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I've been raising some molly and platy fry for a while now, and they all appear to be females. They're not all full grown yet but if you look close at the tail they're all female.

So what could have caused this? Doesn't cold water have some effect on it?

I'm not sure. I have the same thing going on in my Endler's breeding tank, I posted about it [link=here]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Livebearers%20Lane/52625.html" style="COLOR: #33CCFF[/link].

I'm experimenting with pH now to see if it has any effect.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

The other day i bought a lone fish from my LFS. it was just swimming by itself in a tank and it looked nice so i bought it. i knew it was a live bearer but wasnt sure what kind. it had no gonopodium so i assumed it was a female. it was actually about 1.5 inches long, so maybe not quite full-grown. anyway, i went home for christmas break and when i came back, lo and behold, it was a male. his anal fin had changed into a gonopodium and his sword started developing. he turned out to be a pineapple sword. really pretty fish, but sure surprised me. maybe yours will do the same.

scheibe

Yeah, I was thinking something like a sudden suprise like that might happen, that would suck, I like the all females thing, means if I buy more I don't need to concern myself with the gender and I'll still be in good numbers.


What temperature do you keep your endlers in? My PH is aorund 7.6 - 7.8 so I don't know if that's exactly similiar lol. My temp. is rather low though, like 72, haven't had the chance to buy a heater for the fry tank.

Give your fish a little bit more time...sometimes it is hard to tell if it is male or female until 3 months (unless you are really good even then it is hard) Be patient and wait and see...Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

It's been about 4-5 months on my mollies....and not a single male that I've found

I just saw, and am still reading a really interesting article that is talking about this...one example they use is guppies (article is about cichlids)...

genetically female guppies will mature as males if raised in extreme temperatures (Francis, 1992).

I think I'm going to go home and raise the temp of my tank a little bit...This could prove to be really interesting and useful to know...For anyoneelse interested in reading the article...here's the site: http://www.cichlidae.com/articles/a100.php

Heidi


EDIT: OH!!! I just read how the pH can have an influence on the sex of the fry produced. I'm gonna go to General Freshwater and start a link on this...too, too interesting

Last edited by BBNP at 21-Jan-2005 19:42

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Hmm...if that's right about upped temps, then maybe it's the opposite in extreme cold temps, which is what they were raised in pretty much. Not too extreme, but below average. That was an interesting read, thanks for the link.