Clownfish Pairing

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

How aggressive is too aggressive, and how long should pairing up take? My female is pretty relentless towards my male.

Best Fish-Jake · Mar 10, 2017

Some occasional light bantering is normal with pairing clowns... what's the size difference between the two? Pairing time will vary from fish to fish

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

They're pretty close in size, but the new one is definitely a little smaller and was the smallest/least aggressive in the tank I got him from. The larger clown is going pretty hard at him though to the point that he just cowers in places.

Tahoe61 · Mar 10, 2017

When it gets to the point that there is actual physical injury, frayed fins, or the clown is no longer coming out to eat, breathing heavily in the corner it's time to intervene.
Female clowns will seem aggressive but normally the smaller one submits by shaking and the female goes about her business, if she is continually chasing the smaller clown that is an issue.
Sometimes a female rejects a male, who knows why. If you have a breeding box I would put the larger fish in the breeder box for 3-5 days if the situation gets any worse.

CarrieB · Mar 10, 2017

What kind of clown? I've heard that maroons can be very picky about potential mates.

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
When it gets to the point that there is actual physical injury, frayed fins, or the clown is no longer coming out to eat, breathing heavily in the corner it's time to intervene.
Female clowns will seem aggressive but normally the smaller one submits by shaking and the female goes about her business, if she is continually chasing the smaller clown that is an issue.
Sometimes a female rejects a male, who knows why. If you have a breeding box I would put the larger fish in the breeder box for 3-5 days if the situation gets any worse.

Yea, I've been at the breathing heavily in corner stage for a couple of weeks now. Minimum damage to fins, though. They've both done the clown twitch at times, and the male still does it after being chased. It's kind of a chase for 10 seconds, let him chill for a few minutes, chase again.

I'll have to make a breeder box. I had been playing with the idea, but haven't had the time and - in all honestly - was being overly lackadaisical about it.

CarrieB said:
What kind of clown? I've heard that maroons can be very picky about potential mates.

Female is a long fin and the male is a phantom. (Both Ocellaris)

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

One of my favorite pictures I've taken of the tank (too bad the frags were still on the plugs in the sand bed acclimating).

Best Fish-Jake · Mar 10, 2017

It may just be because the clowns aren't closely related... if there is this much fighting between them at this stage, then they most likely won't pair up. Usually you want to stick with clowns that are visibly similar for the best chance of mating.

USMC 4 LIFE · Mar 10, 2017

I have two maroons that I recently paired. I put one in an acclimation box for three days to relieve some initial aggression and then let him out. It worked well. There was almost no nipping because all aggression was defused while one was in the acclimation box.

Tahoe61 · Mar 10, 2017

How long have you had the clowns?

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

Best Fish-Jake said:
It may just be because the clowns aren't closely related... if there is this much fighting between them at this stage, then they most likely won't pair up. Usually you want to stick with clowns that are visibly similar for the best chance of mating.

Yeaaaaa, but that's too easy

They are both Ocellaris though. One just looks a little funny.

USMC 4 LIFE said:
I have two maroons that I recently paired. I put one in an acclimation box for three days to relieve some initial aggression and then let him out. It worked well. There was almost no nipping because all aggression was defused while one was in the acclimation box.

I think I'm definitely going to try this.

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
How long have you had the clowns?

Ohhhh, let me go check my tank thread.

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

Long fin added 1/28.
Phantom added 2/11.

There was also a Blacker Ice Ocellaris in there on Feb 5th, but it jumped a few days later. Have since added a lid haha.

Tahoe61 · Mar 10, 2017

You may have added a transitioning female (the phantom), if that is the case then removal is really the only option if the tank is not large enough to house two females and provide enough room for any one fish to escape to another part of the tank.

Usually I would say let them work it out but you got different clowns at different times, it's impossible predict if the phantom was transitioning to a female. Clowns will fight, I have had female beat up on males, but that usually calms down in a couple days and never results in physical injury.

Have you tried move the rock work around?

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

Tahoe61 said:
You may have added a transitioning female (the phantom), if that is the case then removal is really the only option if the tank is not large enough to house two females and provide enough room for any one fish to escape to another part of the tank.

Usually I would say let them work it out but you got different clowns at different times, it's impossible predict if the phantom was transitioning to a female. Clowns will fight, I have had female beat up on males, but that usually calms down in a couple days and never results in physical injury.

Have you tried move the rock work around?

Phantom was easily the most submissive and smallest in the LFS tank, so I'm hoping it's not that.

Don't have much option to move around the rock. Have corals glued down and it's only a 29 gallon tank (for now

)

I guess I'll just have to throw the female in a box for a couple of days and then return the male if that doesn't solve it. I'm definitely more attached to the female than the male.

USMC 4 LIFE · Mar 10, 2017

Hopefully you see one of them twitching really fast. This would indicate one of them is submitting to the other and that he is a male.

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

They both twitched for a while. Now mostly just the (hopefully) male.

USMC 4 LIFE · Mar 10, 2017

They'll be fine then. Just throw one in an acclimation box for three days and that should alleviate most of the initial aggression between them.

If you don't have an acclimation box you can easily make one out of Tupperware. Simply make outward holes in it so the clown doesn't scrap himself on them. Saves you $$

LbulletM · Mar 10, 2017

USMC 4 LIFE said:
They'll be fine then. Just throw one in an acclimation box for three days and that should alleviate most of the initial aggression between them.

If you don't have an acclimation box you can easily make one out of Tupperware. Simply make outward holes in it so the clown doesn't scrap himself on them. Saves you $$

Ohhhh, good call. I was going to go find one of those plastic containers they have at fish stores and drill it. Tupperware is a lot cheaper! Making one tonight! Thanks!