DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi,
I have four different Genicanthus females in my tank: G. bellus, G. melanospilos, G. lamarck and G. semifasciatus. They live happily together without aggression.
G. melanospilos female is the oldest and largest. She is really fat. Since I introduced a female juvenile G. semifasciatus in my tank last month, she has started to act like a male in that she became mildly aggressive towards G. lamarck. She chases her occasionally without any issues though. Most interestingly, she started to exhibit what appears to be courtship display towards the female G. semifasciatus (i.e. staying upright motionless while twitching her tail). During "courtship" display, her colour especially around the head region gets darker.
I am really confused about this. Can you please give me a logical explanation for this behaviour?
Do you think my female G. melanospilos is turning to a male despite still having female colours? Can different Genicanthus genera breed? Why is she only interested in G. semifasciatus and not the others? Are G. melanospilos and G. semifasciatus close genera?
FWIW, here is a picture of all my Genicanthus females.
Thank you in anticipation.
I have four different Genicanthus females in my tank: G. bellus, G. melanospilos, G. lamarck and G. semifasciatus. They live happily together without aggression.
G. melanospilos female is the oldest and largest. She is really fat. Since I introduced a female juvenile G. semifasciatus in my tank last month, she has started to act like a male in that she became mildly aggressive towards G. lamarck. She chases her occasionally without any issues though. Most interestingly, she started to exhibit what appears to be courtship display towards the female G. semifasciatus (i.e. staying upright motionless while twitching her tail). During "courtship" display, her colour especially around the head region gets darker.
I am really confused about this. Can you please give me a logical explanation for this behaviour?
Do you think my female G. melanospilos is turning to a male despite still having female colours? Can different Genicanthus genera breed? Why is she only interested in G. semifasciatus and not the others? Are G. melanospilos and G. semifasciatus close genera?
FWIW, here is a picture of all my Genicanthus females.
Thank you in anticipation.
