Ocelarious clowns help

Dsekula · 01/24/2018, 04:09 PM

Well I'm not exactly new to the hobby but haven't had that much experience either so hopefully I can post here and get some help. I've watched this form for a while and never joined because it always seemed I could find an answer to my question in someone else's post.

But I can't find this anywhere please help..
My 45gal 'L' tank has been up and running about 2years. I had a nice assortment of coral, cuc, and an emerald and decided to add my first fish. I beefed up the aerobic bacteria in preparation and arranged to take a mated pair of ocelarious clowns (they had been spawning previously)from a friend who decided reefing wasn't for them. Once they were acclimated and releases in the tank all was well for a day. The next day I noticed the female beating the tar out of the male. I moved him into a breeding box in the tank and he died within 24 hours. My female remained alone for a few weeks. I finally found a fish that I was confident was a male (smallest of three) that I wanted to try with her. They immediately seemed to get along swimming together with only the slightest nips. Then I though they had really paired up they were together constantly and would cuddle up to sleep etc. Now, this behavior lasted at least six months. All the sudden my male has grown to almost the same size as my female about 2"? I'll find one fish at either end of this tank and then they will zip together but not bite and take turns doing their submissive seizure thing and then swim around all friendly for a while but not all cuddled like before. What is going on is my male going female? Does anyone have experience with this? Their not ripping each others fins so I don't want to split them up because I know I will end up with two females at that point. Should I put them both in a smaller area to maybe discourage this from happening? Just leave them alone? Thank you in advance any insight is appreciated.

thegrun · 01/24/2018, 04:27 PM

On very rare occasions a mated male will turn female, but I would advise waiting a little longer before removing the male. If the male does indeed turn female one will kill the other if you don't remove the smaller female.

Dsekula · 01/24/2018, 06:22 PM

Well thanks for the reply. That must be very rare as I have had trouble finding any references to this.i really hope this isn't the case. Is there any way anyone can think to discourage this from an environmental stimuli standpoint? Or maybe target feed the female extra to beef her up(I feed once daily)? I have been watching them and there's really little if any size difference between them (it's hard to tell because ones mostly white and the others mostly black) and the submissive response is roughly 50/50. I have been watching closely and haven't seen any real nipping and no torn or tattered fins. This only started about 48 hours ago when my new bubble tip came out of qt it may be coincidence since neither is paying any attention to the nem but maybe I should try removing it? Any ideas for assisting them to fall back in line?

thegrun · 01/24/2018, 06:34 PM

You might try rearranging the rocks.

Reef noob_ · 01/24/2018, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrun

You might try rearranging the rocks.

This ^^
rearrange the tank, clowns are territorial so if you alter the dominant one’s space it’ll be better with tankmates

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Dsekula · 01/25/2018, 07:03 PM

I did a rock rearranging and the fish swapped sides ��. Obviously it re-establish territory bud I'm not sure of it helped. One thing I thought of; my male is really nervous when I use, specifically, the blue net (I have green, white, black, and blue nets). So I placed the blue net in the females territory (it's just the net hanging in the water under the lid) the female doesn't care but the male is now hesitant of the females territory and shows a submissive response about 70% of the time. Idk if this helps but 50::50 to 70::30 might help and most likely won't hurt? Just thought I'd share this, if it works maybe I will help someone else and they can try it?

Uncle99 · 01/26/2018, 12:53 PM

Is it possible you have 2 females?
Male does not generally grow faster and bigger than the female....

Reef noob_ · 01/26/2018, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle99

Is it possible you have 2 females?
Male does not generally grow faster and bigger than the female....

Depends on how big/ old the clowns are. If they’re small it’s probably a male/male fight for dominance but if they’re both large then it could be that there are two females. If that’s the case there’s nothing that can really be done about them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

01/24/2018, 04:09 PM	#1
Dsekula Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sterling Posts: 271	Ocelarious clowns help Well I'm not exactly new to the hobby but haven't had that much experience either so hopefully I can post here and get some help. I've watched this form for a while and never joined because it always seemed I could find an answer to my question in someone else's post. But I can't find this anywhere please help.. My 45gal 'L' tank has been up and running about 2years. I had a nice assortment of coral, cuc, and an emerald and decided to add my first fish. I beefed up the aerobic bacteria in preparation and arranged to take a mated pair of ocelarious clowns (they had been spawning previously)from a friend who decided reefing wasn't for them. Once they were acclimated and releases in the tank all was well for a day. The next day I noticed the female beating the tar out of the male. I moved him into a breeding box in the tank and he died within 24 hours. My female remained alone for a few weeks. I finally found a fish that I was confident was a male (smallest of three) that I wanted to try with her. They immediately seemed to get along swimming together with only the slightest nips. Then I though they had really paired up they were together constantly and would cuddle up to sleep etc. Now, this behavior lasted at least six months. All the sudden my male has grown to almost the same size as my female about 2"? I'll find one fish at either end of this tank and then they will zip together but not bite and take turns doing their submissive seizure thing and then swim around all friendly for a while but not all cuddled like before. What is going on is my male going female? Does anyone have experience with this? Their not ripping each others fins so I don't want to split them up because I know I will end up with two females at that point. Should I put them both in a smaller area to maybe discourage this from happening? Just leave them alone? Thank you in advance any insight is appreciated.

01/24/2018, 04:27 PM	#2
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	On very rare occasions a mated male will turn female, but I would advise waiting a little longer before removing the male. If the male does indeed turn female one will kill the other if you don't remove the smaller female.

01/24/2018, 06:22 PM	#3
Dsekula Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sterling Posts: 271	Well thanks for the reply. That must be very rare as I have had trouble finding any references to this.i really hope this isn't the case. Is there any way anyone can think to discourage this from an environmental stimuli standpoint? Or maybe target feed the female extra to beef her up(I feed once daily)? I have been watching them and there's really little if any size difference between them (it's hard to tell because ones mostly white and the others mostly black) and the submissive response is roughly 50/50. I have been watching closely and haven't seen any real nipping and no torn or tattered fins. This only started about 48 hours ago when my new bubble tip came out of qt it may be coincidence since neither is paying any attention to the nem but maybe I should try removing it? Any ideas for assisting them to fall back in line?

01/24/2018, 06:34 PM	#4
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	You might try rearranging the rocks.

01/25/2018, 07:03 PM	#6
Dsekula Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sterling Posts: 271	I did a rock rearranging and the fish swapped sides ��. Obviously it re-establish territory bud I'm not sure of it helped. One thing I thought of; my male is really nervous when I use, specifically, the blue net (I have green, white, black, and blue nets). So I placed the blue net in the females territory (it's just the net hanging in the water under the lid) the female doesn't care but the male is now hesitant of the females territory and shows a submissive response about 70% of the time. Idk if this helps but 50::50 to 70::30 might help and most likely won't hurt? Just thought I'd share this, if it works maybe I will help someone else and they can try it?

01/26/2018, 12:53 PM	#7
Uncle99 Crab Free Zone Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,906	Is it possible you have 2 females? Male does not generally grow faster and bigger than the female....