are they breeding?

[hayley2684]

I just put 4 true percula clwns in my tank (2 black to orange). one of the black one is quite a bit larger than the other three. it and one of the ornge ones were doing what i think looks like a mating ritual.... swimming around in circles around eachother. touching tummies and sort of fluttering their fins. They did this for about 2 hours and now the other orange one has swapped with the first and is doing the same thing with the larger black one.

These are my first salt water fish ever. What's going on. I've never seen fish do this before.

 

[Juck]

There is no such thing as Black True Perculas,,,, the black ones may be the Darwin endemic of A.Ocellaris,,,,a photo of the fish would be cool.

Clowns can do some weird dancing when sorting their hierarchy,,,, they are not mating, merely establishing a pecking-order.

4 clowns of any species is likely to end in tears in a 55g tank. Assuming they're all the same species, I'd keep the biggest and the smallest and return the others.

 

[hayley2684]

here are some pictures of my clowns. I'm actually not sure that the orange ones are true perculas either. They don't have the black outline on their stripe. What species do youthink they are? LFS guy said they are all true perculas?

 

[hayley2684]

the tank is actually just over 70 gallons. 36" longx 19" deep and 24" high. Do you still think that four clowns will be a problem? i Just couldn't choose between the blacks and the orange and LFS guy (who i'm begining to think is lying to me) said that they will be fine cause they are all tank bred? not sure if that has anything to do with it or not?

 

[Juck]

Those are all Ocellaris clowns, often called false perculas. The black fish are sometimes called Darwin clowns, but they are the same species as the orange ones.

Ocellaris have a reputation of for being the least pugnacious of the commonly-kept clown species,,,, you may get lucky but I predict they will pair up according to color and then the fighting could start in earnest.

 

[Juck]

That's a good-looking, nicely-barred pair of Darwin's btw,,, the orange coloration on the nose will usually fade to black over the first year. I'd seriously consider removing the orange ocellaris and leave these two guys alone.

 

[dantodd]

look like all ocellaris to me also. The blacks are def. ocellaris as percula don't come in that color morph. As long as they are getting along well I'd leave them be. Make sure there is plenty of space for them to set up their own little territories. More rockwork in between the likely territories the better. If they can find a place that they can set up house without having line-of-sight to each other it may work.

I'd also think about getting another tank ready just in case. Once aggression starts it has the potential to be fatal fairly quickly. Ocellaris can live as a pair in a cramped 10 gallon tank and be quite happy in a 20 gallon tank so they don't need a ton of room.

In the states orange ocellaris are incredibly common and cost about 1/4 of what black ocellaris will fetch so you'll see a lot of people on here oogling your beautiful black fish.

 

[hayley2684]

i'd have to say i think the black ones are beautiful. at the moment the four of them are all swimming together happily but they have only been in the tank for a few days.my LFS guy takes them back and gives credits for healthy fish so i thought i'd keep them and hope that they would be ok, but if theystart fighting i'll take the orange ones back. I sort of thought that the fighting wouldn't start until they reached sexual maturity at about 12 moths? is this true?

 

[dantodd]

well, it's not always easy to figure when they begin to mature. I'd expect the fighting to start (if it does) as soon as they pair up.

 

[hayley2684]

ok, i'll keep a close eye on them.

Thanks