do seahorses show thier sex at a secific time or at early age?

[reefD]

i wonder cause i cant id them when small but even the ones that appeared to have no pounch early on have grown and then i notice that they are males. any thoughts

 

[pledosophy]

Takes time. Many factors involved. Can take a bit for the pouch to become predominant.

 

[reefD]

ahh....i was checking cause i have become very good at sexing them. but recently at the lfs i work at we have been recieving small specimen and they all appear to be females. but! recently i notice one from an old order looking like a male. i was shocked as i was sure we hadnt gotten any males (all orders since and continue to be small and look like females). so i was wondering if it takes time. so in other words when they are small its hard to pick out the males? right? or do they become a male at a certain point due to triggers? or maybe they are nonsex until a certain age? just thinking out loud. any thoughts?

 

[reefD]

factors? what are they?

 

[cmsargent]

Depends on the species, nutrition, tank conditions etc. Males have to hit 'puberty' to develop thier pouches. Young seahorses will all look 'female' because they haven't developed thier pouch yet. Just like people some hit puberty early, others are late bloomers. I have a pair of erectus siblings that I got at 7 months. One was clearly a male with a well developed pouch. The other I thought was a female but he developed a pouch about a month later. Other breeds may develop earlier or later. Most I think develop thier pouches somewhere between 5-8 months old.

Most of the tank or pen raised seahorses I've been seeing in my LFS lately are very small (I'm guessing maybe 3-4 months old) and they all look female, though I'm sure some of these are males...just too young to tell.

 

[reefD]

6thatmake sense as this male just appeared amoung the bunch...that first appeared as all females