Did my clownfish become a mated pair in an hour???

[Mcgeezer]

My first fish in the tank was a small Ocellaris clown, he was lonely so I got him another Ocellaris as a friend.

The original one was fairly small, and I underestimated how much bigger the new one I got was, the new one is prob 50% bigger.

My LFS and others have said you should introduce a smaller one so that they submit to the existing fish. Needless to say I was worried.

At first, the original clown was super excited, but the new one would chase him away. This lasted maybe an hour.

Now...they are inseparable. They spend probably 90+% of their time directly next to each other or very, very close.

Is it possible they became a mated pair that quick???

[ponda]

gotta love clownfish :-D

[Johnnycat]

I think yes - if not mated pair at least BFF's. Mine did kinda the same thing. As I understand it one exerts her dominance and the other becomes a man.

[BlueFyre]

I had the same experience. I added a larger clown and the paired up right away

[Timfish]

Juvenile clowns will school together and as they mature they start getting more territorial. They are protandrous hermaphrodites or switch from male to female and the switch is controlled by a social hierarchy (no XY chromosomes like in mammals) with the dominate individual in a small group being female. Once set, which takes about a month, a female cannot reverse sex. It takes roughly two years for clowns to become sexually mature. Since you have just two you will end up with a pair but at this point you are seeing typical social behaviour.

[turboreef318]

I would doubt that they have formed a bonded pair that quickly. Clowns tend to go through three distinct stages when pair bonding. When two equal sized adolescent clowns are introduced, they are on equal terms and obvious squabbling and fighting may occur. Because you introduced clowns that had a large size difference, most likely the smaller immediately submitted to the larger and you were able to skip the first step. Step two in clownfish pair bonding is the dating stage. The clowns are still adolescents but they have established their hierarchy. I think that this is most likely the stage that your clowns are in. The last step is a sexually mature bonded pair. It usually take four months to a year to form a bonded pair.

[Mcgeezer]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't exactly sure if they formed a pair that quick, but they are definitely BFF's

My kole tang just ignores them and picks at rocks all day lol

[davocean]

Actually it is possible that they are or could be a bonded pair, when they spawn that would be called a mated pair, and that usually takes a little time as they need to mature.
Either way it sounds like you are on track!

[FTDelta]

Originally Posted by Johnnycat

As I understand it one exerts her dominance and the other becomes a man.

Think again - once they form a pair, one of them turn into a female - not male. All clownfish are males when hatched from eggs.

[firebirdude]

Originally Posted by FTDelta

Think again - once they form a pair, one of them turn into a female - not male. All clownfish are males when hatched from eggs.

Actually clowns are un-sexed when hatched....and stay that way in groups.

OP. Consider yourself lucky. I've had several different pair in different tanks over the years. Though they lived in the same tank for quite awhile, none of mine ever seemed to pair up.

[x1C0DE1x]

I bought a clown from my LFS and I got this big female in their tank of about 20 clowns and it was at the surface and a little one chased after the bigger one into the net. So i took that clown also. When I put them in my tank within 10 seconds they went straight to my large toadstool and layed in it together all night and rubbed all in it and hosted it. About 2 weeks later the bigger one started charging at the smaller one making him do some type of seizure thing and that has been going on for weeks. Now they are both either rubbing all over certain rocks or they are digging holes together. Its really cool. But when the bigger one charges the little one and the little one twitches then that is when they are a pair. I guess I got lucky at the store since their clowns come in pairs and they mix them in the tanks. But even the female will go to the male and twitch and then the male will twitch back. From my experiences and from what I have read, that is when a clown is paired. Now i'm just waiting for them to lay eggs

[LCDR Noble]

I went out on a limb and bought 4 sets of clowns because I love clowns. The 8 consist of a pair of Clarks, black saddlebacks, maroons, and false peculas. They are like a clown gang and all hang out together. Sometimes the pairs break away from the gang but I think they are all BFFs. Maybe because I have 300 gallons is maybe why they don't pick on each other.

[FTDelta]

Originally Posted by LCDR Noble

I went out on a limb and bought 4 sets of clowns because I love clowns. The 8 consist of a pair of Clarks, black saddlebacks, maroons, and false peculas. They are like a clown gang and all hang out together. Sometimes the pairs break away from the gang but I think they are all BFFs. Maybe because I have 300 gallons is maybe why they don't pick on each other.

This is how ill informed you are thinking all your clowns are best buds. In due time you will have a bloodbath. 300 gallons is not enough to house 4 sets of clownfish - especially mixed species. Want to know who's gonna come out on top? Your Maroon pair. Pick one clownfish pair and get rid of the others or rehome them.

It's never a good idea to mix clownfish species in a single tank.

[Dozer1one]

Originally Posted by LCDR Noble

I went out on a limb and bought 4 sets of clowns because I love clowns. The 8 consist of a pair of Clarks, black saddlebacks, maroons, and false peculas. They are like a clown gang and all hang out together. Sometimes the pairs break away from the gang but I think they are all BFFs. Maybe because I have 300 gallons is maybe why they don't pick on each other.

WHOA ....... that limb will soon break

[Spyderturbo007]

I'm hoping my experience is similar to yours. I have a very small male in QT right now as a mate for my female. He is set to be introduced in about 8 days after the QT process finished. He is about 3/4" and she is about 2 1/2". I'm hoping that they pair up well and the male doesn't get beat up too bad.

Did you just add him to the tank or did he go in a breeder box for awhile? Did you do it at any specific time of the day like before the lights went out?

[Mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by Spyderturbo007

I'm hoping my experience is similar to yours. I have a very small male in QT right now as a mate for my female. He is set to be introduced in about 8 days after the QT process finished. He is about 3/4" and she is about 2 1/2". I'm hoping that they pair up well and the male doesn't get beat up too bad.

Did you just add him to the tank or did he go in a breeder box for awhile? Did you do it at any specific time of the day like before the lights went out?

Nope, just drip acclimated the new one and added it to the tank with the lights on (lights were off when floating). He came straight from LFS so he was used to lighting and not stressed from a shipment.

The new one chased away the existing one for about an hour and as i said, the existing one was super excited.

They werent together this morning when i woke up, but they dont stay far apart very long

[Mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by LCDR Noble

I went out on a limb and bought 4 sets of clowns because I love clowns. The 8 consist of a pair of Clarks, black saddlebacks, maroons, and false peculas. They are like a clown gang and all hang out together. Sometimes the pairs break away from the gang but I think they are all BFFs. Maybe because I have 300 gallons is maybe why they don't pick on each other.

Your maroons will kill every other clown in your tank

[Redman88]

Originally Posted by Johnnycat

As I understand it one exerts her dominance and the other becomes a man.

sounds like life

[Jezzlambert]

Ive had a peculas clown since day 1 and hes great, then i added a BTA for him but after a couple of months he was having none if it. So i bought a tomato clown and he instantly went into the BTA but hes is a massive bully, but only to the peculas clown? Hes fine with all my other fish! He will really hurt him and ive had quarantine him twice and nurse him back to life. Unfortunately my BTA died 2 days ago and now the tomato has got worse. Is it time to get rid of one?

[shifty51008]

the tomato will eventually kill the perc, it is very hard to mix clown species and have them get along.

the reason the tomato clown went right into the BTA is because the BTA is a natural host anemone for that clown. it isn't a natural host for the perc so the perc may or may not take to it.

[Jezzlambert]

Originally Posted by shifty51008

the tomato will eventually kill the perc, it is very hard to mix clown species and have them get along.

the reason the tomato clown went right into the BTA is because the BTA is a natural host anemone for that clown. it isn't a natural host for the perc so the perc may or may not take to it.

Well i cant have a murderous fish in my tank so il take him back to LFS i think.

[ken6217]

Sometimes it's hit and miss when trying to introduce a new clown as a mate.

On a previous tank, every time I put a significantly smaller maroon clown in to pair up with my existing maroon clown = new dead clown fish.

The last attempt, I acclimated the fish, put him in the tank, did a couple of chores, took a shower, and then came back and looked at the tank. The new fish was dead already.

For the person above that added the 8 Insane Clown Posse, as they say in wrestling, "Let's get ready to Rumble". Your tank should have some real action at some point.

Ken

[cjobo]

Originally Posted by ken6217

...Insane Clown Posse...

First thing I thought when I read his post.

[agranoff]

I bought 2 Perc's and it was smooth sailing for a few weeks and then the larger one started bullying the smaller one. Not unexpected except it got worse and worse to the point the smaller one wouldn't leave the rocks, wouldn't eat much, lost its color and was just laying on the sand. Very sad. I removed it, brought it back to the LFS and within an hour it regained color, ate a lot and was swimming around etc... My situation was probably due to my tank size, I am guessing, but only a few days is not enough time to judge long-term success. I hope it works out for you!

[devimik]

Well, I probably wouldn't try it, but you can keep multiple clowns in the same tank, but you gotta know what you're doing. Here's a thread where the owner has kept many together for years.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...259398&page=16