If
the female fish dies, the breeding male will grow larger and become a
female and the most dominant juvenile will become a mature male.
The
rest of the fishes forming the colony remain in an immature juvenile
gender-neutral state, and are chased and harassed by the new breeding
pair.
The colony usually consists of 1 breeding pair and a few immature or non sexually active males.
Depending on signals from their environment and being physically mature (12-24 months) clownfish will either
1. remain sexually immature
2. change into a male or
3. change into a male then female.
It is a "sequential hermaphroditism" .
No comments:
Post a Comment