How long does it take a female wrasse to transition to male?

[jerod89]

I'm considering getting several species of fairy wrasses for a 150 gallon mixed reef. My question is if I purchase all juveniles/females, (which are obviously more cost effective) would they all transition to males and how long does this process generally take?

 

[eatbreakfast]

There is no set time, but usually between 3 weeks to 3 months, with some instances going as long as 6 months.

 

[jaa1456]

It took over a year for my female Flame wrasse to change and and I had my diamond tail flasher for over a year and it never made a full transition.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Usually sexing is determined by age and social stimuli. In your case of multiple females of the same species one of the females will have a stronger incentive to become male to create a harem.

 

[albano]

It took over a year for my female Flame wrasse to change and and I had my diamond tail flasher for over a year and it never made a full transition.

+1... I have multiple juvi wrasses for over a year that have not transitioned (including 3 juvi flames and 3 juvi hooded) but out of my ~40 wrasses there are already a few different males and supermales

 

[scuzy]

i have a female flame that went into the overflow and i just found it after a whole year. She is starting to transition to a male but still can see it's more of a female flame right now.

 

[jerod89]

Well I was planning to add female/juvi lineatus, flame, and exquisite wrasses at roughly the same time, but I don't wanted to wait a year for them to transition so maybe I'll just bite the bullet and purchase males from the get go.

 

[evolved]

This is one of the most frequent questions I see, but my standard answer is: "A few weeks to many, many months. Possibly never."

The reason why there is not a set answer is it depends on many factors. The biggest, and most variable, are the dynamics within the tank. Wrasses natural transition as the environment requires, so if there is another fish with is very dominant over a juvi wrasse, this could delay the process a long time (or completely prevent it, in the extreme). Of course, the initial age of the juvi wrasse also matters, and is another variable in the question. And lastly, the genus matters too. Cirrhilabrus and Paracheilinus transition more readily, but the above variables still apply.

 

[d-man]

My 2 female flames have not transitioned and it's been a year and a half. There are multiple male wrasses in the tank too. But still nothing from the flames.