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[–] 95 points 10 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 88 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

    I only know that there's a species of fish where the largest in the group is the female and if she dies one of the other group members will change sex into female and take her place. Sounds reasonable that there's a species with the opposite.

    Edit: don't clown fish do that? So Nemo's dad ought to be his mom.

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  • [+] 69 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 43 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    How am I supposed to explain that to my kids

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Interestingly enough ... the Cuban slang for "gay" is the same word we use to describe one of these gender changing fish

    "Cherna" ... while more light heated than the English F word, it's still a derogatory term so please don't use it on your friends.

    Actually now that I think about it, this is how it's most commonly used ... Straight males sling it to their other straight male friends.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    In some species, females are generally larger than males (which is true for a lot of different animals). But I don't know a thing about hermaphrodite fishes.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Ecologist here. Some fish are selectively hermaphroditic because one of the sexes is the limiting factor for reproduction. Sometimes it's males that turn into females. Sometimes its the other way around. For each species, It all depends on what niche limiting factors sex services.

    For instance, a group of male fish might only have one female because their species found it best to have one "queen" and many soldiers.

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