Clownfish can change their gender

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Clownfish live in schools of one female who is the dominant and largest of the group, with the rest of the group consisting of smaller males. If the female dies, then the largest male will change into a female. She will then choose a breeding partner among the available males, which is usually the largest and most aggressive male available.

Wrasses are another fish that are also capable of changing their gender, though they biologically change from female to male instead. I just learnt this today, and I find it really interesting :)

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Comments ( 6 )
  • Billy247newaccount_35467829
    2 years ago

    I did not know that. Pretty cool.

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  • Boojum
    2 years ago

    I knew that clownfish and wrasse could do that (it sometimes amazes me how much useless, weird, random shit is in my head). A somewhat related fact is that the sex of alligators and at least some species of turtles is determined by the temperature the eggs are at while the embryo is developing.

    The Wikipedia article on sequential hermaphroditism states that there are around 500 species of fish which are capable of changing sex. About three-quarters of these will change from female to male when the local conditions make this advantageous for reproduction.

    The article below says that there's also a species of frog which can change sex after reaching adulthood.

    https://www.inverse.com/science/animals-can-change-their-sex

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  • Somenormie
    2 years ago

    This is interesting though I personally never had a clownfish in my fish tank.

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  • Curiouskitten444
    2 years ago

    That's fascinating, just looked into it. All clownfish are born male with the ability to change to female.

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  • JustAHuman
    2 years ago

    Apparently, humans can also change their gender.

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    • bigbudchonger
      2 years ago

      But they don't biologically change like clown fish.

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