Blue Star Leopard Wrasse female changed to Male

[websurfer]

I have had this pair of Blue Star Leopard Wrasse for about 8 months.
Out of the blue what seems like almost over night the female has decide to change to Male.
The larger one was what I thought to be the dominate male however I'm not sure with the female changing.

Since I have a fairly large tank RS S1000 will they eventually fight it out?
For now they seem to be okay its been about a week now.

I really do not want to try to tear my tank down and chase these 2 around.

 

[SaltyT]

Typically the new male will overthrow the old male so keep a close eye on them and be prepared to take action if they start fighting. The size of your tank may buy some time, but I don't think they'll coexist long term.

 

[malacoda]

Just to be clear, is the larger one already a male?

If not, then, just because a fish is larger doesn't necessarily mean it's the dominant one.

If the large one is still sporting full female colors (e.g. no sign of male colors have started to show on it yet), then there may be a good chance that it will remain female since the other leopard is now male.

If the larger one is already male though ... or has begun to show some male coloring, then yeah, keep an eye open for aggression.

 

[4FordFamily]

It would be quite rare for a female to change to male in that type of setting. Typically, the dominant leopard becomes male. The more aggressive one - does it have it's female or male colors?

 

[websurfer]

The larger one was a male from the day I purchased them.
So they where sold as a pair the male is the larger one the female was the smaller one..
The smaller one has now changed to male colors

 

[OrionN]

I just posted a thread on my Meleagris Leopard harem, detailing the change of the largest from female to male, include the time line and photo of the changes. My tank is 320 gal, ans is larger than your's tank. The male was able to suppress the sex changes of the other females. Only one turn male in my tank. They court and spawn all the time in my tank.

Photo-documentation of M. meleagris sex change.