My "female" molly is turning into a male...

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KristlGail

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Apr 20, 2015
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So I bought three mollies a few weeks ago from my local pet store, KNOWING that I had two females and a male. The dalmation molly (a female) looked pregnant. I've been watching both females closely for any sign of pregnancy, wondering why the dalmation was starting to look less pregnant. I also noticed that her anal fin looked kind of funny...

Today, I saw her move her anal fin as if it was a gonopodium (male reproductive part)!

Is SHE turning into a male, or is HE a very late bloomer?? What do ya think?
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Well lots of fish can change gender. I guess you will just have to wait and see.
 
a better picture of the anal fin would help, looks too old to be considered a late bloomer. and moving the anal fin the way a male would wield his gonopodium... could very well be coincidence.
 
I found this topic in another forum, which leads me to believe that this could be a late bloomer OR an actual sex change.
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/livebearers/32353-molly-sex-change.html

But the anal fin just kind of sits like that, where it used to "flag" out like a female's. It is also longer than before, and he/she chases my other female around like it is trying to mate or establish dominance.

And yes, the fish does look older. A tad bigger than my male, too.
 
KristlGail said:
I found this topic in another forum, which leads me to believe that this could be a late bloomer OR an actual sex change.
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/livebearers/32353-molly-sex-change.html

But the anal fin just kind of sits like that, where it used to "flag" out like a female's. It is also longer than before, and he/she chases my other female around like it is trying to mate or establish dominance.

And yes, the fish does look older. A tad bigger than my male, too.
Click to expand...
I guess just hang tight and see what happens.
 
Well there is actually a genetic basis for the early and late blooming males and it doesn't mean they changed gender. I know guppies both genders will have an early and late developing gene set and depending on how you cross them there can be a pronounced skewing of the gender ratio of the offspring.

Because of how reproduction takes energy, a late developing male can easily out grow the early ones, and probably will always be larger. Your existing male may have been a normal or early developing male, and it has taken some time for him to get to the size he is now. But this new young male, because he has not put energy into reproduction yet is larger than your older male. Size is not age in this case.
 
I have a gold/black sailfin molly who had a batch of fry a few months back when she was still somewhat young and much smaller. She ballooned up with the pregnancy and went back down after a small batch of fry were swimming around in the plants. She continued growing after that, and after I just got back from holidays abroad, I noticed that she had grown quite huge, and was growing a rather large gonopodium which (s)he would occasionally flex and move about. There was only one other developed male in the tank, the little brother who ironically stopped growing at a very small size, and was the father of the afore-mentioned batch of fry.

It seems like it really does happen with mollies.
 
I know that anemone fish change sex, going from male to female, but did not know Livebearers can do this too.
 
I believe they call that opportunistic hermaphroditism or some biological term similar. Like when Ocellaris clown fish head alpha males die, the next biggest female then becomes a male! Crazy huh!
 
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