see the female-turned-male is having wrinkles on its face. Is it a sign of old age?

mort · Feb 16, 2021

Clowns are protandrous sequential hermaphrodites. The disparity in the way they are considered is because only two of the group, are breeding fish. If you aren't the dominant female or male, then due to the dominance of the sexual mature pair, you are kept as a physically non breeding immature male.

mort · Feb 16, 2021

Zionas said:
I can see the female-turned-male is having wrinkles on its face. Is it a sign of old age?

Don't really know what you are meaning by wrinkles, some might just be natural markings or definition picked up by the camera, but they do show plenty of signs of age. The male has some damage around and under the eye but they are old. Lots of fish show no signs of age but you can definitely see other species that have damage, perhaps as a result of a disease in the past. The male looks like it may have had some hlle at some point in its past.

Zionas · Feb 16, 2021

Awesome! That’s great to know. What are some other clear signs of age in angels or other species of fish?

Zionas · Feb 16, 2021

On a side note, does adding 2 Genicanthus females usually work out with 1 turning male? My LFS gets them in at 3.5-4”, what if they’re the same size? Thanks.

mort · Feb 16, 2021

Zionas said:
Awesome! That’s great to know. What are some other clear signs of age in angels or other species of fish?

General loss of vibrance is quite common as is natural lumps and bumps or imperfections. It's just showing the story of their lives really.

Zionas said:
On a side note, does adding 2 Genicanthus females usually work out with 1 turning male? My LFS gets them in at 3.5-4”, what if they’re the same size? Thanks.

Didn't we mention this before? Generally genicanthus aren't that fussed about changing sex. It happens enough for it to be documented but it's not something that always occurs in the confines of our tanks. I don't know if it's the way we keep them, if they simply don't want to change very often or if it's a matter of time as your article find above may suggest (we may simply not keep them long enough on average for a change to occur).
So I'd suggest that if you want a guaranteed pair, buy one, if your happy to play the odds then try two females but be in the knowledge that you'd lucky to see a change.