GB MAROON PAIRING/ INTERESTING AGREESION

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

Hey reefers casually just shooting this out here to try to figure out what the heck is going on. So I’ve had a pair of gold bar maroon clown fish now for little over three weeks in quarantine and it breeder boxes. Last week they have been in the breeder box together with no aggression at all towards each other and doing a pairing dance swimming around spinning with their cheeks. Last night I decided to give them a chance to come out and see how they interact as a pair which I thought was already established in the quarantine breeder boxes. It’s 39 gallon quarantine tank set up the fish, I took both out of the Breeder box last night and were acting fine. today I came back and they were both fighting each other and started shredding fins.
At this point I thought it might be best to put them back in the box as they were previously in there and were acting fine together. I’m really not sure why but the aggression stopped immediately and they are back to being buddy buddy.
Has anybody ever experienced this before it’s like the fish forgot who they were in the bigger tank?

At this point I might be thinking they need more time to pair together but I’m not sure if anybody has any suggestions.

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

Hopefully you have at least one small enough to be male still.
Possibly the female once in tank and is just establishing that this spot here is mine and driving her point home for the time being.

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

davocean said:
Hopefully you have at least one small enough to be male still.
Possibly the female once in tank and is just establishing that this spot here is mine and driving her point home for the time being.

I do have a one smaller than her, she was in a tank by her self her whole life so not sure if she would of changed to a femal or stayed a male,
Female is 3 inches roughly and the male is 2 1/2 inches.

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

If the 2 1/2" clown was not w/ a female keeping it in check, very good chance it is female, that's a pretty good sized/aged clown.

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

It was with a larger clown before, pretty certain it’s male not 100% on that I had to go through 3 separate males, the smaller clown of the group would go nuts on any new males and it forced these 2 to pair. They are perfectly fine in tight quarters together but they are not fine in a larger tank has me wondering what’s going on. I had to get rid of the other males as the female rejected them almost immediately.

davocean said:
If the 2 1/2" clown was not w/ a female keeping it in check, very good chance it is female, that's a pretty good sized/aged clown.

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

I'm guessing there's a lot of confusion in the small holding container that is robbing their attention from each other.

It's hard to say from here and not knowing every detail, but any clown larger than an inch and a quarter max is big/old enough to become female, and I don't think anyone can say how fast for certain they can change if not being kept in check

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

davocean said:
I'm guessing there's a lot of confusion in the small holding container that is robbing their attention from each other.

It's hard to say from here and not knowing every detail, but any clown larger than an inch and a quarter max is big/old enough to become female, and I don't think anyone can say how fast for certain they can change if not being kept in check

Not sure about that yet they were in the smaller container for a week eating together and swimming next to eachother, perhaps she’s just being very dominate the bigger clown has a temper that’s for sure! Could both be female I hope not!

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

It's tougher to pair the way you are, both bigger and older, not that I'm saying quit trying.
It is a little surprising they are not fighting in holding container, which would give some hope it's still doable, and I myself would give a couple more try's, if it's really excessive damage going on after another try or two then may have to try another mate making sure it is still male

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

davocean said:
It's tougher to pair the way you are, both bigger and older, not that I'm saying quit trying.
It is a little surprising they are not fighting in holding container, which would give some hope it's still doable, and I myself would give a couple more try's, if it's really excessive damage going on after another try or two then may have to try another mate making sure it is still male

Oh yeah it’s been very difficult closest I’ve got this far, so hard to try and find a nice pair of maroons. I’m not a fan of lightning nuggets or misbars.

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

I had a maroon once that flat out refused the first 2 males I tried to pair her with, and these were all about 3/4" in size, pretty much as young as you can buy them, and I intro'd in a specimen container, and yet still she beat them pretty bad when released.

I almost gave up, but fortunately she did finally accept the 3rd.

I think maroons are pretty fussy compared to others in pairing up, and it may take a few tries, but pairing instincts and the right suitor should eventually get you there.

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

davocean said:
I had a maroon once that flat out refused the first 2 males I tried to pair her with, and these were all about 3/4" in size, pretty much as young as you can buy them, and I intro'd in a specimen container, and yet still she beat them pretty bad when released.

I almost gave up, but fortunately she did finally accept the 3rd.

I think maroons are pretty fussy compared to others in pairing up, and it may take a few tries, but pairing instincts and the right suitor should eventually get you there.

How funny this is my 3rd pairing attempt as well! And this one she’s semi accepted so I’m hoping it works!

davocean · Oct 8, 2018

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

davocean said:
Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Thanks! I’m hoping for the best!

Christopher Davis · Oct 8, 2018

Not so good this afternoon more shredded fins

Siguun · Oct 11, 2018

I am actually having this exact same problem right now. Except they are black snowflakes. They are both only about 1/2" apart from each other. The larger was with of the 2 was the female in a former tank and the smaller was by himself. When put into a small container they are relatively calm (except they both definitely hate being in the container) and when I release them the bigger female beats the crap out of the little one. One other thing I found really weird is the bigger more aggressive one is the one doing the shaking dance? The smaller one is just trying to run away the entire time and never fights back just gets beat up =\. I wish you the best luck right now I have my tank divided in 2 with egg crate to let the smaller one heal up a bit. I think i'll try removing the eggcrate in a week or when ever the new tank I am setting up is cycled. If they don't get along by then I'll just end up separating them.