Adding a female clown with an unknown clown

[Cashby]

About 6 months ago I had a pair of ocellaris clowns that did well through quarantine. They were both very small when I got them. When I put them in the DT one of them died for unknown reasons (disappeared really). I don't know if they bonded. I never could tell if one was dominant.

I ended up getting another ocellaris from the LFS but it was a little older and they didn't know if it was male or female. That fish has now finished quarantine.

My concern is that I don't know if I have two females, two males or one of each. I'm hoping I don't have two females.

The fish in my DT is bigger. What will happen if my new fish is female and the larger fish is male? What will happen if I have two females?

Thanks in advance for the advice. This is my first post on RC. I'm about a year and a half into this hobby and it keeps things interesting for sure!


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[OrionN]

What species and how big?

 

[ThRoewer]

What species and how big?

He said ocellaris.

I would just try it. The reaction of the smaller one will tell you pretty much right away if it will work or not.

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[Cashby]

I put the small one in the DT last night. They've been swimming around together without any obvious aggression. The small one does have a small nip out of its tail fin this morning though. If they were both female would there be trouble immediately?


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[CoralsAddiction]

No, they can co-exist for a few weeks especially in a bigger tank until they figure out both are females. Eventually one will either jump out of the tank or gets killed.

 

[ThRoewer]

If they are both females none of them will make submissive gestures and they are likely to start fighting more or less right away. At least that's what I observed white trying to make pairs.

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[CoralsAddiction]

If they are both females none of them will make submissive gestures and they are likely to start fighting more or less right away. At least that's what I observed white trying to make pairs.

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I've seen two females live together for 6 weeks in a 150 gallon cube. One female chased the other one out of the tank eventually. That tank was packed with lots of plating montiporas and had many many hiding spots. It wasn't enough to prevent death but it didn't happen right away. In a smaller tank like 10-20 gallon with a few pieces of live rock or just a flower pot it's obviously very different

 

[OrionN]

Two female will start fighting right away. If your two fish did not fight aggressively right away, they were not both female

 

[Cashby]

I saw the big one showing its belly to the little one. Is that a submissive gesture?


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[asting]

Sounds like the male submissive shake.

 

[ThRoewer]

Two female will start fighting right away. If your two fish did not fight aggressively right away, they were not both female

That's precisely my experience.

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[Cashby]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. They seem to be buddies already.

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[Cakebaker13]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. They seem to be buddies already.

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That's awsome! And a very pretty pair

 

[Cashby]

Sadly the two have started fighting over the past week. I now assume they are both female. The smaller one has been looking really ragged and today has gone missing. I had tried getting her out the past two days but had been unsuccessful. I always feel terribly guilty losing a fish.


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[keefsama2003]

based on size they both appear to be females. Next time what i would do is after QT get you one of those hang on the tank containers drill some holes in it and put mesh on the top so the fish cannot jump out and introduce it to the area where the existing fish is and see how they interact between the container. If they don't outright try to kill each other your good. if they do. then at least you still have them separated and one can easily be removed. what i would do now is find a juvi as small as you can QT and introduce them the way i do above and go from there.

 

[ThRoewer]

I doubt that they are both females if they got along for some time.
More likely something else is going on.

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