Sorry for the time lag on this one, but I've been unable to get to my
email for the past few days.
I just felt that I needed to "clarify" what Peter quoted me as saying
regarding the marine anemone fishs' sex reversal. A typical group of
anemone fish consists of a dominant breeding pair; a large female and a
smaller male. In addition to these, there are usually several juveniles,
sex often unknown. When the dominant female is killed, the male becomes
the female, and the largest juvenile becomes the new male.
There are marine fish that change from female to male. Most of the
wrasses do this, with the succession going somewhat like this: the
largest are the "supermales," and they are the breeding males; then there
are breeding females , which can change into funcioning males when they
get large enough; then there are juveniles, which (I think) may become
females _or_ males when they mature. I wish Jerry Allen was on this list,
as he could clear this up better than I. :-) Marine gobies may do
something similar, but I am not certain and do not have a reference
available to check. If so, then this may explain a few things, as the DGs
are, I believe, related to your Oz marine spp pretty closely. (Peter?)
I'll be interested in seeing the results of the experiments on this.
Julie Zeppieri (RSG) <><