• Question: I brought a book called Weird But True and there was a fact in there saying that some fish can change from female to male. My question is this: What fish can change gender and how?

    Asked by CrazyScienceUK to Dan, Jennifer, Luke, Martin, sakshisharda on 14 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      well i am afraid i cant give you the names of the fish …..however i do know that its true.

      If thee are not enough males around for the fish to mate and reproduce then some females become males so that they can carry on reproducing and survive.

      its not a very common method but it is extremely useful to keep the species going

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Oh I don’t know what it is called either but I do remember seeing a clip of this on the BBC documentary Blue Planet II – you should see if it is available on youtube to watch! It was fascinating!

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 14 Mar 2018:

      Clownfish are an example of this. Well, they only go from male to female, but its close! In that case, there is always only one female in a group, so if the female dies, one of the males becomes female to take the role.

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