Re-Pairing clowns, how long in acclimation box?

[bct15]

A couple weeks ago my five year old female black and white occelaris mysteriously died while I was out of town. I got a new designer type occelaris clown to try and re-pair the male with. The male is about 2.5 - 3 inches and the new clown is probably about 1.5 inches or so. The new clown has been in a home made acclimation box near the frogspawn and torch my old clowns host in for 48 hours. My black and white clown has not been coming out of the frogspawn since the female has died, and has only come out a little bit since adding the new clown but for the most part still hasn't investigated the new addition. All of my fish are avoiding the acclimation box light it's the black plague actually, they won't even chase the food that blows by it.

How much longer should I leave the little guy in there before letting him out? I don't want to send him out to his death, but don't want to keep him in the acclimation box forever either. I can't upload pics from my phone because of app issues, but I'll try to get some up in a little bit.

 

[bct15]

Here is a couple night time iPhone pics, I don't know the designer name of the clownfish because the store I got him had all of there designer type clownfish mixed together at one price but I'm guessing snowflake. He said it was snow onyx, snowflake, black ice, and a few other types in there. I just liked the jagged face stripe and the spots in the middle stripe, and also the fact that my son liked this one the best was a big plus.

 

[180galreef]

looks to be snowonyx due to the amount of black. Would you be able to get him back out easily if you released it and they fought? I have one in my acclimarion box too because the male died and the female is very mean. He has been in there about 18 hrs so far.

 

[bct15]

My old clown will look at the new one, but seems to have no courage to come out of the frogspawn much less approach the acclimation box. Should I just let the little guy out or wait another day?

 

[Tahoe61]

How big is the tank?

It's been my experience that clowns are one of the easiest fish to catch, there not the best swimmers.

Since the new one is significantly smaller and was in with other clowns I would probably introduce it if the tank has plenty of hiding spots. As long you think the new clown is a juvenile and not an adult you should be ok.

When my B/W male died my female hid for weeks, it was very sad.

If aggression starts I would pull the resident clown and put it in the breeder box.

Good luck and please update.

 

[bct15]

Well I let it out, the male black and white is now out kind of following the new little guy around. The little one is somewhat sticking with the male black and white, when they get close to the torch or the frogspawn that the old pair hosted the male starts swimming around in them really fast. I don't know what that's all about but it looks funny.

I'm actually not seeing any aggression right now, it just seems like the male is trying to get the new guy to follow him. He will get close and when the little one sees him he tried to lead it to the hosting spots, then does the funny swimming I mentioned earlier. I'm guessing there will be more aggression when the black and white starts turning. The attitude of the old fish has completely changed since adding the new clown though. I'll post pics in a little bit.