The A. femininus whisperer: My working theory

[WayneL333]

LA DD has a male listed right now and at first I thought they had made a mistake because it had the female coloration. But I looked closely at the male and female pictures and saw that theirs is a female changing over to a male too. If you notice, the female neon blue scales are lateral line, but the male's neon scales aren't lateral but more speckled "l" shaped. That's what my morphing female scales are beginning to look like more.

Anyway, I'm kinda of screwed because there's no way I can take either male out of my display tank without tearing it apart. They're too shy to swim into fish traps and even if I quickly drain the water to catch the fish, they'll hide and bury themselves in the sand, which the new male is doing right now. My only hope is that they'll all learn to get along...

 

[evolved]

Yup; once the lateral lines start to "break", the tides have changed.

You may have an option yet; if the area he dives into the sand is accessible for you, you could consider "scooping" him out with the sand in that area.

 

[WayneL333]

Yup; once the lateral lines start to "break", the tides have changed.

You may have an option yet; if the area he dives into the sand is accessible for you, you could consider "scooping" him out with the sand in that area.

Yeah, I gotta invest the time to do that, but I have so much rock in my tank, I don't think he'll do it in an accessible area.

 

[Eville]

Is there a chance one male will revert to female after the other gains dominance? Or does it not work that way? Still my favorites along with the Choati. Good luck

 

[WayneL333]

That's a good question. My guess would be no. None of my male leopard wrasses or melanarus wrasses ever changed back to females. Maybe someone else can chime in?

Luckily, it's not pressing for me to catch either of the males right now. They have different sleep schedules. Currently, the new male fem wakes up a lot earlier than the changed male and hides in the sand after it gets tired of being chased around. As long as I make sure the new males gets fed early, I think I'm good for now.

 

[evolved]

Is there a chance one male will revert to female after the other gains dominance? Or does it not work that way?

In situations like these, I'd put those odds at about 0.2%

 

[WayneL333]

In situations like these, I'd put those odds at about 0.2%

So you're saying I have a chance???

 

[WayneL333]

Ok, the emergency is over. The morphed male came out this morning and is getting along with the new male. The only problem now is my trio is now a 2 male, single female. Now I've got to pick up at least one more female, if not a few more! I'm thinking a school of femininus would look awesome in my tank!

 

[cFloor]

A school would be absolutely amazing! I would love to see this

 

[nonimmigrant]

Ok, the emergency is over. The morphed male came out this morning and is getting along with the new male. The only problem now is my trio is now a 2 male, single female. Now I've got to pick up at least one more female, if not a few more! I'm thinking a school of femininus would look awesome in my tank!

Wayne: keep an even number of females. I had three and found that one always got picked on by the other two. Four IME was enough to curb this.

 

[WayneL333]

Wayne: keep an even number of females. I had three and found that one always got picked on by the other two. Four IME was enough to curb this.

Noted. Thank you!

 

[WayneL333]

More pictures!

Morning cleaning!

The newly changed male is really flashing its colors now:

More so than the full male:

 

[WrassePains]

Awesome thread! You've got an incredible fish collection! Seriously, it's killing me! I recently lost a femininus that was aggressively eating frozen foods. I never figured out why. I thought I was in the clear with how it was eating, but it must have had some sort of health issue. Do they have susceptibilities to certain illnesses I'm not aware of, or did I just get unlucky? It's made me very reluctant to try again, but i would kill for a male/female pair!

 

[marineblue]

Great looking fishes! Do you still keep them?
May I ask you a question on their behaviuor - do they dig into the sand and spitting it? As mine(female) is constantly doing it and sand is everywhere