Platy female turned into a male

Native American

Native American

Just Another Flying Fish
Apr 25, 2005
389
8
18
62
Altus, OK
Right now my wife's tank has 4 Mickey Mouse Platies (+22 fry in a net breeder): 1 male (very, very red...almost crimson) and 3 females...or so I thought.

All of the females had the characteristic fan shaped anal fin, while the lone male had a gonopodium. Now, one of the females appears to have a gonopodium, too. It's now a male.

I did a search, and it sounds like this was a male from the beginning that was just a late bloomer.

Has anybody else had this happen? I've had a few guppies do the same thing, but didn't expect platies to do it as well.

v/r, N-A
 
Yep, all of the common livebearers have early and late developing males. Some males are so slow to develop that they give rise to the livebearers changeing sex myth.

The interesting thing is that early developing males have mostly male offspring and late developing males have mostly female offspring, especially if the above is paired with a late and early female respectively.
 
I had wondered about that! The lady at my pet store told me that the two female mollies I bought would change so that at least one was a male. I didn't believe it, but I bought the fish any way. Needless to say there was no change!
 
Thanks for the great replies and sharing of knowledge. At least I can relax and know that I'm not halluncinating. It really is a male (and boy, he is a bit of a wuss compared to the other male).

v/r, N-A
 
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