Hermaphroditic
Carrying both sexes - either at the same time, or by changing from one to the other partway through life, as clownfish and most wrasses do.
A hermaphrodite carries both male and female function - either at once, or one after the other. On a coral reef it is a common arrangement rather than an oddity, and it comes in three distinct versions worth telling apart.
Simultaneous. Both sexes at the same time. Two animals meeting can fertilize each other, which doubles the value of every encounter - the reason it is standard among sea slugs, flatworms and other slow-moving animals that may not meet a partner often.
Protandrous - male first, female later. Clownfish are the textbook case: the largest fish in an anemone is the female, the second largest the breeding male, and if the female dies he becomes her. Body size decides, because egg production rewards size far more than sperm production does.
Protogynous - female first, male later. The arrangement of most wrasses, parrotfish and groupers, where one large male controls a group of females and the largest female takes his place when he goes. The change is not cosmetic: coloration, behavior and the gonad itself are rebuilt, often within days.
The contrasting term is gonochoric - separate sexes, fixed for life.
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