Genicanthus males - your experiences?

[racingrich]

Anyone with these fish have and ideas abut them eating caulerpa

 

[jda]

They are planktivores for the most part. I don't see mine picking at the rocks much. Where did you read that they should eat feather caulerpa?

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13078815#post13078815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MyReefCreations
Bear in mind this- flashy males are at a very distinct disadvantage, in a functional ecological sense. Brighter, fdlashier fish are more obvious to predatiors. The main benefit to this is sexual selection from mates. MAny species will adjust their appearance to help counteract this. For example, a huge number of birds will have breeding plumage, and non-breeding, or eclipse, plumage. Is it possible these males are really NOT reverting to females, but just dulling down the colors, as breeding isnt prevalent, and they see no reason to draw attention to themselves (not willful decisions, obviously). In my scenario, there are certain cues which would cause the reversal back to male. Prehaps a "better" chance of breeding (more females, more room, certain foods, who knows???), or more sexual competiton (another male). Just spitballing.

Good theory. I guess it will be very interesting to see if my angel's behavior changes or not, as his color does....

 

[gasman059]

Peter I've seen it both ways-with wantanabe and shallow tail.

IME is new species and stress added to the environment causes them to change(no expert here).

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13173916#post13173916 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gasman059
IME is new species and stress added to the environment causes them to change(no expert here).

I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean the addition of new fish to the system? What experiences make you think this?

 

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13174259#post13174259 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean the addition of new fish to the system? What experiences make you think this?

here's the scenario I saw with both my pairs.
established pair of wt w/o issues-introduced a pair of japs and the dominant male in my case the wt remained(male) then the japanese male changed to female, after both of the shallow tails where removed from the tank the wt became a female or IMO a subdominant male and when the female wt was removed stayed female.

Currently I don't own any but love genichantus.

 

[SDguy]

LOL, I think I need a flowchart to follow that

 

[Chibils]

Female melanospilos for three months. Still female.

 

[SDguy]

:lol:

 

[SDguy]

Well, thought I'd update. While my male continues to SLOWY lose stripes and turn dark, he acts the same. And that elongated "male" shape is there, along with the ridiculously long tail streamers. No aggression. And I caught him courting the female tonight!!

Perhaps there is something to MRC's theory!

 

[wayne in norway]

My experience with my male melanospilos that I was given was that it was very stressed in a tank nearly 5 foot by 3 foot in base area. Big fish, too small tank. I can't believe now people recommend them for 4 footers.

 

[SDguy]

Thanks for the opinion . Are you suggesting the color change is due to stress? Or the courting behavior indicates stress?

 

[SDguy]

An updated pic from tonight. More stripes lost. But still all over very blue. I tried to take a pic that showed the true colors best, so no flash (sorry about the quality). And still no more hint of increasing black edges to the tail, which seems to happen quite quickly in this species. So I have no idea what it's doing :-/

 

[flameangel88]

I was over at the lfs last week and saw 4 Melanospilos--2 males and 2 females so I pick the male that wasn't having swimming problem and a female to keep him from changing back but I think it may be too late.

Good looking side

the other side that appears to be changing

The female was weak and got suck on by the powerhead and I'd to remove and it's doing well in a smaller and slower flow tank. It's eating well but I wanted to give another week to recover before putting it back in with the male.

What do you think--male changing to female?

 

[tanglovers]

I have a bellus angel pair, bought as a pair from an LFS about a year ago, possibly a little longer. Was added with a single female into the display tank. Single female did not make it, disappeared after a day or so (unknown reason - went through a full QT). The pair though has done great, tons of courting and I have witnessed spawning on 2 occasions. My lights don't go off until like 2:30 am so I am not up and by the tank most nights.

They are in a 220, with lots of other tangs and angels, fed 3-4 times daily a variety of foods.

 

[SDguy]

Not sure. What's interesting is the differences from the "fade" mine is doing. Mine lost the black breast spot first, then the forehead stripes. Yours has a clear spot, and dark forehead stripes, but fading body stripes. Yours also has more dark edging to the tail than mine.... Not even sure if any of that means anything

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14112051#post14112051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flameangel88
I was over at the lfs last week and saw 4 Melanospilos--2 males and 2 females so I pick the male that wasn't having swimming problem and a female to keep him from changing back but I think it may be too late.

Good looking side

the other side that appears to be changing

The female was weak and got suck on by the powerhead and I'd to remove and it's doing well in a smaller and slower flow tank. It's eating well but I wanted to give another week to recover before putting it back in with the male.

What do you think--male changing to female?

 

[flameangel88]

Either way I'm glad I got this one as the other male died after I took this one home. I just don't understand why the collection and shipping is so poor on males. The lfs is still has another female which I may consider getting to give this guy two gals to keep him from changing.

 

[SDguy]

Well the article linked earlier in the thread showed a trio, and the male still changed....

 

[flameangel88]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14112953#post14112953 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Well the article linked earlier in the thread showed a trio, and the male still changed....

I still have to do all I can for him and the rest is upto him.

 

[snorvich]

Ok, this is going to seem weird. I had a male Watanabei and it changed from Male to female. So, put a male in, it went nuts! Killed the male, then changed back to male. Then reversed course and is female.

I also (different tank) purchased a pair of G. Bellus. No changes.