Can fish be gay

Fish Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) leaping for a fly fisherman's bait. Research going back to the s has shown both male and female graylings exhibit homosexual behavior.

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[53]. The scientists published their findings in the journal Biology Letters. In some species of fish, smaller, less flashy males can win over females by flirting with larger males. Researchers worked with the tropical freshwater fish Poecilia mexicana. Yes, absolutely! Some fish will mate with any fish they can, regardless of sex or species.

I've also heard many stories of fish pairing with the same sex. Sometimes it's due to lack of options, and other times it's truly their preference. But did you know that male clownfish can become female? Groups of clownfish are led by a female, while the second-in-command fish is male. When the leader dies, the next-in-line male changes into a female in order to become the leader.

Transitioning trends As the saying goes, there’s plenty of fish in the sea. And over of those species can change their sex! Some fish change sex permanently at a specific point in their lives, while others, including the blue-banded goby, can transition back and forth. One known species, the mangrove rivulus, can even self-fertilize. Sex is getting complicated. Especially fish sex in New England. Scientists have recently discovered that fish in the northeastern U.

A new study published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety finds that male fish are turning into females — a phenomenon known as intersex — due to chemical pollution, specifically estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals or EEDCs. Researchers have found evidence of intersex in 85 percent of smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu and 27 percent of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides tested on 19 National Wildlife Refuges from Maine to Virginia.

Iwanowicz first discovered examples of intersex in smallmouth bass in the south branch of the Potomac River while conducting research on another topic nearly 10 years ago. Until this study, the prevalence and severity of intersex occurring in fish throughout the northeast region of the U. EEDCs originate from a number of sources, from naturally occurring estrogens such as the hormone-like phytoestrogens found in soy plants and soy-derived products to synthetic pharmaceuticals such as some birth control pills, Bisphenol A BPA used in some plastic products, natural sex hormones in livestock manures, and agrochemicals such as pesticides, and herbicides.

At certain concentrations, estrogen, the primary female sex hormone, is capable of derailing the natural hormone system of fish, wildlife, and humans. This is a concern surrounding both natural and synthetic sources alike. It can cause reduced sperm count and viability, reproductive failure, and population decline. Dramatizing this, Karen Kidd, a biologist with the Canadian Rivers Institute at the University of New Brunswick, doused a pond with high concentrations of synthetic estrogen in The result: fish populations crashed.

Over three years, U. Geological Survey and U. Fish and Wildlife Service researchers worked together to determine the extent and severity of hormone disruption in and around 19 National Wildlife Refuges in New England. They caught and processed smallmouth bass and largemouth bass , all males. Crews then euthanized the fish and took measurements and samples for further processing in the lab.

These measurements allowed researchers to determine that intersex observations were not tied to normal fish biology. Instead, he found that while some of the refuges are in remote locations accessible by rough dirt roads, others were in urban areas, one even under the flightpath of international airports. The team found that intersex was a common occurrence in the 19 refuges studied with 85 percent of smallmouth and 27 percent of largemouth bass having female egg cells in their testis.

Researchers also found that EEDCs were present in all types of water bodies sampled — rivers, reservoirs, lakes, ponds, and effluent. The varied and numerous sources of EEDCs make them difficult to track. Single-point sources, such as large buildings with obvious effluent pipes like waste water treatment plants and paper pulp mills, are of major concern. For example, one active ingredient in birth control pills, a very potent estrogen, is known to pass right through waste water treatment plants.

But non-point sources are also a concern, these include agriculture or sewer overflow from cities. For example, natural and synthetic hormones present in manures and herbicides that farmers apply to crops in the spring, pulse off the landscape with spring rains and snow melt, potentially leaching EEDCs into the water table. Scientists made note of both point-sources and non-point sources along the rivers, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs that served as study sites.

But researchers never identified a single source of estrogen pollution. In some study areas agriculture use was high, others were more urban, and many sites had a combination of both. The study also suggests that smallmouth bass living in the northeastern U. Currently, fish populations are not showing outward signs of decline that can be tied directly to EEDCs. And this is what worries Iwanowicz.