Tips on pairing maroon clowns

[PDR]

I have had an ORA gold stripe maroon for about a year and a half. I have been entertaining the idea of getting another but have read maroons are very difficult to get to pair.

I was wondering if anyone has had success in pairing a juvi with an established female and any advice you may have.

 

[James M]

Find the smallest one you can find and use a acclimation box, it helps a ton with aggression towards the male.

 

[DSC reef]

An established maroon will be difficult to pair but not impossible. My wife used an acclimation box so she could intervene when necessary. They ended up sharing the anemone too.

 

[PDR]

Yes, I would definitely use an acclimation box. I actually use one on every new addition. I have just heard so many horror stories with maroons that I didn't want to try it if was destined to fail.

 

[davocean]

I have paired maroons a few times, as mentioned they can be fussier than others, but not impossible by any means.

I have had to try w/ different males a few times, sometimes a female just won't accept certain males or may not be ready to accept a mate, but an acclimation box keeps things from getting out of hand.

I get the smallest you can get, observe females reaction, is she just curious, or does she dart at it looking ticked, it's usually fairly obvious.

 

[PDR]

Does the female get any more or less aggressive with a mate?

 

[DSC reef]

Once together they bonded rather quickly. She did show dominance but nothing to hurt the other fish. During acclimation there was a lot of shaking going on, a bit of aggressive darts and mouthing.

 

[davocean]

Does the female get any more or less aggressive with a mate?

Depends on fish, and their stage of maturity.

Sometimes they might get more territorial of their claimed space or anemone, sometimes they will bite YOU more, or begin that, and sometimes it's not much different.

 

[scriptmonkey]

Depends on fish, and their stage of maturity.

Sometimes they might get more territorial of their claimed space or anemone, sometimes they will bite YOU more, or begin that, and sometimes it's not much different.

Mine comes a at me all the time. Would love another clown but afraid it (not sure if it is a he or she) would kill another clown. May introduce another when I move everone to a new tank.

 

[PDR]

Depends on fish, and their stage of maturity.

Sometimes they might get more territorial of their claimed space or anemone, sometimes they will bite YOU more, or begin that, and sometimes it's not much different.

My maroon has been surprisingly docile. She has just now in the last couple of months started going after me in the tank. It has been more tail whipping than anything else. She does have a long-standing feud with my ruby head fairy wrasse, they seem to live to harass each other. I really need to get a video of it.

 

[scriptmonkey]

Youtube live present fish fights!

 

[davocean]

My maroon has been surprisingly docile. She has just now in the last couple of months started going after me in the tank. It has been more tail whipping than anything else. She does have a long-standing feud with my ruby head fairy wrasse, they seem to live to harass each other. I really need to get a video of it.

That can be an issue w/ maroons, my last one was vicious, bit me bloody many times, and would even head butt and break corals if I placed too close to her nem.

I have found that if you get tank bred they often are friendlier to the hand that feeds.

 

[PDR]

Is it generally more difficult to pair with a maroon morph?

 

[Katrina71]

As stated above...I went to a huge breeding facility this weekend, and EVERY female was paired with a very very small male. They apparently all choose a small male if given the choice.

 

[Pacific Island Aquatics]

Maroons can be difficult to pair, and even if you follow all the rules, the female might still not accept the male if he isn't to her liking. In the beginning a huge female and small to tiny male us preferable. This alleviates any issues with the male challenging the female for dominance. Most females are quite tolerant of tiny "pet" males and actually look after them quite ferociously.

Over time the male will grow to about half to 2/3 the size of the female. As long as the pair has been bonded for a while, there is usually little problems. The female will chase the male from time to time, just to remind him who's boss, but it's usually nothing serious, and she loses interest in a short amount of time.

As a side note, IME, white striped maroons are far more difficult than gold stripes to pair, and should be monitored more closely and for a longer period of time.

 

[davocean]

Is it generally more difficult to pair with a maroon morph?

As long as same species, should not change level of challenge really.

 

[davocean]

This was my last pairing, a WSM female that was about 3", and a baby GSM that was about 3/4" of an inch, about as small as you can get usually.

I like this pic, cause you can see the female still and calm, observing curiously.
Her previous 2 attempts w/ different males I could not even get a pic as she darted and lashed out towards them.

Even though they were very different in size at first, eventually the male grew to about 3/4 her size.

 

[Ken LeMay]

Hmmmm I thought all clown fish were born mail and only turned when there was a need to breed? I have one standard maroon in my tank, he's about 1.5 inches long, and I want to introduce another.....how do you know what you have, male or female??

 

[davocean]

Hmmmm I thought all clown fish were born mail and only turned when there was a need to breed? I have one standard maroon in my tank, he's about 1.5 inches long, and I want to introduce another.....how do you know what you have, male or female??

They are born sexless actually, then turn male.

If they do not have a female keeping them in check, they can turn female, and inch and a quarter max would be the cut off size to assure still male, and really I would prefer smaller than that to be safe.

 

[ReefTeacher]

20 years ago I had no idea this was hard. I had a large GSM female and bought the tiniest GSM I could find at the Petco 2 blocks away. I used no acclimation box and they paired instantly in their bubble tip anemone. the female was at least 3" and the small one was maybe 1/2". They spawned for years!