black clowns face turning black.. question....

[Redhaloangel]

Hi, i have two black clowns and they are tank raised and from the same "litter" well one of the clowns face is turning black.. and the other one is still orange.. and not looking like it will be changing any time soon.. now my lfs told me that it means they are now mated... becuase they both host the same muchroom and are usually together and they are territorial whenever i put my hand in the tank..

are they mated??

and if so... how old do they have to be before they have any babies??

there is just 2 other fish in the tank.. a manderine and a chromis.. and two fireshrimp so i dont know if they will lay eggs with all those other tank mates???

 

[SKurj]

I dunno if they are mated, but odds are if one doesn't kill the other they will end up that way.
I have 2 black snowflakes that are still not totally black and white but they are sloowly changing, I have had them 6 months or so, and from the look of it by the time I have had them a year they may be getting real close to total black/white. I hear some foods promote the change though I can't verify that.

 

[CBrady001]

From what I have heard ALL black (Percula or Ocell) clowns faces will turn black with age, I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with them being a mated pair.

From my experience you can tell if they are a mated pair only if they begin to display nesting behavior...but I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the 1st time.

 

[Redhaloangel]

but they are the same age from same "litter" wouldnt both their faces turen black at the same time??

 

[Tmoriarty]

Depending on the genetics of the B/W is whether they will get full black or not. For example Darwin variety B/W's normally have bright white stipes and full black body/faces after about a year, some of the standard b/w's do not ever develop a full black face. You can have clowns from the same batch end up with different colors for various reasons (mostly having to do with the parents of the babies).

As for feeding different stuff to increase the black, that is not the case, you may increase the vibrance of the colors through feeding, but will lose that vibrance when you stop feeding suplements.

I wouldn't count on your second clowns face getting much darker from this point.

 

[Redhaloangel]

ooh so then ill have one full black and white clown and one with a bright orange face.. lol do you think it is the hosting as well? the black face clown is in the muchroom more often then the orange face clown...??

 

[Tmoriarty]

Nope, association with anemone or in your case something else, is not a learned behavior, they will just associate (sometimes it takes longer, some refuse to without a proper host).

The one with the orange face may have the orange color fade into a mix of orange and black. But most clowns have pretty much full color after a year old.

 

[Redhaloangel]

ok they are about 7/8 months old now from what the lfs said.. maybe one is just turning sooner then the other and the other will follow.. i havnt really looked since that last time.. ill have to take a good look again today..