Odd Clown Behavior

JSB · Sep 22, 2013

I have to captive bred perculas that are apparently mated, as I have had them nearly 3 years, starting when they were less than 3/4". The female is now about 2.5" and the male around 1.5" or less. However, they have never spawned. They stay together constantly, and usually can be found in the upper third of my tank, but do occasionally hang in a lower corner near a frogspawn and a wellsophyllia.

Today I returned home after a couple of days away, and went to feed. After dropping food in the tank, I noticed the mail was very active in the lower corner, but I did not see the female. On closer inspection, I saw the female wedged in a gap behind the frogspawn. She was fully colored, clears eyes, normal respiration, but gave the sense of being sound asleep or dead, anyway. The male kept backing up and running into her side, seeming wanting to notify her of food in the tank.

After several bumps, she shrugged, swam out, and commenced eating. She ran all over looking for food and wolfing it down, and now is displaying no odd behavior at all. They are paired up and doing there thing. I have essentially had percula clowns in every tank I have ever had, but I have never seen something like that.

Any ideas? Preparing to spawn maybe?

navila06 · Sep 22, 2013

not sure that definitely is strange

Tomoko Schum · Sep 22, 2013

We female types are hard to figure out at times

ChrisKey · Sep 22, 2013

Mine just lay sideways on their hosted mushrooms and I always fear they are goners. But they just sit there for a few minutes and take off swimming again.

glb · Sep 23, 2013

Mine were swimming upside down once for no apparent reason then righted themselves and have been fine ever since.

GrouperStupor · Sep 23, 2013

Since respiration is normal, I would guess she is okay.

Make sure she doesn't have an spots or mucus problems like clownfish disease causes.
What's on my Clownfish? - Disease & Pest Treatment - Nano-Reef.com Forums

JSB · Sep 23, 2013

fosin said:
Since respiration is normal, I would guess she is okay.

Make sure she doesn't have an spots or mucus problems like clownfish disease causes.
What's on my Clownfish? - Disease & Pest Treatment - Nano-Reef.com Forums

No spots of any kind. No mucus or inflammation. Fins are clear. Flesh is smooth and unmarred. She shows every sign of a perfectly healthy fish, despite this incident. By the way, except for a couple of SPS frags, nothing has been added to this tank for many months.

Thanks all for the input.

Tomoko Schum · Sep 23, 2013

You must have scared her somehow. All my fish hide when I bound into the room except for the black Onix female who tries to scare me every time I get near her 29 gallon tank.

My regular ocellaris clowns are usually in their frogspawn colony. To come to think of it, I have seen my female staying so still in her frogspawn once that I wondered if she was okay. After a few taps on the glass, she started acting normal.