Blue Damselfish (Chrysiptera cyanea) Sex Determination

Can anyone tell me at what point and how the sex of Chrysiptera cyanea is determined during their development/life cycle? I'd also be interested to know what their sexual organization is.

Live and Learn

Are you referring to Chrysiptera cyanea, the Blue Damselfish, or Blue Devil? If so, from what I read, determination of the sexes based on external characteristics is difficult.  

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Sorry I did mean Chrysiptera cyanea. Can someone please modify the title to reflect this change?
 
From what I understand they are sexually dimorphic. I'm wondering how they get to be one sex or the other. Not how to determine the sex externally.

Live and Learn

You can edit the title by mousing over the reply button and choosing the "edit message" feature.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

 
I tried that before but the title appeared to be non editable. Must be the late hours.

Live and Learn

 
Now I'm confused. Everything I've read so far states that the males have a yellow or orange tale and the females do not. Do you have any information that states otherwise?

Live and Learn

I was looking at Dr. Thresher's "Reproduction in Reef Fishes" book. It's an older book so some of the info may be outdated.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Check this out: http://aquarium-fish.live...w=Chrysiptera%20cyanea
 
If you look in their description of Chrysiptera cyanea here:
 
http://www.liveaquaria.co...+28+111&pcatid=111
 
"Males, on the other hand, have an orange tail and are commonly called the Orangetail Blue Damselfish or Blue Devil Damselfish."
 
And then go to their "Orangetail Blue Damselfish (Chrysyptera cyanea)" page:
 
http://www.liveaquaria.co...+28+121&pcatid=121
 
"The Orangetail Blue Damselfish is the common name for the male Blue Damselfish, also known as the Blue Devil Damselfish. The female is all blue; the male has an orange tail."
 
I think I should probably take the cue from Dr. Thresher's book. I assume he's not mixing species

Live and Learn

Does anyone know if the genus Chrysyptera even exists? I'm thinking not.

Live and Learn

In regards to sexual organization fishbase states:
 
"Occurs in groups of a male and several females or juveniles (Ref. 1602). "
 
Ref: http://www.fishbase.org/s...amp;speciesname=cyanea

Live and Learn

There is a different name used in the book: Glyphidodontops cyaneus. 
In the book he writes: "The only definite sexual dichromatism, however, is the most obvious. Males of the Indo-West Pacific species Glyphidodontops cyaneus, in some areas, are more brightly colored than the females and have a vibrant yellow-orange caudal fin lacking in the females; females, in turn, often have a yellow wash along the underside that is lacking in the male."
 
This link lists the synonyms: 
http://fishprofiles.com/profiles/marine/Damselfish/
 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Thanks Tal, I'm going to start digging for information using those synonyms now.
 
Who knew there would be such little/hard to find information about such a common fish

Live and Learn

Pomacentrids as a group,don´t show sexual dimorphism.One of the exceptions being the so called "devils"C.cyanea and C. taupou.
The blue devil male´s tail fin is:
Orange in most of it´s range,the colour sometimes spreading to the chest.
Dark blue in the Philippines.
There is also a morph without dimorphism,where both sexes show a clear tail fin.
Hope this helps

 
Thanks for the reply, luis a m.
 
A few questions:
 
1. How is sex determined from a biological perspective?
2. Can you tell me/us more about this morph without dimorphism?
3. Do you have any good references in regards to where you got this information?

Live and Learn

Not sure I can satisfy you with any of your questions.Damsels are suspected to be sequential hermaph.(protogyn) ans seemingly that was established with Dascyllus.I believe that many,especially Chrysiptera are not.
Not good references,just IME.

 
Thank you for chiming in nontheless. Have you successfully spawned and raised these guys? Any additional information about them you would like to share is welcome of course

Live and Learn

Haven´t raised cyanea yet,but I am working on it.I am new here,so you must track my reports in other forums.You could start by:http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1887021