Tony
Gerald Pottern wrote:
>
> Hi Tony - ive seen female shiners, dace, and
> apistogrammas start to look male-ish as they get old.
> my old rainbow shiners get hard to sex on color -
> belly shape becomes a better indicator. it might be
> in part a hormonal change related to the social
> dominance of a big lady; maybe an evolutionary
> pre-cursor to protogynous sex-change ??? I guess we
> see it less in nature because a) they dont live as
> long, and b) female social dominance is less important
> in a river than in a little glass box. -gerald,
> hangin on the neuse
>
> I've noticed in Red River populations that some females have a little red
on their fins, and not necessarily larger ones. I think it is totally
normal. And I think some individuals tend to have a little more bluey
hue
than others too. Anyway, what you describe sounds normal to me.
Cheers
Peter Unmack
Canadian River, Oklahoma
yes, but I'd describe the color as pink and mauve, more than red and
blue. Usually fairly faint, actually. It varies by population, too.
Dave
David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm
I don't know if it's normal or not, but any kind of sequential
hermaphroditism in cyprinids is something that I don't recall ever
hearing
about. Maybe the females live long enough in captivity so that they
enter
such a phase?
--Bruce Stallsmith
along the balmy Tennessee
Huntsville, AL, US of A
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