Wrasse questions

bruleyii · Jun 4, 2015

I'm looking to get a wrasse for my tank. I was curious about how wrasses change sex. If I only put one in my tank would it change sex? If it was male would it turn female or if it was female would it turn male?

Not sure how the sex of wrasses wrasses work.

Thanks in advance.

eatbreakfast · Jun 4, 2015

Wrasses are sequential hermaphrodites that go from female to male. In many cases a female without a male will transition to a male on it's own. Genera that readily do this are Halichoeres, Cirrhilabrus and Paracheilinus. Other genera that are a little less likely than the previous are Macropharyngodon, Anampses and Pseudojuloides, though they still may.

bruleyii · Jun 4, 2015

Ive been reading up on this article http://www.stri.si.edu/sites/publications/PDFs/ross_10.pdf and I guess the better question I have to figure out is if they are monochromatic or dichromatic. Then if I have one it wont matter if its female or male because they will look the same.

Still though thats good to know. I'm leaning towards a flasher wrasse of some sort but haven't narrowed it down yet. Are they normally in the first group or the second that you mentioned?

eatbreakfast · Jun 4, 2015

bruleyii said:
Ive been reading up on this article http://www.stri.si.edu/sites/publications/PDFs/ross_10.pdf and I guess the better question I have to figure out is if they are monochromatic or dichromatic. Then if I have one it wont matter if its female or male because they will look the same.

Still though thats good to know. I'm leaning towards a flasher wrasse of some sort but haven't narrowed it down yet. Are they normally in the first group or the second that you mentioned?

There was an error on the link. But the term is sexually dimorphic, where there are visible differences to determine gender, and wrasses most certainly are sexually dimorphic. Males are usually far more colorful and have larger fins for displaying, though Anampses species provide exceptions to that.

bruleyii · Jun 4, 2015

Hmm link seems to work for me. The article is old. Maybe some things have been proven different since then. It looked like it was written in the 70's so it doesnt surprise me.

bruleyii · Jun 4, 2015

Ive been looking through Live Aquaria for wrasses. It doesn't always list a picture of the fish in adolescent stage or declare if the picture is male or female. Should I just assume that the female looks the same as a male at that point?

But I guess that doesn't matter if what you said farther up is true that a single female will turn male.

evolved · Jun 4, 2015

bruleyii said:
Ive been looking through Live Aquaria for wrasses. It doesn't always list a picture of the fish in adolescent stage or declare if the picture is male or female. Should I just assume that the female looks the same as a male at that point?

It's pretty safe to assume the photos on LA are of males, unless otherwise stated.