Question about false personifer, sel., beh.    8/27/09
Hey there Crew, it's Grant from Alaska asking questions again.
<Hello Grant>
I've ordered a small false personifer, it will be somewhere in the 2"-2.5" range.
<Wow; this is small>
I have tried a large scribbled angel before which I know is relatively similar to a false personifer and I had issues with it not adapting to captivity well, so I'm trying a small version of it this time.
<Understood, and agreed; though 3-4 overall inches is more to my liking>
I've read pretty much all there is to read about care for the angels and I have experience with keeping angels in my display, but my question is about sexing the fish. Coming in at under 2.5" makes me think the fish will
definitely be female with a chance of changing to male. Do you know if pretty much all angels, if started in the tank small enough, will change to male over time due to the lack of another male of their species being in
the system?
<Most all do>
I have a small flame angel harem (4 of them) in my 210 and one definitely changed to male while the rest are female, which is exactly what I wanted.
I know that if the male died, the most dominant female would start getting a 6 o'clock shadow and eventually turn male. Does that same theory apply to single false personifers?
<Yes; all Pomacanthids as far as I'm aware>
If so, it would lead me to believe that given time, the 2.5" fish would eventually be a male in my tank.
<In time, yes>
I guess what I'm really getting at is I want to end up with a male false personifer without paying $400 for one and having to get it at the 5-6" range. Do I pretty much just have a 50/50 chance that it will be male, or
will keeping it as the sole false personifer in the tank up my chances highly of it becoming a male?
Grant
<Are protogynous hermaphrodites... BobF>