Hermaphrodite Platy?

[fiddlybits]

Has anyone else seen this happen? A platy that I raised appeared to be a nice big female, then developed a gonopodium at about 5 months. Two fry from the next batch matured into males, and spent all their time trying to court him/her, ignoring the other adult female.
He/she grew to full female size & shape quickly, and seemed healthy except for the male part.

 

[Newman]

that's pretty odd. it must be possible then. I've heard of hemaphrodite bettas...

are you sure they're courting him? and not continuously challenging him instead?
Nothing wrong with a big male platy i suppose.

 

[fiddlybits]

The 2 young males, brothers, liked to hang out with each other. When they matured they developed an interest in the big he/she. They acted like they were courting, not at the mating stage, staying close by. The he/she didn't like one of them and would chase him away. He would not stay away, came right back, and learned to stay on the other side of his brother. Sometimes's he'd get bold and try his luck. Never saw the he/she do any courting or saw any mating activity. It was on the large side for a Platy. So this he/she wasn't something that happens often? Its parents were siblings I raised.

 

[Newman]

it probably wasn't caused by inbreeding since that happens quite often, but there is a slight possibility...depending on how much the platy were inbred before you got them.

do the younger males do the S curvy dance thing and go backwards around in circles around the big male?
Idk why I'm telling you this...since you breed platy you should be fairly familiar with their courting and fighting/challenging behaviors right?

I've had interesting things happen my self cuz i breed swordtails. this one pair I had in my tank; it was always a bigger one chasing a smaller one. the smaller one had a smaller anal fin so i assumed the one doing the chasing was the male trying to go after the female. however after they matured (they're 3 months now) i can clearly see the smaller one was a male and the larger one doing the chasing was the female...i just think that's odd.

also with the whole late development of your large male, I can see that as normal where sometimes males look like females for a while as they mature. its possible that one took longer to mature than the rest of your fry from the same batch?

Also is it the one in your avatar? lol

 

[fiddlybits]

Hunter (the he/she), Tom, & Jerry (the 2 younger males) were siblings.
Their parents were siblings. Their grandparents were not.

Hunter had the deep belly of a female from a young age so I assumed 'female' and was astounded to see a gonopodium when it was about 5 months old, don't know when it happened. By 6 months Hunter was as big as his mother, who was about a year old. Tom & Jerry seemed like normal males except for their fixation on Hunter. I had bought 2 unrelated females and the boys ignored them. So I removed Hunter. The boys spent their time displaying at each other. I removed Tom. Jerry finally discovered girls. Don't know yet if he was successful. The avatar is artwork from a picture of Jerry.

Have seen fry tickling each other with a tail-first approach, but not with adults-- yet. Maybe Swordies have a fancier courtship? I'm still fairly new to this hobby.

 

[Newman]

that is a big male lol. kinda what my male juvie sword looks like when he's full of shrimp pellets LOL!

I think the little males are a bit confused lol. It's obviously a male, and I assume it ignores the little ones right?

Idk what courtship of swords looks like yet...but i do know that the aggression display is that tail-tickling that you described, and running backwards in circles with the wag-dance. sometimes followed by quick bursts of sparring. if your big male engages in that behavior then he is a male and he knows it lol