Huh? Can Swordtails Change Sex

[ALW]

Hi there, arround a month age i bought a pair of swordtails. Over the last few days i have noticed that my supposedly female is begining to grow a sword, the question is can they change sex, the sword was definitely not there a week ago. Can feamles grow swords (i dont think so but you never know).

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if you search through the posts on this forum you'll find a few posts on the topic, there's a few explanations, here's the main three trains of thought summarised

1 - in a single sex environment one of the fish will change sex to enable them to reproduce. This is possible in fish (clownfish do it) but as far as I'm aware hasn't been fully proven/relaibly witnessed in swordies or other common livebearers

2 - if you have more thna 1 male 1 of them will be dominant, the others will have suppressed development, when the dominant male is removed from the supressed male the supressed male will grow to become dominant, this includes physical signs like development of a larger gonipdoium

3 - some male's are just late bloomers and are incorrectly identified as females when young, as they get older they are correctly identified.

 

[ALW]

At what age do the swords start to grow, the fish in question is arround 3 inch in lenght not including tail. wouldnt they have started to grow before. the male is arround the same lenght and his sword is about 2 inch long. surly it would already have started to grow before now, carnt be that late can it.

 

[SJ2K]

They cant change sex simple as, wiggles gave you the gist of the science behind it. To put it simply, for one reason or another males may develop later on which can give the impression of a sex change