Why female flame wrasse becomes a male?

[hermesfansf]

A month ago I bought a super male flame wrasse pair from LFS, the pair have been in QT with other fish. Just a few days ago, I noticed that the female flame wrasse has started to change sex. Right now it's constantly flashing and challenging the male. I wonder how could this possibly happen especially when there is already a supermale in the QT.

 

[jcdeng]

are they from the diver's den? when the fishes come in, are they about the same size? if the female is larger, or she thinks that shes larger then I think what has happened to you can happen.

 

[hermesfansf]

I got them from LFS. The female is huge, but the male is bigger. Last night, I already saw them flashing and fighting at each other. Is it true when a female fairy wrasse reaches certain size she will become a male? I have a female lineatus in the QT right now, she is also doing the same thing, her coloration has developed and changed.

 

[jcdeng]

sorry I thought i read liveaquaria. As for your question, I have no real answer for, but I doubt that every female will turn into a male when they reach a certain size/age, cuz then they would have a problem producing offsprings. Logical guess would be the female might be already changing before she got into your tank, she might be older than the male. What I am getting at is that the male and the female did not grow up together but were introduce to each other at some point (LFS's tank, your qt) which were too late for the female cuz the gene to change kicked in already.

 

[evolved]

Quoting myself here:
"Cirrhilabrus wrasses are protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning females transition to male in the wild as harem conditions and space require."

So why it happened it a complex question, without a discernible answer. If I'm to speculate, the "female" you purchased was actually a sub male. However, Flames are notorious for transitioning like this in the presence of males in a closed system, so even individual species weighs in here.

A lone female of any species might transition to male, even in a QT by itself, but not necessarily.

When/if wrasses transition is entirely an environmental question, and has little to nothing to do with the size or age of the fish.

 

[buddythelion]

+1 with evolved. But like he said, flame females are really well known to change sex even with the presence of a male. Mine do everytime.

 

[hermesfansf]

It seems like the female flame wrasse in my DT also in the process of becoming a male....the yellow coloration starts to kick in rapidly....now I have 3 male flame wrasse!!!