dking271
Community Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2019
- Messages
- 47
- Reaction score
- 48
- What state or country do you live in
- Tennessee
A little back story. I introduced e two captive bred Ocellaris clowns together about 8 years ago. One was slightly larger than the other and as expected became the dominant female. They matured and started laying eggs and the female became super aggressive during maintenance. After about two years the female died during a bad breakout of dinoflagellate, which may have been coincidental. Conventional wisdom says that upon the death of the dominant female the male becomes the new female. Not sure if that is the case when no other clown is present. My male clown has lived without another clown for about six years. He survived a tank crash earlier this year caused by a ruptured glass heater that wiped out every living thing in the tank. I have considered adding another clown for the last six months and eventually decided to give it a go.
Here is the part where I gambled a little. My little male clown never grew any bigger and is quite small by Ocellaris standards. He has continued to show signs of submissiveness and followed my Yellow Candy Hogfish around the tank like it was his mate. I believed that the clown was still a male, and against most conventional wisdom I picked a larger black and white Ocellaris which was almost certainly a female. Yesterday, I reluctantly pulled the new female from the quarantine tank to an acclimation box in the display. After about an hour of observation, I decided things were going to be good. Clown dance started immediately upon release with a little chasing and the little clown is now completely submissive to every move the new clown makes. Now, I hope they find and begin to host in my BTA.
I would not recommend doing what I just did as the safer bet would have been to add a smaller clown. My observations with this particular clown led me to do the exact opposite of what is recommended. I am grateful things worked out as the other tank mates are on the boisterous/aggressive side. I am quite sure a smaller bullied fish would have had no chance of survival in this tank. The Yellow Candy Hogfish dominated the tank until I added a Red Hawkfish who has taken over the role of tank boss. Currently fully stocked with harmony.
Here is the part where I gambled a little. My little male clown never grew any bigger and is quite small by Ocellaris standards. He has continued to show signs of submissiveness and followed my Yellow Candy Hogfish around the tank like it was his mate. I believed that the clown was still a male, and against most conventional wisdom I picked a larger black and white Ocellaris which was almost certainly a female. Yesterday, I reluctantly pulled the new female from the quarantine tank to an acclimation box in the display. After about an hour of observation, I decided things were going to be good. Clown dance started immediately upon release with a little chasing and the little clown is now completely submissive to every move the new clown makes. Now, I hope they find and begin to host in my BTA.
I would not recommend doing what I just did as the safer bet would have been to add a smaller clown. My observations with this particular clown led me to do the exact opposite of what is recommended. I am grateful things worked out as the other tank mates are on the boisterous/aggressive side. I am quite sure a smaller bullied fish would have had no chance of survival in this tank. The Yellow Candy Hogfish dominated the tank until I added a Red Hawkfish who has taken over the role of tank boss. Currently fully stocked with harmony.
