My meleagris leopard is changing

[small alien]

Hello friends. I have had two meleagris leopards for 9 months or so. Got them both the same size at a little less than 2 inches. They went through a chasing/establishing dominance period afterwich the dominant one grew significantly larger. My understanding was that meleagris leopards form hierarchical groups of females in nature so I figured that would be the end of it. A couple days ago I noticed unmistakable changes around the larger leopards face. It seems to be changing to male. Has anyone else experienced this? Am I seeing it right?

And, of course, the obligatory, "sorry for the phone video."

Well, I can't get it to embed for some weird reason. Maybe someone can get it to work if they're so inclined. Here's a link. Blah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZY6ycD8KXQ

[WI reefer55]

sorry no Idea..

But awesome orange spotted file fish is it eatting frozen

[small alien]

Yes. You can see more here.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1893404

[aquaph8]

Thats a pretty nice video for a phone. I dont have any experience with this but I have read a couple other threads just like this one in the past. Great looking fish.

[small alien]

Shmello to you sir. And thanks.

[bradleyj]

Yep, he's turning male. Congrats.

[small alien]

Neat. Do people usually see behavior changes with the sex change? I can't quite put my finger on it, but he seems a bit different. Maybe a bit calmer in a way.

[small alien]

Here's the embedded video.

I wanted to mention the behavior of the "male" has changed and the fish seems more mellow and less interested in proving itself. Kind of more stately if you will. Anyone else see that with their changing leopards?

Cheers.

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ZY6ycD8KXQ?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ZY6ycD8KXQ?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>

[Ralph ATL]

add here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1486086

[Bret61081]

Nice! Beautiful fish!! Keep us posted with his progress! Id take a picture a day to see how quickly it changes!

[amheck]

don't mean to highjack your thread, but what kind of pipefish is that? Do you have any Vortech pumps in your system, and if so, are they ok together?

[small alien]

No problemo. That is a "Yellow multi-band" pipefish or Doryrhamphus pessuliferus. I'm very pleased to say this one is eating frozen cyclopeeze, prawn roe and hikari mysis. Yay!:spin2: I've had it about 4 months and it's doing great by all appearances. I bought two. The other passed after about 2 weeks even though it was the first one to eat prepared food. A challenging but awesome species to keep.

[small alien]

Nice! Beautiful fish!! Keep us posted with his progress! Id take a picture a day to see how quickly it changes!

Indeed I should. I'll try to get one today. He's changed a good bit since the video with his black spots turning to reddish all over his body. It's very interesting to watch that happen. :bounce3:

[small alien]

1 week later.

<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/errV1ArroaU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/errV1ArroaU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>

[small alien]

Well, you can't really see much in that video. I'll try to take some pics later. Cheers.

[small alien]

No vortechs though plenty of flow. You can see it "blow" by in that video. :)

[small alien]

Finally, my name is Small Alien and I have cyanobacteria. Oh, the shame.

[aquaph8]

Those leopards are so nice and fat. So nice.

[small alien]

From a few days ago.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/2011-02-15_19-18-57_644.jpg

[small alien]

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/2011-02-15_19-19-15_668.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/2011-02-15_19-19-28_450.jpg

[small alien]

I noticed last night it's getting a bright red/pink area at the front of its dorsal fin. You can see a hint of it in this shot. It's more pronounced now, especially when it flares it's fins which it is doing much more of now as a male. It does some head down displaying in front of the female during dusk lighting. Neat!

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/2011-02-15_19-35-01_772.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/2011-02-15_19-35-20_732.jpg

[small alien]

It's body is almost fully changed over, but not quite. Still some black that hasn't gone red. What a treat to observe this first hand. It's my first changer other than my clowns and that wasn't really much to see. More like watching grass grow. This on the other hand is extra nifty.

[aquaph8]

So cool. Can you do a before and after post?

[Ralph ATL]

Great pics!

[small alien]

Here are a few from today. First, the female.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/477696213_photobucket_40875_.jpg

And the male.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/477696213_photobucket_40874_.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/477696213_photobucket_40872_.jpg

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn4/smallalien/477696213_photobucket_40876_.jpg

[aquaph8]

nice shots. I love the blend of corals and fish you have created, nice job.

[small alien]

Thanks, Brett!

You too mantis1437.