Genicanthus bellus female to male?

[StarF]

Hi

i have 2x Genicanthus bellus females in my system, had them for ½ year. I really wanted to get a male and a female, but couldent get a hold of a male, so after reading, that they could change sex back and forth, i got 2x females and added. How ever, even after a ½ year either of them have changed. Do any one have any experience in how much time it would take?

one is a bit bigger than the other, and is clearly running things.. It dosent seem to like the other one, but it dosent hurt it either. It just chases it around sometimes. THey both feed, and look healthy, so does any got any input on this lovly underrated fish ?

 

[flameangel88]

I'd 2 females before and for over 2 years the larger one never changed while the watanabe female pair took 11 months for the larger one to change to male. Pictures of the transformation are on the thread titled 'for the love of genecanthus'.

I've seen more swallowtail and watanabe changing to male here on RC. Imho I thnk female bellus are more pretty.

 

[betamed]

I don't think its very common for bellus to turn male. However they are haramic so you could still add a male.

+1 on this being an underated fish I've had my female for years and she's prolly my favorite fish.

 

[StarF]

the female are more pretty, but could be nice if they made a pair but as long they dont kill each other i am happy

if i added a male, would it stop the bigger female from chasing the other?

 

[ilvfsh]

if i added a male, would it stop the bigger female from chasing the other?

It wouldnt make it any worse. Im not sure what the trigger is for a female to change to a male. You might end up with 1 female and 2 males.

 

[StarF]

Good point, guess i will just wait it out and see what happens.

 

[snorvich]

the female are more pretty, but could be nice if they made a pair but as long they dont kill each other i am happy

if i added a male, would it stop the bigger female from chasing the other?

the behavior you are seeing (chasing) is likely the larger female in the process of changing, albeit very slowly.

 

[StarF]

that is good news, lets hope this is whats going on

 

[INSPECTOR]

I had a female for over a year and then came across a male. 2 weeks after putting him in the tank, I lost the female. Nobody was picking on her, or did I miss something. Do you think I can get another female and put her in?

 

[Crab Rangoon]

I had a female for over a year and then came across a male. 2 weeks after putting him in the tank, I lost the female. Nobody was picking on her, or did I miss something. Do you think I can get another female and put her in?

I assume in your situation, the lone male would return to being female without another one introduced in the near future. Is this not correct?